[iBeech]

So, I noticed around a week ago that sometimes when I came to a full stop, I'd get a gong and the light on the gear selector would flash for a couple of seconds.

Earlier this week, I took the car into town, and every single time I came to a stop I got a gong, and a flashing light on the gear selector.

After some playing, I realised that if I was parked up, I could change the drive mode from drive / neutral/reverse and the same gong and flash would happen randomly. It is not consistent but does have spats where it happens regularly.

There is no mechanical issue with the car- it always selects the appropriate gear, it always drives/reverses etc. I have taken it to a highly rated local BMW specialist garage, who ran diagnostics which revealed nothing. He advised I take it to my local BMW main dealer.

It is now with them, but even they have never heard of this problem before, and are looking to pull any diagnostics off that they can and are going to email BMW HQ for advice.

I have attached a couple of youtube videos which showcase the problem.

YouTube- Shifter problem video
YouTube- Shifter problem video - Dashboard

Has anyone experienced this issue before?

[iBeech]

Looks like this post is related: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1360823

[Surly73]

@iBeech - I'm curious of something...

You have the same appearance shifter as my '11 535xi non-sport, although I understand that the shifter of the same appearance was revised at least once, and later versions have a different electrical connection too.

From what I recall, one of the revisions was to the interlock mechanism which enables or disables the shifter from entering the DS and manual +/- gate. You'll notice that on a properly functioning shifter you cannot put the shifter into DS/manual area unless you are in D.

On my vehicle, there is an audible click as the DS gate is locked and unlocked. I think the later designs do the lock differently that isn't audible.

Long wind up to a short question - could the "failure" be that this gate lock has stopped working? Do you ever hear it click to lock/unlock the gate? Have to tried going sideways into the DS gate from neutral ever? You shouldn't be able to.

Just wondering if this is why the car always drives correctly despite some kind of error being indicated, and why the F30 thread saw the problem fixed by replacing the shift level.

[iBeech]

For anyone finding this post and wondering what happened, the issue stopped not long after i posted. No idea why. I’ve since sold the car and the current owner has reported that it has started happening again.