Automatic Problems

[Irus]

Hi all,

I’ve been driving a 1997 328is Automatic for the last couple of years without any problems at all - I think the most I’ve ever had to do to this car is change a blown bulb.

However, three days ago I was accelerating hard and the car didn’t seem to select the next gear properly (there was a delay and then it seemed to jump into gear a few seconds later). Yesterday it stalled twice whilst reversing and then today when you start it up it dies again unless you immediately pump the gas pedal.

As it was running fine before, I presume all three issues have been caused by the same fault. Anybody got any ideas what the problem could be?

Cheers

 

[Irus]

Orig Post Update

Hello again

I’m still struggling to identify what could be causing the faults mentioned in my original post.

The cause appears to be intermittent; I took the car into an independent BMW specialist a couple of days ago. The mechanic took it out for a 20 min. drive and typically it ran like a dream the whole time.

I’ve covered around another 250 miles since then and during this period the car has had several more stalling sessions. It’s also developed two new symptoms: a few times it has had a loss of power (like something is slipping) when setting off and on three occasions its not shifted up from first gear (you have to let off the accelerator and then reapply to get it to shift up).

Has anybody else experience anything similar?

Any help or ideas would be very welcome.

Thanks

 

[andreyiv]

Mine woud act a little wierd, heres how: if I stepped on the gas after some hard braking, it would pop out of gear and the engine would rev up without the car moving, then the gear would engage all of a sudden and I would get a jerk, pretty hard one sometimes, depending on how hard I pressed on the gas. It was all in timing and not the revs. The problem was low transmission fluid level. Yours doesn't sound anything like that, and knowing why tranny fluid affected mine that way, I don't really think its the same problem for you. Sorry man. I just overheated my engine and might have a blown head/head gasket if that makes you feel any better.

 

[angelica]

Hi Irus,
Your problem sounds something like the problem that i'm having with my car at the moment (my car is manual though). The car will be driving fine and then the engine just cuts out and dies, but then when you go to start it again after a few minutes there doesn't seem to be any problem and the car runs fine, but it might stall again 100 meters up the road or it might run for miles with no trouble. I brought it to a mechanic and he had for a week and a half and it didn't cut out on him once, but then he discovered that the cam shaft sensor was faulty and this will cause the engine to cut out apparently. So he replaced it and the car was running fine, but on Friday it started cutting out on me again so I will be bringing it back to him. Try the cam shaft sensor anyway and see if that fixes your problem.