My gear box was running just perfectly fine, until after having a splashing good time in the thunderstorm yesterday afternoon, I heard a gong go off, and the transmission failsafe message came on, giving me only one forward gear to drive in. Once parked, I could not reverse as the reverse gear would not engage. Going fwd was fine but I was parked up against a kerb. Sigh.While not panicking, I reckon its water having gotten between the transmission socket rather than water being ingested into the gearbox (its sealed rite?). Engine's still running fine as well. According to my mech, he thinks its the socket/plugs that go to the gearbox too and suggests just letting it dry up completely first. I've had the same experience with my E46 when the tranny light came on after splashing around although it didnt go into failsafe mode. I figure both cars are pretty similar except the E39 is more sensitive. Keeping my fingers crossed. Any one been through the same experience?
E39 Transmission Failsafe Program
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bimmerholic
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i believe a handful of fellow forummers have had their fair share of experience on this issue....
My 01 39 had this warning too out of sudden. It started once a week then went to twice a week and later on thrice a week. Mechanic said it's gearbox ECU prob and had it changed but the problem still there. Finally decided to change the ATF, filter and gasket; problem solved.
bimmerholic
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556129;515578 said:
Was there any fault code for trans popped up when running the diag?
bimmerholic;515697 said:
There was a shitload of fault codes for both the Engine management and Gearbox Electronics, and I suspect they were related. Anyway, after the faultcodes were deleted, another round of diagnostics was run and it was ok. Started the car and it drove fine again.
I shudder to think of the expenses if a dishonest workshop were to insist on changing the gbox, because under the transmission failsafe program, the car ran on only 1 gear throughout, and couldnt even engage reverse. You'd think your whole box is shot but I figured that's not possible considering it was running fine before getting in the rain, and the fact that i've only got 60k kms on this E39 which would be too premature for a box to give up the ghost based on wear and tear.
I am also seeing this code today in my car (currently being fixed at my dealer's workshop).
This suddenly came out when a brake line ruptured just beneath the ABS module.
The dealer told me the that the car developed this problem after coming back from the car spa. When I tested last week all was ok.
And the braking power also decreased meaning only either one or more wheels didn't have brake at all.
As I understand it today most cars have triangular split safety brake circuit. So the brake line could either be supplying to any of the diagonal sets of wheels.
Parts have been ordered but they can only complete the car on Monday. Hope to get the car latest by Tuesday.
But can anyone else share your problems with this Trans.Failsafe.prog error message from the instrument cluster display?
Cheers
zib
This suddenly came out when a brake line ruptured just beneath the ABS module.
The dealer told me the that the car developed this problem after coming back from the car spa. When I tested last week all was ok.
And the braking power also decreased meaning only either one or more wheels didn't have brake at all.
As I understand it today most cars have triangular split safety brake circuit. So the brake line could either be supplying to any of the diagonal sets of wheels.
Parts have been ordered but they can only complete the car on Monday. Hope to get the car latest by Tuesday.
But can anyone else share your problems with this Trans.Failsafe.prog error message from the instrument cluster display?
Cheers
zib
bazet;665568 said:
My car gave this warning with the DSC light on. The funny thing is autocruise,reverse lights and autodip left wing mirror don't work anymore. Very strange.
And the car only seems to have 1 fwd gear and feels very heavy (feels like in 2nd or 3rd gear) when moving from standstill.
Any ideas why?
And I cant do manual +/- gearshift anymore. The PRND all lit up but no D or S.
Same thing happened to me when my GB kaput ... only can move forward on 3rd gear ... reverse sometime can sometime tak jadi ... cant remember what was the fault code but at the end re-conditioned the whole GB and torque converter, which cost me 5k ++.
Try get 2nd opinion on the same.
Try get 2nd opinion on the same.
Creazee;666434 said:
SOLVED!
The workshop found out the connector wiring that feeds into the gear position and reverse light switch perished (from what he explained).
Just fix the wiring loom (cut and replaced with new wires (tapped) and then walla! everything back to normal. Just a 30mins job!
All DSC error and Trans.fail.safe message is now gone.
The car is now smooth and powderful. I have my autocruise and auto-dipping reverse left wing mirror.
kk123;678962 said:
Actually the dealer where I bought my car from sent it to their panel workshop.
All I could see that this wkshop was dealing with imports and exotic cars. I forgot the name but it is on the right side along Jalan Gombak towards Gombak if you are coming from Jlan Genting Klang (after the police station junction).
Look for an import/recond car dealer showroom (quite big but I forgot the name) just before the Landrover/4WD specialists workshop on the right side also.
Hope you can find it.
Cheers.
