Trans-Warn-Fail message
 

Thanksgiving Sunday the warning light came on while I was driving slightly above the posted speed limit on a very busy freeway. Felt like I was hit from behind, and the engine slowly quit. I was able to pull off the freeway but not able to get the engine to crank again. Don't know if it is possible to flood it out or not. Had to call wrecker and have it towed a little less than 100 miles to my local independent shop ($265 probably to be covered by insurance). When the wrecker off-loaded the car it cranked normally. So, Monday I visit my local BMW dealer and they reprogramed the computer module ($110, not covered by extended warranty) and everything has been normal since. BMW tells me everthing should be OK and I should not experience this again.
Anyone have a similar experience and if so, outcome please.
Bob

http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e53-forum/...tranny+failure
Similar. Some good info though.

try getting the actual code first that'll point to the right direction before spending big $

Was it raining when this all happened?

I had the very same thing happen to me and I had gotten water in the engine electronics box. Specifically in and on the transmission controller. A hair dryer and some RTV has fixed it.

supersteve,
i had same thing happened lol

funny things is, stealer said i need like 3 different ecu's with wirings etc. as a start, they didn't know if it's a $5k or $10k repair
i said hmmm you must be smoking crack, and i took my car home

once home, and knew where to look, i opened ecu box, yes there was a little water, BUT only on 2 of the connector, that's it, they didn't even boter to check all connectors, they just saw water to first connector and ooh ok got to replace ALL the wiring all the boxes, not even a little other attempt.

so i bought five dollar can of electronics cleaner, vaccuumed, in 5 mins i was done, cleared code with my tool, and guess what...FIXED. no more trans fail safe, no more code, no more nothing.

safe to say i'm never ever taking any of my cars to that dealer again, even if i have to drive extra 30 miles

why would that not be covered under the extended warrenty?

If I had the warranty I would have looked into it. Instead, I prefer to spend money to try to fix things myself instead of playing the lottery of given money to someone else to see if the problem I may have down the road is something they feel obligated to argue with me about fixing.

I found water in the E-box. Pulled out both the DME and the Trans controller. I found water in two of the three plugs on the trans controller. I bent the tabs on the trans controller cover and opened it up. Found more water. I then used a hair dryer (very carefully) and dried up all the water on the trans controller and in the E-box. To fix the cause, I sealed the rubber grommets which lead into and out of the E-box. I also ran a bead of RTV in the recess in the e-box lid and closed it up.

No problems with the trans or with the difficulty with starting since. I also replaced the Crank Position Sensor and the Blue DME relay for the starting problem. A total of $110 to fix two problems the dealer would probably still be chasing and the warranty company would still be arguing with me about paying for.

How much does your extended warranty cost?

One thing I wanted to add. The dealer mechanics told me the difficulty I was having with starting is a common problem with BMWs. They continued, the only way to make it "better" is to replace the Bosch spark plugs I just installed with the OEM NGK plugs. Which of course would not be covered by any extended warranty. I took his advice and put in a $130 set of OEM spark plugs. The problem continued.

With a lot of research with the BMW instruction manuals found on this forum and $110 I was able to find the cause and fix for two major problems. If I had tried to use the dealer and an extended warranty who knows how long it would have taken and what the warranty would have paid for.

Just my two cents.

Thanks, no it was not raining, and had not for several days. I felt the warranty would not cover the charges for the repair since "no parts were replaced". I had a similar incident happen on the air conditioning of a Mercedes ML320 I recently totaled. Ultimate Warranty in both cases.
It has been a week now and no signs of a recurring problem yet. Keeping my fingers crossed, you do the same.
Bob

Why are ppl having probelms with control units getting wet? Where exactly are these parts located in the vehicle?