1996 BMW 318 lost drive

PETEINSWINDON

MEMBER
1996 BMW 318
4 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
105 MILES

Hi just bought a 318i cabo 1996 105k on the clock used it to get home about about 70 miles on m4 was as described left it at my home started it moved it once or twice was left about 6 weeks till sold old ford. Went to use it for the first time last night it went ok went up a steep hill to get the wheels balanced and the car seamed to jump out of gear so I put it back in" not sure if it did jump or not" it drove a bit more and I lost drive again on the same hill this time I had lost all gears no forward no reverice! Pushed it to the sind of the road and got my dad to pull me home. This morning we went to tow it to my workshop to have a look thinking the clutch had gone I tried it and it had drive again? "Aske bmw and he said I had gremlins!" So I had drive and I drove the car about 10 miles going up and down gears letting it pull away from 15mph in 5th to see if it slips the car did ok. I do not know what is or even could be wrong I do not and can not do spare parts surgery can any one help this is urgent as I can not get to work

1 Reply

2 CARVINCE

MEMBER
31 POSTS

Hello,
I am a little confused, I am thinking this vehicle is an automatic transmission the way you are talkin about d4 as such. If so these cars have an issue with being smogged, when they are put to the dyno and held at 2500 rpms its tended to destroy the transmission so when the test was over the car had no forward drive gears. I E d 1 thru d 4, so be careful of that happening, if you have problems with it working then not, then coming back again, its being starved for flo, drop the transmission pan off bottom of it (its simple 4 bolts), and chk and replace filter, its easy to do and inexpensive and you will most likely be relieved of your problem.