Leaving your X in "D5."
 

Does anybody here know if putting your x in steptronic mode but not changing the gear (keeping it so it shows D5) is bad for the car? Because i have a music player mounted to the side console and i can't see the entire screen unless it's in steptronic mode.

It will put a lot more load on your engine at low speeds with it in 5th gear. Only when you come to a stop will it shift its self into 2nd. I would advise against it. Post a pic of your current setup; perhaps we can give alternate mounting solutions.

it's like driving your car around in 5th gear... would you do that to your manual car??? i hope not...

well steptronic is only for rough diriving, and i would advise against leaving it there, the WHOLE time.like if you levae it in ms, then shift gears by hand when in traffic

You know if your talking about sport mode, where you just move it over and don't shift and is not good to drive in all the time but also will not harm your car.

Haha wow i just realized how stupid i am. I didn't even make the connection that D5 is drive 5 haha. But yeah the clip that i bought was a proclip mount. Theres no other way for me to get around the way it's positioned without sacrificing the angle of the player.

Well...If you just push it toward the left of D and don't touch the lever afterward, then it's in auto-sports mode...and that SHOULD be OK for the tranny since it's still in automatic mode. You'll just end up using a bit more gas because it tends to shift a bit later in the rev. band for sports mode. The display on the dash is a bit confusing since auto-sports mode and manual mode - 5th gear, are both indicated by D 5! I supposed the 5 looked close enough to an S that BMW didn't bother to make the distinction? So, if being able to read the MP3 player's display is more important than saving a bit of gas, then by all means, use the sports mode!

BTW, I don't think you can lug the engine even if you wanted to in manual mode (semi-manual). Try putting the tranny (in manual mode) to 5th gear doing 30-35mph and stomp on the gas. I would wager that the torque converter just end up working a bit harder, that's all.

there is no D5 ... when you shift the lever to the left ... it activates the sport mode indicated by DS ... the reason it feels like its in 5th gear (slower changes thru gears) is coz in sport mode ... the gears dont change unless you are in higher revs ... i.e. like it would if you were driving a manual in a sporty manner ... hope that helps