e39 540i not going into 1st and 3rd... Transmission problems.

[upbeatgfx]

Hello guys,

Yesterday while driving back home at night my transmission randomly wouldn't shift into 1st and 3rd. If i did manage to get it into gear it would grind while stopped and kinda move the whole car as if it dropped in a gear. I turned off the car and turned it back on... shifted fine for a mile or so then stopped shifting and blocked me from going into first and third. If I turn the car off it does shift into all gears. I haven't tried to double clutch yet. Also pops out of gear if it didnt go all the way in because i am blocked.

I really hope its not the syncros... ill just end up getting rid of the car

The car was bought at 158k not sure if clutch has EVER been replaced.

Im thinking trying to flush fluid and delete CDV to see if that changes anything.


GERTRAG 420G

[makenzie71]

bad forks, bad synchros, bad gears, low/dirty/contaminated fluid...lots of options. If the car's not worth a $750 transmission then yeah, best to just get rid of it.

[pleiades]

You don't know much about the car's history, so at a minimum, for a hard-shift problem that started only one day ago, maybe you should change the fluid to whatever is recommended for that trans and also make sure the brake fluid reservoir is topped up enough to keep the rear partition (reserved for the clutch) topped up too. It's too early to worry about more-expensive steps or trashing the car.

Hello guys,

Yesterday while driving back home at night my transmission randomly wouldn't shift into 1st and 3rd. If i did manage to get it into gear it would grind while stopped and kinda move the whole car as if it dropped in a gear. I turned off the car and turned it back on... shifted fine for a mile or so then stopped shifting and blocked me from going into first and third. If I turn the car off it does shift into all gears. I haven't tried to double clutch yet. Also pops out of gear if it didnt go all the way in because i am blocked.

I really hope its not the syncros... ill just end up getting rid of the car

The car was bought at 158k not sure if clutch has EVER been replaced.

Im thinking trying to flush fluid and delete CDV to see if that changes anything.


GERTRAG 420G

[shwy]

if it grinds while stationary and moves the car when you finally get it in gear, sounds like the clutch isn't disengaging completely. maybe dry bleeding the slave cylinder?

have you shifted down hard recently, like brought the clutch up violently without a rev match? that can bend the clutch cover springs and cause issues with clutch slip, etc.

[1gr8e39]

Bummer. Things could legit be worse though. Having 2nd and 4th ain’t so bad. I blew a high speed downshift in a cream puff 83 733i/5 with only 60k miles and blew up 1st and 2nd. New clutch didn’t fix it as I’d hoped. Driving the car for 6 months starting in 3rd eventually killed the guibo and the driveshaft and that was the end of that. More than likely you have serious internal failure. Pull the shift boot and check linkage maybe you’ll get lucky. Sorry to hear


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[upbeatgfx]

SHE FIXED HERSELF BOYS

took it out for a drive and went into gear fine... wondering what caused that and if its going to happen. Any ideas?

BTW I downshift almost always except into 1st. I was racing someone before that incident. Started acting up over 1 hr later.

- - - Updated - - -

You don't know much about the car's history, so at a minimum, for a hard-shift problem that started only one day ago, maybe you should change the fluid to whatever is recommended for that trans and also make sure the brake fluid reservoir is topped up enough to keep the rear partition (reserved for the clutch) topped up too. It's too early to worry about more-expensive steps or trashing the car.

I topped off the brake fluid about 4 weeks ago. Could be related?

[edjack]

Sounds like a failed clutch cylinder. Best to replace both master and slave at the same time.