Infamous clunk from stop...no software upgrade for me!
 

Sooo....last week while driving home the transmission makes several clunking noises from a stop where it feels like I got hit from behind. After 3 or four times, I ease off the gas as I feel like it is going to do it again and "TRANSMISSION FAILSAFE" appears on the MID. A call to my dealer was greated with, have a flatbed bring it in. Well that was 7 days ago and the dealership tells me they are having problems reprogramming the transmission and it has failed twice.

A call to the owner of the dealership to find out about the delay and now I am getting a whole new transmission...yes a brand new transmission. Thank you BMW for the lovely warranty. Has this happened to anyone else?

Wow. What's your mileage?

The mileage is low, only about 45,000 kms for a 2005

Incredible. Is this the 1st time this ever happened to you? Also, is the replacement being covered under standard warranty or CPO?

Thi is under standard warranty. Not the first time for the clunk but first for the message.

So ....we are now on bay 13 at the dealership and they still cannot get the car programmed. It fails on one of 8 control modules. Has anyone ever had their car at the dealership for this long?

ony DME, EGS, VTG, and DSC control units are programable. where are you getting this 8 from? if its a 4.4l the control unit is in the transmission, if its a 3.0l its in the e-box. most likely a gear monitoring fault has occured. and transmission replacement is inevetable.

the dealership is telling me 8, it is a 4.4l. I have called BMW Canada, let's wait and see.

All the dealerships are having some troubles with programming right now, due to a completely new programming system. The problem is BMW warranty is requiring that all programming done under warranty is to be done by the new system that is still having some bugs worked out. And the old system still works fine, but once you program a vehicle with the new stuff, the old stuff doesn't see it anymore as the operating software is newer than its is.

Trust me in saying the tech or dealership is not at fault in this case, and I can guarantee they are going back and forth with PuMA on this regarding getting the programming done.

That puts my mind at ease somewhat, interesting that the the forums know about the issue but BMW didn't mention a single thing. I was thinking that the problem was with my car and not the programming system. I guess the next questions is, how long am I expected to wait....no one can answer that.

The newest update to the programming software is supposed to fix most of the bugs it currently has, and is slated to be released very soon. (I forgot the actual date)

The dealer (or at least your service adviser) probably thought it best to not say the problem is their system, but I wouldn't think all the forums know all about it. I know about it due to having to work with it daily. I'm currently having a problem programming a car myself...

Well after 2 weeks, I got the X5 back and man does she drive nice! To prove that you can't have everything in life, I picked up the car and on such a sunny day wanted to open the sunroof and nothing...it doesn't open. Now, the operations manager drove the car home last night to ensure there were no problems with the car and didn't catch this. Fortunately I was still at the dealership when I tried to open the roof. A quick reset of the roof and I could open it. Once back at the office, I could not close it with one touch!!!! Apparently, he did not hold the switch for the entire reset sequence, I reset it and everything works.

Just nice to have the X back!

I had this same problem and they replaced the transmission. Luckily this was done last year and was completed in two days. Sorry to hear you were having such an issue. I can tell you that after having mine replaced I have not had this problem at all with the new one. It is wonderful. :rofl:

wow, new transmission !!! :wow: