Hi everyone and thanks in advance for any assistance you might be able to offer.

I have a 2011 rear wheel drive BMW X1 with the GM gearbox. I have posted here as its pretty much the same engine and chassis set up and an E9X of the same era.

Car was running fine, with no issues at all until I purchased a new car and put the X1 it in the garage until I got round to advertising her for sale. A couple came to view, and the car drove fine. I felt that is took ever so slightly longer to crank (hardly noticeable) than usual and put that down to the car sitting for 3 weeks.
The couple decided they liked the car and wanted to come back a week later to collect. On the morning of collection day I started the car and took it for a little bit of a drive to make sure everything was still ok – It was!
And then but my battery conditioner on the car for 6 hours (attached at the engine bay terminals and it recognises AGM batteries).

The couple came, money and paperwork taken care of, and the car started without fault, and they drove off.

Then a few mins later they called me to say there was an issue at the car, that occurred when they attempted to pull away from some traffic lights (this was about 400meters away from my house).

I get to the car and it’s sitting there with the following issue:

Gearbox selector is clicking from under the leather shift boot and as it does this the revs dip and the P light flashes.
They tell me there were some warning lights too, but they disappeared when they switched the car off and restarted.

I transfer the funds back and take the car… and basically its just jumping out of gear (or feels like its jumping out of gear) then thuds back into gear and drives ok until I get to junction and then repeats.
Trying to get the car back in the garage proves hard as it won’t ‘creep’ smoothly.

Turn the car off and come back to it a few days later and this happens:

Engine starts but with a misfire on one cylinder and immediately the gear selector starts clicking away – causing the revs to dip every time it does so.
Then I get Power Train malfunction and Traction control warning light pop up on the dash and I am left with the following codes:

003099 (CAN Message EGS missing)
00A3AA (CAN ID 1D2 error message transmission data)
00D358 (Big list on CAD data failure messages)
0027D (Misfiring cylinder 2) – Only on cold start
00578E (Transmission fluid deterioration)



Misfire clears and if I hold the revs at 1500 RPM the clicking stops at the gear selector and for all intents and purposes the car seems to run fine.

Turn car off, restart car and no misfire – but gearbox selector still clicks, and revs sip every time it does so (it does this erratically unless I hold revs higher and then it doesn’t click) no warning lights come on.
Repeat this several times and I guess by now the gearbox fluid and engine fluids are warm). Everything seems to be good, and car runs well enough that I venture out for a drive…. At this point the car might drive fine for 10meters or 10kilometers (maybe more) but at some point, without fail it will pop out of gear and rev high, then a shunt as it goes back into gear, and this is always after I have had to slow for a junction or round about.
Then every now and again the Power Train malfunction and Traction control warning light pop up on the dash and then the car won’t want to drive smoothly (transmission) at all until I turn the car off and restart.

I have changed the battery as it was the original 11yo battery but that’s made little difference,
I have swapped the coils around – but still have cylinder 2 listed as the misfire on start up (Cold start only for the misfire).

I checked and topped up the ATF – the fluid that came out was virtually black and initially had the viscosity of water. Once topped up I attempted another drive which ultimately wound up with the same outcomes as before.

As I type this, I have just purchased a good quality Transmission filter kit and the recommended ATF.

But my question is:

  1. Would poor transmission fluid condition cause the clicking from the gearbox shifter (it’s a black plastic rod with a red tip at one end) which in turn causes the revs to drop and the ‘P’ indicator to sometimes disappear momentarily?
  2. The chicken or the Egg? – Is the engine misfire causing the gearbox issue or the gearbox issue causing the misfire? Both became issues at the same time.
  3. If I change the ATF and filter and follow the proper procedure for ensuring I am fully topped up to the correct level and still the issues continue…. What would be next? Electrical connections? Gearbox is shot?


Sorry for the longwinded post – Just thought the more descriptive I could be, the more considered your suggestions might be.