[rking117]

Hi folks, Saturday my wife was driving the F30 and was stopped at a red light waiting to turn into a parking lot when the vehicle engine died. A second later the message Drivetrain Malfunction displayed on the dash. She tried several times to restart the vehicle but was unsuccessful. She said she tried to put the vehicle in park but the shifter would not respond to any of her commands. Someone luckily saw her and helped push it into the parking lot. Obviously this tells me that the vehicle was stuck in gear or in neutral at the time.

I got there about 20 minutes later and tried to crank it. No luck. Car as in Park, foot on the pedal pressed the button and held but it just spun over. I tried this a couple times thinking maybe it would catch but nope. I opened the hood to look for any obvious damage (expecting to see maybe a piston sticking out of the engine somewhere because it sounded like it didn't have any compression. Surprised, I didn't see anything obviously wrong. Not that i didn't believe her when she said nothing weird happened before the incident. I tried cranking it one more time. This time it cranked right up and purred like a kitten. Scared to turn it off i decided to drive it 10 minutes away to the dealer. I didn't have a red indicator and it said to drive Moderately i drove carefully and dropped it off.

This is the first major issue we have had with it, Short of a reprogram here or there.

I figured that those buffs out there who are keeping track would like to know the issue and fix. Ill keep you posted as we begin to determine what it wrong with the vehicle and why it happened in the first place.

[Gabreigns]

Subscribed.

[floydarogers]

So much electronics on these. Probably a sensor (camshaft, crankshaft) or control (VANOS, Valvetronic) went bad.

[rking117]

Originally Posted by floydarogers

So much electronics on these. Probably a sensor (camshaft, crankshaft) or control (VANOS, Valvetronic) went bad.

yep

[HotTea69]

I had a drive trail malfuntion the other day. Car is a 14 F32 with 45k Miles. Although my symptoms were much more forgiving than yours (car didnt die) it still let me drive.

I took it to the dealer and they said that my thermostat broke causing the computer to just give random messages. Didnt exactly buy it... But they said they would fix everything under warranty.

[Hachima]

I've been through many 'Drivetrain Malfunction' errors with my F30(Probably 20+). Many of them have also resulted in the car getting in the state where the shifter won't respond and it takes a few minutes before the car starts back up. I don't remember the message but it did this as a safety measure for some but not all some Drivetrain Malfunction errors. Sometimes the error would result in a 'cont driving possible' state.

[tex2670]

Originally Posted by HotTea69

I had a drive trail malfuntion the other day. Car is a 14 F32 with 45k Miles. Although my symptoms were much more forgiving than yours (car didnt die) it still let me drive.

I took it to the dealer and they said that my thermostat broke causing the computer to just give random messages. Didnt exactly buy it... But they said they would fix everything under warranty.

Odd. My thermostat went bad last week too. But all I got was the check engine light. I even went into the car's status in iDrive and it say that "All Systems OK"--no problem moving into Sport Mode either. I was 5 minutes from the dealer, so I dropped it off and they called an hour later and told me it was the thermostat.

Odd that the same problem can manifest itself in different ways.

[Kabrich]

Originally Posted by HotTea69

I had a drive trail malfuntion the other day. Car is a 14 F32 with 45k Miles. Although my symptoms were much more forgiving than yours (car didnt die) it still let me drive.

I took it to the dealer and they said that my thermostat broke causing the computer to just give random messages. Didnt exactly buy it... But they said they would fix everything under warranty.

Make that 3 DriveTrain Malfunctions last week.

This was my 2nd in 65 days.

Last time they said it was the fuel pump.

Can't wait to hear the excuse this time.

However, my car has always been drivable after warning.

[rking117]

ok got my first insight as to the problem. The SA said the is some voltage regulator that went bad on it. I will know more about the part when i pick it up after it is fixed i suppose. That is if when they replace it they don't find anything else. I will post back once i get more info

[rking117]

Originally Posted by Hachima

...Many of them have also resulted in the car getting in the state where the shifter won't respond and it takes a few minutes before the car starts back up...

My wife seems to remember this type of issue. She said the shifter would not respond to her commands. Side note. I know it is only possible to crank the vehicle initially while it is either in park or neutral so i suppose if the engine dies like that because of some failure the transmission never gets moved to P or N and because the shifters doesn't function you cant do it manually to start it back up. The reason why it allows you to do so after a short rest is beyond me.

Have you ever had this issue diagnosed and if so what did they find? When was the last time you had one?

[rking117]

Originally Posted by tex2670

Odd. My thermostat went bad last week too. But all I got was the check engine light. I even went into the car's status in iDrive and it say that "All Systems OK"--no problem moving into Sport Mode either. I was 5 minutes from the dealer, so I dropped it off and they called an hour later and told me it was the thermostat.

Odd that the same problem can manifest itself in different ways.

Since I am in the software business, I can only suspect that the randomization of these issues is caused by a lack of properly coding all the variable scenarios into the ECU. Sounds like they may be getting the coding on the cheap. I of course cannot prove that without downloading all the coding and parsing through it, that is providing it is even possible or if i were willing. Maybe someone else could shed some light on that.

[Hachima]

Originally Posted by rking117

My wife seems to remember this type of issue. She said the shifter would not respond to her commands. Side note. I know it is only possible to crank the vehicle initially while it is either in park or neutral so i suppose if the engine dies like that because of some failure the transmission never gets moved to P or N and because the shifters doesn't function you cant do it manually to start it back up. The reason why it allows you to do so after a short rest is beyond me.

Have you ever had this issue diagnosed and if so what did they find? When was the last time you had one?

BMW NA Engineers are still looking at it with the local service department and I don't know if they have a root cause yet. They have replaced high pressure fuel pump, low pressure fuel pump, fuel tank, fuel control module, run diagnostics on sensors that all checked out. None of those fixed it or identified an issue. The latest diagnostics make it look like fuel is being pumped at an incorrect rate on just one side of the saddle tank until it reaches a failure and it may be a problem with the DME. My case is probably more of an outlier situation and it has been real hard to track down so far.

[Kabrich]

Originally Posted by Hachima

BMW NA Engineers are still looking at it with the local service department and I don't know if they have a root cause yet. They have replaced high pressure fuel pump, low pressure fuel pump, fuel tank, fuel control module, run diagnostics on sensors that all checked out. None of those fixed it or identified an issue. The latest diagnostics make it look like fuel is being pumped at an incorrect rate on just one side of the saddle tank until it reaches a failure and it may be a problem with the DME. My case is probably more of an outlier situation and it has been real hard to track down so far.

They replaced my fuel pump 60 days ago and as it's happened again, it clearly didn't fix it.

[nicknaz]

my GUESS is guess fuel pump

good luck and keep us updated

[IndotagSwizz]

Originally Posted by tex2670

Odd. My thermostat went bad last week too. But all I got was the check engine light. I even went into the car's status in iDrive and it say that "All Systems OK"--no problem moving into Sport Mode either. I was 5 minutes from the dealer, so I dropped it off and they called an hour later and told me it was the thermostat.

Odd that the same problem can manifest itself in different ways.

+1 same here, just check engine light came on and I actually drove it a couple of days before taking it in

[Kabrich]

Originally Posted by nicknaz

my GUESS is guess fuel pump

good luck and keep us updated

Replaced my fuel pump 60 days ago, claiming it was cause.

Just got it back claiming they claim it was a faulty intake vanos solenoid valve.

FC 1136021200
DIAG CODE D1130_B0000000_03_001
Part # 11-36-8-605-123

Your results may vary.

We'll see how long this works.