[Sergio]

Guys, my shifter is stuck in park again....

I'm able to get it unlocked by rocking shifter from drive to reverse....

My car 535 x drive 2013 m sport package with 115000km or 71000miles.

I'm hoping it's not a transmission problem but a faulty solenoid or kinked wires.....

It's happened 3 times in the last 12 months. The first time is was super cold -25c or -14f. The 2nd and 3rd time the temperature was about -2c or 28f. Not sure if the cold weather may stimulate this issue?

The car and transmission runs perfectly.

When it happened the first time the BMW mechanic verified everything and was not able to reproduce issue.

What would my next steps be?

I'm scheduling a transmission fluid + pan + filter job soon, not sure this will help.

Thanks
Sergio

[Sergio]

Originally Posted by Sergio

Guys, my shifter is stuck in park again....

I'm able to get it unlocked by rocking shifter from drive to reverse....

My car 535 x drive 2013 m sport package with 115000km or 71000miles.

I'm hoping it's not a transmission problem but a faulty solenoid or kinked wires.....

It's happened 3 times in the last 12 months. The first time is was super cold -25c or -14f. The 2nd and 3rd time the temperature was about -2c or 28f. Not sure if the cold weather may stimulate this issue?

The car and transmission runs perfectly.

When it happened the first time the BMW mechanic verified everything and was not able to reproduce issue.

What would my next steps be?

I'm scheduling a transmission fluid + pan + filter job soon, not sure this will help.

Thanks
Sergio

1 week and no issues, all errors are now cleared. I would love to pin point the root cause...

I love my 535, really hope it's a minor issue.

Thanks for any feedback or comments on this

Sergio

[335inYEG]

Originally Posted by Sergio

1 week and no issues, all errors are now cleared. I would love to pin point the root cause...

I love my 535, really hope it's a minor issue.

Thanks for any feedback or comments on this

Sergio

Hey there, did you ever figure this out? Looking at a 2011 535 x drive and he says this happens time to time randomly

[Sophisticated Redneck]

Originally Posted by 335inYEG

Hey there, did you ever figure this out? Looking at a 2011 535 x drive and he says this happens time to time randomly

Most likely is the park solenoid, it's pretty easy to replace as it sits apart from the main group of shift solenoids on a separate wire harness. You should be able to replace it without removing the valve body. I just replaced all of my solenoids so I did it with the valve body removed (have to for shift solenoids) but the green park solenoid looked easy to replace while the valve body is still in the transmission so anyone who can change the oil should be able to do it.

[Trainwreck914]

Originally Posted by Sophisticated Redneck

Most likely is the park solenoid, it's pretty easy to replace as it sits apart from the main group of shift solenoids on a separate wire harness. You should be able to replace it without removing the valve body. I just replaced all of my solenoids so I did it with the valve body removed (have to for shift solenoids) but the green park solenoid looked easy to replace while the valve body is still in the transmission so anyone who can change the oil should be able to do it.

Hey. Where did you get the valve body solenoids. I haven't seen them for the zf8. Only seen for zf6. Btw. My 2011 535i Msport xdrive does this from time to time. 3x since I had it. I would put it in N. Then I try to rock or roll the car. Then it would go into R or D.

[Tasmanian]

Hello

I had a similar problem. My fluid was a little low and the transmission needed to be reset.

It seems that unless everything is OK, it will not release the electronic parking brake. The solonoid does not fully engage the brake to release it, so it sends a signal and will not allow you to select a gear.

By changing the fluid and resetting the transmission level so it learns how much fluid it has, this problem went away.

A local transmission shop diagnosed and fixed the problem

Thanks
Tasmanian

[Sophisticated Redneck]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck914

Hey. Where did you get the valve body solenoids. I haven't seen them for the zf8. Only seen for zf6. Btw. My 2011 535i Msport xdrive does this from time to time. 3x since I had it. I would put it in N. Then I try to rock or roll the car. Then it would go into R or D.

eBay is the only way and how I got mine, they are in such demand most shops are waiting months to get them. There are two sets up there now (ships from Germany)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ZF-Genuine-...oAAOSwsFheQcM4

Get the shop manual too, everything you need to know, makes working on it easy:

https://www.amazon.com/ATSG-ZF8HP45-.../dp/B079X43XG9

And finally I recommend replacing the small b clutch mechatronics sleeve if your doing all the solenoids and pulling the valve body. Here is a link to it (has the other sleeves you need to replace too if pulling the valve body). I have 150k miles on mine and after changing out the solenoids and mechatronic sleeves, it's shifting back like it should (was horrible before and almost undrivable, filter/ change, valvebody rebuild, adaptations reset didn't help at all until the solenoids/sleaves were replaced)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-ZF-8HP4...-/184093768185

[Trainwreck914]

I know on the e90 the sealing sleeves tend to get brittle and seep causing loss of pressure. As well as the gear selector shaft breaking (metal married to plastic). I did that job. But did not change the sleeve at that time. But haven't seen these parts being offered for the f10 until now. I figured a place like fcp euro would offer this. But they only have the external sleeve.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...zf-24147588896

Adaptation reset. Where you hold down the accelerator, helps my situation. My up shifts are smooth. It's my downshifts only low gears that isn't. And occasional. I have 125k now. Changed fluid and pan/filter just before winter. Helped a bit. About 4 qt came out and went back in. Used zf fluid and pan. Expensive stuff @ $30 qt


https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...-24118612901kt

[Sophisticated Redneck]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck914

So even after changing your solenoids it still had shifting issues?

And the sleeve and oring kit is what did it?

I know on the e90 the sealing sleeves tend to get brittle and seep causing loss of pressure. As well as the gear selector shaft breaking (metal married to plastic). I did that job. But did not change the sleeve at that time. But haven't seen these parts being offered for the f10 until now. I figured a place like fcp euro would offer this. But they only have the external sleeve.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...zf-24147588896

I did both the solenoids and sleeve at the same time as there was issues with shifting in nearly every gear, even ones that didn't use the b clutch. Scary issues like simply going into m/s would cause a massive jolt/bang it felt like the transmission was tearing itself out of the car, horrible delayed shifts in almost every gear in all modes, nearly stalling everytime when coming to a stop, downshifts causing drink spilling jolts, etc.

After changing out the solenoids and sleeve (the zf8 really only has 2 that can affect shifting and in mine only the b-clutch sleeve was bad) it is like driving a completely different car and is fun to drive again and 150k miles life for solenoids is acceptable to me.

Fcp will probably eventually carry it like they do for the 6hp. Problem is the shortage. I tried every shop in town and even rebuild shops across the country trying to get the solenoids with no luck and had to turn to eBay.

[Trainwreck914]

Wow. Yeah My experience isn't anywhere near as bad as that sounds. But it's not a smooth as I know it should be. My wife has a f15 X5 and her zf8 is as smooth as butter. What is the B clutch sleeve? Is that sold separately? Could you have gotten away with only doing that solenoid and the seals?

[Sophisticated Redneck]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck914

Wow. Yeah My experience isn't anywhere near as bad as that sounds. But it's not a smooth as I know it should be. My wife has a f15 X5 and her zf8 is as smooth as butter. What is the B clutch sleeve? Is that sold separately? Could you have gotten away with only doing that solenoid and the seals?

I'll post a pic of it, it's a little tiny rubber sleeve that sits between the valve body and transmission. Since my transmission had so many shifting issues it was pretty clear every solenoid needed to be changed. If you don't mind the extra work, you could just change the sleeve and not the solenoids since you have much less miles and not all of the problems mine did. A bonus is removing the valvebody allows an additional 2 liters of oil to drain out for a much more complete oil change (almost 7 liters vs 4.5 with standard oil change)

[Trainwreck914]

I planned on doing another oil change soon. So I'll plan ahead. Before I tear into it again. It was tedious and time consuming the first time around. Plus I have x drive. So the mechatronic sleeve in a bear to get out with the transfer case having to be removed.

[Sophisticated Redneck]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck914

I planned on doing another oil change soon. So I'll plan ahead. Before I tear into it again. It was tedious and time consuming the first time around. Plus I have x drive. So the mechatronic sleeve in a bear to get out with the transfer case having to be removed.

Here is a good pic of the B sleeve from the transmission manual. When you pull the valve body you will see just the very tip of the sleeve deep in the transmission, carefully use a pick tool or small screw driver to pull it out. Mine was compressed compared to the new one. One of the ebay auctions I listed up above has all of the sleeves in it(B Clutch, Pump, & mechatraonics connector)

Make sure to get about 7 Liters of oil vs the normal 5 for a standard oil change too as two more liters come out when you pull the valve body.

[Trainwreck914]

Thanks. Now I'll have something to reference to when I'm ready.