Transmission problem (shocker!)
 

Pulled out of the drive yesterday and headed up the hill. After about 100 feet I had no power. It was like I had put the car in neutral. No strange noise and car felt normal. Yellow transmission warning light came on. Backed it down to the driveway. Put it in park and the. Back in D again to no avail. Tried Sport mode, nothing. It never "locked up" like I've heard about. Towed it to my mecahnic and when we got there I cranked it (no more yellow warning light), put it in D and what do you know? It has power again. Left it there so we csn hook it up to the scanner on Monday. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. Sound more like an electrical problem than a mechanical one?

Probably the transfer case control module................

Getting the "52 speed monitoring 2" fault when we scan it.

Still sound like transfer case control module?

Hey jwilb4! I see you're in CR as well. Good to know there are more xoutpost members from here too.

I'll try helping you with my short knowledge and expertise.

That error is referred as a speed sensor, to be more precise, the output speed sensor of your transmission.

It doesn't necessarily means you have a bad sensor or broken trans, it could be a sort of things as you might know by owning a X5.

It could be trans fluid needing a change if you haven't done that recently. Also it can be caused by a bad or dying battery, so you should check voltage just in case (you can do that with the OBC "hidden" menu), a bad harness. Believe or not, it could be caused by something like a vacuum leak too, but only if you get other errors in the DME.

Check all the errors you get, mainly from DME, EGS, and DSC just to make sure.

I don't think our cars have a transfer case control module because that sounds more related to the xDrive feature that came with later models, but it wasn't present in models from 1999 to early 2003 (before facelift). So, I would discard that.

Anyway, try to get as many codes as you can. If you are unsure what's going on, or don't have anyone to get them, ping me back, I can help you out if you're not too far from where I live. I have INPA with me almost all the time, I'm kind of paranoic with scanning errors and issues that have arised (and may arise).

Regards!

Thoroughly clean the harness connector going to the transmission. Water and dirt contamination threw mine into fail safe several times, locked it in Park, and locked it in neutral as well.

2002 X5 3.0 279,600 miles
2004 325i 120,000 miles

^What they said. I've had that fault from an under-performing alternator due to oil leakage temporarily "confusing" the voltage regulator. Alternator wouldn't put out more than 12v. After a short bit of rev'ing the alternator would again put out 14v+ and all would be good again.

Thanks for the help folks. Had the transmission fluid changed yesterday. Going to have them clean the harness connector as well. Fingers crossed!

Hi BladeX5,

Just curious, would you mind sharing where you get the software by any chance? I've been struggling to have a INPA working on my laptop (running Win7). I do have the regular OBDII-USB cable.

Thanks, man! And sorry for hijack the thread. :(

No Problem, but I'm not sure I can be much help. I bought my X5 from my mechanic and he had already installed the software on his computer from when he bought the car. I'd be happy to ask him where he got it, although the version he has is in Spanish so I'm not sure how much help that will be anyway... :dunno:

Most of purchase the software from the following: BMW USB OBD Diagnostic Cable Inpa Ediabas Ncsexpert Dis V57 SSS V32 Progman GT1 | eBay

Software works best using Windows XP operating system.