help. Gearbox prob

[lumus]

It is becoming increasingly more often that my gear knob ends up resting over to the right when in neutral, rather than central. No amount of persuasion will correct it. By pushing it up it goes into 5th rather 3rd as you would expect it to. It gets stuck like this when on the move too. So when switching from 2nd, I push it straight up to go to 3rd, but end up in 5th! Very annoying.

Its not like this all the time. Every now and then it will just throw a paddy and misbehave like this until i've changed gear another 5 times or so, and it goes back to its rightful centre position when in neutral.

Sometimes, when being a real P.I.T.A I'll switch into 3rd, seemingly engage gear, hit the gas and all I get is a shed load of revs but no 'go'. I have to go back to 2nd then 3rd again to properly engage.

Are these signs the box is on its way out? Something else that is easily fixable?

I have warranty on the car for 2 more months and I just know it will go pop a day after it expires.

[Handler]

Hi mate,

I currently have the exact same problem, i posted a little while ago and got some great advice from Doc & Chaos

Could be a selector linkage issue or a spring resistance problem. Have u had a new exhaust fitted recently or caned the car over a hump and scraped it?


The gearbox selection linkage in the 3s is known for having a 3/5 issue if you change up on a hard left-hander. Seriously. It's usually cured by either replacing the selector rod (the issue is caused by wear) or, more usually, by fitting a SSK and thereby doing the replacement as a by-product of the new rod.

If it's worse than the odd time now and again, or happens when you're not cornering so hard, it could be that something has let go in the linkage and it's a bit loose (it'll be held roughly in position by the nature of stick movement, but you may be noticing the odd little movement translating itself up the stick).

First and easiest step is probably to remove the gaitor and have a decent poke about (carefully) with a screwdriver etc to see if anything looks/feels wrong. You'd probably feel it when stationery or even hear something rattling if it was that bad tho. If you can't see or find anything, I know a guy who runs a decent garage in Rougham - bit of a drive for you but probably more use than going to any of the dealers in Ips/Colch/BSE who will just try to sell you a new gearbox...

I have left it for now as it seems so intermittent and not really that much of an issue currently. Seems to go through stages of bad and good.

Hope you had a great Christmas and the above helps or gives you something else to eliminate :D

[lumus]

excellent, thanks for that. Not sure how I missed it in the first place as I try to catch all the threads round here :rolleyes:

It doesnt happen often enough to be a major problem, but it has only started doing it in the last month or so, so I've put it down to wear and tear of a component. I just wanted to know if something is soon to go pop and leave me stranded etc.

I'll have a poke around and see if anything comes up. I'm reluctant to spend wads of cash on the car as I dont know if i'll be keeping it that much longer.

cheers for the help!

[Chaos]

Seriously, in your position, the best advice you can get is tell your dealer right now. That'll put it on the system, so if it goes after your warranty expires then it'll still be covered as they knew about it beforehand. They may even know what it is - sounds to be like either a problem with the ball on the rod or the selector rod has got bent up. Either way, it should be covered, tell the dealer and let them worry about it.

[lumus]

thanks Dan, I didnt know advance warning of a problem future-proofed it in terms of warranty cover. I'll get ringing and see what they say. I fully expect they will ask me to bring it in so they can examine the situation. I also expect they will brush it off until it really does actually need attention.
A couple of previous claims have been dealt with swiftly and hassle free though, to their credit.

[Chaos]

It won't cover you forever, but I know a couple times I've gone in close to the end of the warranty and they've said they'd make a note on the system in case anything happened within a few months after. Just make sure that they do, BMW dealers are infamous for not even recording service records properly on the system, so stand over them while they record the details. Better yet if they have it in to look at it, cos then you've got a record and names of technicians etc who saw it first-hand.