[ventiamericano]

Starting from a dead stop at a stoplight. I shit into first gear and start to engage the clutch, it starts to take and then makes a LOUD bang sound and the shifter pops out of first and into neutral. When this happens I engage the clutch again and toss it in first and every time it will properly engage.

The weird thing is that this problem only occurs once and only after not using the car for about 12 hours (usually during my morning commute). It will usually occur during the first five minute of driving, or about 1 to 3 traffic lights into my commute. Once the pop out event occurs, the car will not pop out of first again unless I let it sit for a long time. I am in california and the problem occurs at both 60 degrees and 90 degrees. Have driven stick shifts for almost 15 years and never had this problem before.

I had my local indy mechanic change the tranny oil but no luck. No luck shifting from second and then to first as well.


I searched around on here and it seems like the consensus is that there is some synchro problem. However, if it was the synchro then I would think that the car would pop out of gear intermittently throughout the day, not just within the first five minutes of driving with no problems after that.

I am 5K miles out of the factory warranty, so hoping there is a fix short of replacing the transmission.


09 328i 55K

[deadmn1337]

i have had this happened to me a few times but not consistently. I make sure when the car is cold to release the clutch in neutral before shifting to first so if it is a synchro problem it will be less likely to occur. don't know why it happens though as i can't ever get it to repeat.

[Efthreeoh]

Missing an "f".

But seriously, it sounds like the synchro has a broken tooth that happens to mesh up once in a while.

[ventiamericano]

Agree, but I just find it weird that it only pops out during the first 1-3 engagements after resting for a while.

Drove around on Saturday and it popped out of first gear the second time trying to engage it. Did over 100 more clean engagements of first gear from a dead stop spread throughout the rest of the day with no problems at all. Start it up for the first time Sunday afternoon and it pops out of first gear at the second stoplight.

If it were a broken tooth or something on the synchro I would think it would pop out intermittently throughout the day and not just the first couple of engagements.

Any thoughts?

[ventiamericano]

*UPDATE* Dropped it off at the dealer tonight. Will see what their thoughts are tomorrow. Since I am out of warranty I don't know how far I want to go with them.

[Tommeh]

Interested. I have had this happen to me a few times. Also I would like to note that a high percent of times when I put the car in first it feels like its about 80% engaged. Then when I release the clutch it moves the extra 20% into position and I drive fine... It just feels awkward.

[ventiamericano]

Update on this: Dealer says that it needs a whole new tranny, priced at 5K and change. This is totally baffling that it would go out at this mileage.

Dealer said that they would put in for a goodwill replacement with BMW once they have ruled out abuse or other issues.

Has anyone had any success with goodwill replacements?

[Three_thirty_I]

I hope they do replace it out of goodwill - 5k out of warranty you are lucky then. Holding thumbs for you!!

[ventiamericano]

BMW replaced the whole transmission out of goodwill. Can not say enough about how impressed I am with BMWNA stepping up and doing this for me.

[Three_thirty_I]

Originally Posted by ventiamericano

BMW replaced the whole transmission out of goodwill. Can not say enough about how impressed I am with BMWNA stepping up and doing this for me.

Wow, I am really please for that they did this!! Were they able to tell you what happened to the old gearbox that it was doing this?