Alright, so here's my situation. Though I am sure this has nothing to do with why I'm getting the limp mode light, I had my A pillar off yesterday, and when I turned the car on, the light went on. Turned off, put the A pillar back in, light went away. Next day, I was parked on an incline, and light came on again on ignition. Turned off again with a restart. At this point, almost anytime I put the car into park, the limp mode light turns on. The car shifts fine and is running fine. As far as transmission issues, I know I have a leak at the shifter seal, and there's an error in the ECU for the shifter solenoid. Does this scream anything particular to you? Thanks.
What kind of car and transmission do you have? Which light are you seeing the gear light for transmission failure the EML light for throttle issues or service engine soon light?
Cursory forum searching says that in addition to the obvious (and the thing I reaaaally don't want) transmission issue, there are number of electrical related issues that could throw that light as well. I had the fluid and filter changed less than 5k, the fluid was not full of shavings, and as I said, the car shifts pretty well at all other times. Car has 79k miles.
Okay, last update/wrinkle. The car ONLY goes into limp mode if I start it and leave it in park. If I put it in gear before it turns on, I can drive around and everything is fine and normal. When I return to park and put it in gear, the light comes on. This is really puzzling.
If the transmission drives ok when the light isn't on doubt there is any major trouble internally with the transmission gears. Sound more like a sensor issue. Since the gear selection has something to do with it could be the gear sensor in the transmission is not working correctly. I would have to have fault codes pulled to better help point you in a direction for certain.
So I spoke to the service folk at BMW of Alexandria and they told me they believed it was a dirty connector from the gear shift selector. They recommended I take off the center console, clean off the connectors with a towel, and reconnect. Did that, restarted, left it in part for 30 seconds, bam Gear hazard light. If it's the gear sensor, is that a piece inside the transmission or a module outside of it? Thanks.
The gear shift sensor is in the transmission and can be replaced separately if I remember correctly. The other issue is the module reading the gear selection correctly or is the sensor bad.
