X5 won't crank/start. (E53 2003 X5 3.0d)

[wu11ie]

Hi folks,

I'm new to the forum and what a place!!, one if the most comprehensive forums I've seen, I'm glad to be a part of it

I've been looking for an answer for 3 days to the problem of my X5 not starting.

It started on Wednesday night driving home from work. I left work, opened the car, jumped in and started driving home as normal. As I was pulling up to the traffic lights there was a slight 'dunk' noise from the gearbox. So the lights on the dash 'PRND' there is now an 'S' illuminated and the 'Trans failsafe prog' error. But the car drove fine all the way home, I checked it in both auto and manual while driving home, the kick down worked fine in auto, and the gears went up and down fine in manual mode. When I got home I reversed into the drive and turned the car off, now it won't crank/turn over/start.

So I've been all over this forum and Google searching for an answer and I've come up blank.

I've bought the BMW 1.4.0 scanner and reset all of the codes. Nothing obvious showing unless I'm missing something.

I've checked the battery and its charged so I don't think it's the alternator.

I've read it could be the 'Neutral safety switch' on the side of the gearbox, but my god they're expensive.

Could it be the neutral switch or does anybody have any ideas??

Thanks for taking the time to read, I hope somebody can help as my X5 is off the road until its fixed

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