Had my own number of issues like that, and was solved by replacing the transfer case actuator gear. It's a little plastic wheel that has the teeth wear out over time (known issue on the X platform). Easy fix and worth a try. If it resolves your problem, you have saved a ton of money.

Link to item:
https://cobratransmission.com/ATC400-Actuator-Gear-Set

https://www.amazon.com/Transfer-Actu...7HYY4TXZ3X9998

Thanks for the link :thumbup:

Which did you buy? One is a set of gears, the amazon is just one?

I'm thinking to do this in the spring as a preventative measure.

Thanks for all the tons of info guys. I have the scanner on it's way, so I can get the codes soon. The battery is on a tender, since I'm not sure how long these cars can maintain their battery when not driven.

I've got it in the garage, working on some other maintenance until my scanner arrives. I'm doing the water pump, thermostat, coolant flush, serpentine belt & A/C belt, new serp. tensioner and new idler pulley. Then I'm going to look into replacing all the vacuum hoses (even though they go some pretty horrible places), as well as most likely doing a carbon clean once I have the manifold off to verify.

One thing I noticed when I needed to rotate the engine for the A/C stretch belt is that I don't have the slot to manually put the transmission in neutral under the cupholder. However, I do have the hole under the cupholder as well as the orange tool. Any idea why I have the tool if there is no slot? Also, this is the 6 speed ZF transmission on a 2011 35d, right? I haven't yet located the ZF tag on the transmission.

Bad transfer case?
 

If you really need to see the ZF tag, drop the pan:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e33946f41e.jpg



Under the car, close to the transmission pan there is a lever that you can manually change the gear to N. Use that instead.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b3fc4ac6e6.jpg
The lever is circled. Picture taken when pan was off. A wire will be connected to this lever.




Re battery tender, it won’t charge your battery to full. It’ll keep its current charge though.

How old is your battery?




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Thanks. Yeah I had to use the little 5mm hex bolt on the underside to put it in neutral. My battery tenders always charge to full though.

Still need to look on the battery for a date. I didn't see it on first glance. I've heard the battery on these not performing as well as new can cause a myriad of issues though, so I'll check that soon.

The battery date is 51st week of 2016, so I imagine it's got a few years left. Does leaving the car unlocked and hood open drain the battery faster? Battery was down to under 75% after a week or so off the tender. Maybe the car is searching for the CA key?

Anyway, got my NT510 and read some codes. I don't see an option with this scanner to show codes by date. The codes that showed up appear to be the ones that are related to the transfer case being disconnected.

Does INPA show historic data?

When you lock the car, it goes to sleep mode in 3 minuets.

When you leave it unlocked, it takes 30 minuets. Thus using battery 10 times longer.

Car modules usually don’t store the date of a code. Instead they store the mileage (or KM ) when a code tripped.


INPA shows “historical“ data in mileage or KM.

For battery historical data:
E70- ibs-pm data or F5 - pm1 pm2 and pm 3.

Or a path like that.






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You didn't need to put the transmission in neutral to turn the crank. Automatics are open to the engine when off due to the torque converter not being active.

Has anyone seen or heard of transfer case code 5DEA? I got this days after the driveshaft recall was done and BMW is stumped. The transfer case fluid has been changed and looked good, the actuator gears replaced and they looked good, they reprogrammed the transfer case and it still pops up... It comes on even when the truck is cold, even though it says it’s heat related. Does it with summer and winter wheels, so it’s not tire/wheel related... This has been on going for a year and a half now https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4959efb9fa.jpg


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