2002 x5 3.0l petrol gearbox
 

Goodday lock-downers,
Gearbox issue with my baby!!The car was driving great with smooth gear changes,kicking down and quiet. I stopped to help my buddy with his boat and approx 1 hour later started the car ,put it in D and there was nothing!! I could see the fwd drive shaft turning but does not move the car in auto or manual. There is ATF in the box but with the car not level I could not ascertain the level.The car rolls backwards/forwards irrespective of where the gearbox is and even in 'Park'
With our lock-down status I cannot get a reader for fault codes.
Has anyone an idea of why this occurred and any way of tracing the fault- spare parts are not available but I have 3 weeks to "play" with different ideas.

This sounds pretty unusual. It does sound a little like a shifter linkage issue. I would look first underneath and inspect the shifter linkage on the transmission.

Please keep us posted.

The shifter seems fine on the outside of the box and the electrical to the dash seem fine- they show whats selected.Could be the selector not moving inside the box ? It's almost as though I have lost 'pressure' in the box. I see there is a test point to check the hydraulic pressure- going to have to make something up to check. It's definitely home cooking with the lockdown !!

Is the gear selector position shown correctly on cluster?

Edit: You just answered to this. Cluster gear position is shown according to switch on gearbox (CAN-bus info from EGS) so that should rule is out. Is the transmission fault shown on cluster?

Could you elaborate what you mean by that you can see front drive shaft moving. So when D engaged the front drive shaft (propeller) is rotating but vehicle is not moving? What about rear drive shaft?

If your gear selector shows correctly and if I understand what you're saying... Front driveshaft is turning but car doesn't move.

1st) Guess is that your gearbox was screwed before and you had been driving on the front shaft only and now the splines are gone (common issue) or 2nd) splines have been gone on front shaft for awhile and transfer case (rear connector) shit the bed so you lost propulsion either way.

3rd) front splines gone but rear differential is locked up and since front hasn't been connected it's just spinning although I doubt this last assumption because it's the one thing that hasn't happened to me [emoji1696][emoji1787]

Drop rear shaft (on jack stands) and see if

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Sounds like you have a stripped front drive shaft. The end going into the front differential is stripped.

Thanks for all the input- looks like I will have to drop out both shafts and transfer case to see what the size hole in my pocket is !!
The rear shaft is Not turning so I was likely on front wheel drive .
When I put it back in Park there is a noise like teeth not meshing and then it goes clunk into park.
This vehicle was purchased from a BMW 'specialist'.... if we were not on lockdown there would be some harsh words and possibly blood !!!

2002 x5 3.0l petrol gearbox
 

Edit: I misread the op description and describe a completely unrelated but useful issue below;

My customer’s 328xi does the same exact thing going into reverse!

Sounds like it is just a linkage issue. Cable sleeve compressed or bent cable grip etc.

I will try to fix the one for my client but in the meantime he just has to push the lever a little past the center detent for reverse. Try to find a method such as putting into M/S and back to D that may snap yours into gear. (Since in your case you can't go past D)

There is likely an adjustment for cable length like a bike has for the brakes.

Unless the front wheels are are able to turn, the back wheel won't turn because of the transfer case. People have tried disconnecting the front driveshaft when it is stripped hoping to just drive it in rear wheel drive, but no buano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spLPH3lqnW0

If the OP's description is what I think it is, this is the only answer that makes sense to me. More testing will be needed to narrow it down, but this guess seems to be in the right direction.

On those cars, the whole drive system after the transmission is mechanical. The transfer case can be though of as acting just like an open differential. No need to worry about codes.

My interpretation of OP's description, and I'm filling in assumed details - please correct this if wrong:
With the engine on, transmission in drive: the car does not move.
With the engine on, transmission in drive, foot on the brake, looking under the car: car does not move. The driveshaft going forward, from the transfer case to the front differential is seen to be rotating. Nothing else is moving.

That is exactly what would happen if there is a problem downstream (forward/outward) of the front driveshaft.
If neither of the front CV axles is turning, then it is further narrowed to the input or output from the front differential.

Simple tests, if in doubt, would be to jack the car and spin one wheel at a time to see how other things are working.