Transmission Failsafe Left me with Some Questions

[Mindfull]

Hi All!

As many have faced before, I just went through my 1st mini-scare with the X5, though it felt like familiar territory from my mid-90s 740iL (sounds like a 2nd marriage! ). So 2 days ago I'm minutes from home on city streets when all of the sudden, the Trans. Failsafe Program error reads out on the OBC display. (No error lights/emblems, though). The car still drives, but immediately its handling has changed- Very rough, jerking gear shifts- Though they're about at normal rpm's, the entire X rocks back & forth with each gear. I was driving in S when it happened, and shifting to D made no difference. So after the 7/8 blocks home, I parked her overnight. The error was still there in the morning. Tried a few little resets- other than unplugging the battery for 15 min... Still there. I then checked the oil (first time since buying the X5 in January) and the dipstick felt stuck. It took a good yank to get it free, but once open, oil was pretty clear & just a 1/4 qt below full. The yank made me think maybe something involved with pressure/ suction..? The odd thing is that when I closed up the hood & restarted, the error was gone... Perhaps pressure/ vacuum issue was relieved by opening it?

2 other variables may have been involved in the error going away:
1) I'd hooked up a CD stack in the trunk the other day, and disconnected it just before checking the oil. Could have relieved some electrical issue.
2) Even more relevant, the Failsafe error hit during the 1st day of rain here, which lasted through yesterday. Today is the 1st clear day & the error disappeared. This is in line with another member who traced his Failsafe error back to the Trans Control unit getting wet due to a leaky case under the hood vents. (link: http://www.xoutpost.com/57980-post4.html )

So can any members who've had Transmission Failsafe erros share what their experience was, and if any of these same conditions applied to them? I'm just trying to get a sense of what's likely to trigger it again. It'll be a week or two until my 60k service, so I assume we'll retrieve the error codes etc then. In the meantime, hoping for some feedback about what happened to different folks so we can compare notes. Might help a bunch of people in the future, too!
Thanks in Advance,
M

[Mindfull]

Perhaps this thread will have to wait til someone's X runs into this rather common problem... Hopefully anyone who's been there can share some insights to save some members a bit of stress & hardship?

[Roc3b]

This just happened to my friend....I am not bustin but you said checked the oil...do you mean you checked the tranny? Anyway...he got it reset...it came back...he went to Inskip BMW...they said $6500 with out smiling...he reset again...it came back again...found a private shop to do it for $3750. the fluid smelled burned but the codes were saying faulty signals out of the tranny...all I know was he looked like some one stole his girl for like a week until he came to grips with ponying up the presidents to fix it.

[Mindfull]

Hey Rob- Thanks for the reply.
Sorry if I wasn't thinking clear when I typed- I checked all fluid tanks, and noticed a very tight vacuum/seal on most. I was curious if pressure/vacuum might be a factor, especially since the previous owner had a dealer visit/ diagnostic just a couple months ago (it's not as if they were sealed shut from lack of use). A total stab in the dark on that one...
Based on the boards here, it's about 80% of the time that the problem isn't the transmission, but electrical faults/shorts. Most report that pinpointing those electrical problems sorts out the error for years/thousands of miles, and many DIY it due to lack of answers from the dealer. Some have even had tranny replaced and still have the error pop up!! (God if that was on my dime, I'd be PI$$$ED!)
So I guess your friend was in that painful 20% that have to replace. Ouch! I'd be looking like someone stole my girl tooo!!
PS- Update: Error has not recurred after 100 miles driving since it went off. Whatever it was, the cause appears to have been addressed... for now

[DocMike]

I got the fail safe error, when my Alternator went out and the battery died when I was on the Highway driving 55 mph. I got a new alt, and battery and the tranny has been running fine

[handyman]

Hi,
I recently had a very similar experience on my X5 3.0d. The symptoms were all the same so I took it to my dealer in Waterloo, Belgium.
They said that I needed a new transmission ECU and wiring loom at a cost of about 1400 euros. Given the unusual nature of such a failure, BMW Belgium agreed to meet me (via the Waterloo dealership) half way on the hardware cost but the part would be on back-order and so I would have to wait.
So in the mean time, and because I needed the car badly to drive to England, they sprayed the contacts of the wiring loom & connectors, which seems to have done the trick. So off I went to England and returned safely and have since done many more kilometers. BMW forgot to call me to say the new parts were in for replacement and I didn't call them to remind them. To this day, I have never had the problem again with the transmission.

Until last weekend, but this is another story, ...

... when the car wouldn't start. Once started with a special spray that the recovery men use, the car drives just fine. BMW Waterloo has advised that I need 6 new injectors at a cost of 2600 euros.