SMG Start Failure

O

OrangeFurious

Member
 Long Beach, California
Hello. Lovely forum you have here - it's been a fantastic resource. Shame my first post has to be a cry for help.

The car is an '03 3.0i with the SMG transmission and about 90k on the clock. I park in 1st gear. When I get into the car and turn the key the light on the shift lever says the car is in "D" and the readout on the dash says "1". The car won't start because it's in gear, so I press the brake pedal and move the stick to "N". The light by the stick moves to "N". The readout on the dash does not change, and remains at "1." The car continues not starting.

If I play with it I can occasionally produce the yellow sprocket indicator light, and on a few occasions the dash readout has changed to "F1".

This has happened two days in a row. Yesterday I had it towed to the dealership where it started fine and showed no faults. I drove it home that night. The shift from 1st to 2nd in automatic mode felt a bit sluggish but I am told that's fairly common to the SMG when not in Sport or Manual mode.

So far as I can tell the electrical system is good. I can hear a whine when I unlock the doors, which I believe indicates the hydraulic pump is priming. I'm also fairly sure I'm not too dumb to start the car.
 
Mine had the same thing.

Things to try, in order of expense: relay and SMG pump.

Mine had them both changed under warranty, and it's been fine ever since. I believe there's a revised pump that they will fit, which is better.
 
That's unfortunate. Any idea what the "F1" code refers to specifically? I don't doubt the relay/pump diagnosis, but I can find little to no reference to that code online.
 
Not sure if it applies in this context, but I had a problem with my SMG not starting a while back. It turned out that animals had chewed through the gearbox wiring loom (!), so make sure it's not that. I do live next to a farm, though. Little mice buggers, I'd imagine.
 
I live in Los Angeles, so I'm somewhat skeptical of animal damage. That said, I would very much like to see a BMW Diagnostic readout of "Varmints" or "Critters."
 
Orange, shoot over to the M3 forums - or Google "SMG no start". If I remember right and the Zed is the same setup as the M3 there are sensors in the doors and hood. If those are open or the sensors act up, NO Start.
 
SMG will start with door open, your foot has to be on the brake though.

I assume it will also start with bonnet open, if foot is on brake - can't remember trying though.
 
Thanks for the advice, all.

After quite a bit of futzing I took it to the dealership I bought it from - an independent place - who rather politely scolded me for not knowing how to operate the car. That nonsense stopped when they had the problem. Next step was off to the local BMW dealership, who politely scolded the independent dealer and I for not knowing how to operate the car. That stopped when the car refused to leave their detailing bay.

After a full week of diagnostics, the BMW dealership - McKenna, in Los Angeles - has determined I need a new hydraulic pump. I purchased an extended warranty with the car for a bit less than $2,000. The repair quote is a hair over $4,000. McKenna and the warranty folks are sorting themselves out presently.

The truly unfortunate bit about all this is I had the car for one day before it was on a tow truck - three drives total, none over 20 miles. My wife has never even sat in it.
 
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