M3 E46 SMG Gearbox problem

[shabz m3]

hi everyone am having big priblems with my smg m3 e46 simmilar to one mentioned but mine overide 3rd gear had it on diagnostic tool at bm care in pudsy not showing any faults for smg or anything,when i drive slowly in aouto or manual its ok but when i put foot down it wont go in 3rd over rides it gose to 4th and when i change down it goes to 2nd and not third smg light comes on and then i turn car off it and back on it is nolonger theie ,bm care say it may be the gear box its self the have changed relay ,checked it same thing,they say pump and actuater is ok but i dnt want to put a gearbox in and have the same proplem any help i would more than greatfull to hear it thanks shab

[imwavygravy]

shabz m3, I am having exactly the same issue, did you manage to get it sorted!? I hope you can help. thanks in advance Pete

[LJTS]

shabz m3 said:

hi everyone am having big priblems with my smg m3 e46 simmilar to one mentioned but mine overide 3rd gear had it on diagnostic tool at bm care in pudsy not showing any faults for smg or anything,when i drive slowly in aouto or manual its ok but when i put foot down it wont go in 3rd over rides it gose to 4th and when i change down it goes to 2nd and not third smg light comes on and then i turn car off it and back on it is nolonger theie ,bm care say it may be the gear box its self the have changed relay ,checked it same thing,they say pump and actuater is ok but i dnt want to put a gearbox in and have the same proplem any help i would more than greatfull to hear it thanks shab

I would bet money on it being the compression spring in the gearbox!

Spring only costs £2 but you have to lower the engine & gearbox to replace it

It would take a good mechanic about 3-4 hours to do the work involved

[LJTS]

Pic of the broken spring I replaced in my gearbox




Spring Part Number

[imwavygravy]

I don't know whether this is going to help anyone or not, not I have just taken my 2002 330ci to local garage and they put under diagnostics and its come back with a bank two lambda sensor for the catalytic convertor, they have reset it and its driving like a new car. If this changes I will keep you posted.

[r kally]

hi
i recently brought an m3 e46, ive just got a problem with the gear box. it dont change gear in hi rev's and the next day when i drove it again things got worst, it now makes a noice when i pull away but yet it does still change gear ok? any ideas would be great and how much u think it would cost to fix?

[bennyboysvuk]

M3NOS said:

Hi, i've rebuilt, reprogrammed, own and drive an E46 M3 and the SMG is 100% the only choice to be made when buying an E46 M3

I think it depends what you want from the car. If you're tracking it and non-thinking straight line performance is what you want, with the ability for the electronics to take the thought out of changing down for you then great. It does leave the driver with more headspace to deal with other things.

However, I for one prefer the challenge of braking whilst heeling and toeing my downchanges before turning in. Braking hard and then pulling the paddle feels a bit Playstation to me by comparison.

So IMO the SMG isn't the only choice. It depends on how you drive and how you get your kicks. If you want to play Schumi then choose SMG, if you want more interaction with the car then choose the manual.

[rdunn]

Hi Lloyd, Just wanted to confirm, if you did bet money by now you would have most likely been very rich. i have the same issue with smg and no-one could find any faults, until i saw your pics and read your solution, i showed by mechanic and couldt believe the internet solved our problem of the 3rd gear slipping or rather you on the other of the world uploading our well needed solution, even the part number is spot on.......Thanks A mil

BEST REGARDS
RIYAAD

Edited by rdunn on Wednesday 12th May 19:53

Edited by rdunn on Wednesday 12th May 20:00

[LJTS]

rdunn said:

Hi Lloyd, Just wanted to confirm, if you did bet money by now you would have most likely been very rich. i have the same issue with smg and no-one could find any faults, until i saw your pics and read your solution, i showed by mechanic and couldt believe the internet solved our problem of the 3rd gear slipping or rather you on the other of the world uploading our well needed solution, even the part number is spot on.......Thanks A mil

BEST REGARDS
RIYAAD

Edited by rdunn on Wednesday 12th May 19:53

Edited by rdunn on Wednesday 12th May 20:00

Glad to hear that it fixed the problem!

[rdunn]

Well the problem is not yet solved as no BMW Dealer in South Africa that has stock of the compression spring, so they ordered from Germany and it takes up to 1.5 weeks with delivery, so I guess my car is out of action until then....

Tell me do you have to reprogram, teach / learn the gearbox via the computer again and bleed the hydraulic system (green oil) once we put the gearbox back in the car?

Rgds
Riyaad

Edited by rdunn on Thursday 13th May 18:44

[LJTS]

rdunn said:

Well the problem is not yet solved as no BMW Dealer in South Africa that has stock of the compression spring, so they ordered from Germany and it takes up to 1.5 weeks with delivery, so I guess my car is out of action until then....

Tell me do you have to reprogram, teach / learn the gearbox via the computer again and bleed the hydraulic system (green oil) once we put the gearbox back in the car?

Rgds
Riyaad

Edited by rdunn on Thursday 13th May 18:44

You don't have to remove the gearbox or split the hydraulic lines!

Basic summary below of how to replace the compression spring

- Jack Car Up & support on stands
- Disconnect battery
- Remove Cross-member support under exhaust
- Remove under shields
- Remove Exhaust from middle section back including cats
- Remove Prop-shaft & guibo
- Remove heat shields
- Remove Lower Aluminium Engine Guard
- Remove Gearbox Support whilst supporting gearbox
- Remove Radiator Fan (Fan hits radiator otherwise when gearbox lowered)
- Lower Engine & Gearbox
- Remove cap side of gearbox & replace compression spring
- Put it all back together!

[rdunn]

Thanks for all the info, I negleted to mention though, we actually dropped the gearbox inorder to locate this broken spring!

What a mission, now that the box is removed, will it be needed to teach/learn it again, apparently it takes up to 3 hours....Hence I am wondering if it is really needed.

Again Thanks for the assistance,

Rgds
Riyaad

Edited by rdunn on Friday 14th May 21:20

[LJTS]

rdunn said:

Thanks for all the info, I negleted to mention though, we actually dropped the gearbox inorder to locate this broken spring!

What a mission, now that the box is, will it be needed to teacg/learn it again, apparently it takes up to 3 hours....

Again Thanks for the assistance,

Rgds
Riyaad

you might have to reset the fault codes that the ECU has stored

I used an Auotenginuity Scan Tool to reset the fault codes & do a teach-in for the clutch & gearbox

Took about 5 mins to reset everything & do a teach-in using the scan tool

I doubt if you need to a teach-in but I did it anyway

Obviously the garage is charging by the hour so they've quoted you 3 hours for a 5 min job! Good old Stealers :-)

[rdunn]

Hi Lloyd,

I am in need again,

I finally got the spring as per your part number above and we inserted it in the place where we found the old one broken in two pieces,

After inserting the spring, the mechanic assembled the gearbox on to the car and now the gear in stuck in 5th, so he suggested that we drop the box again and swop the new spring around with another one we found below in the box, So this box has 2 places for this type of spring and we simply going to swop them arround and re-assemble and then test again.

Any ideas or suggestions on this 5th gear stuck issue after we inserted the new spring?
Is the spring tension not maybe incorrect>?

Rgds
Riyaad

[RichyRich29]

Hi

I wondered if anyone could advise me on something.

I only had my BMW M3 (54 plate) 10 days and I have problems with the smg gearbox. At first it would not allow me to select neutral to start the car and then this morning after a couple of days of it being ok it started up fine, went into first and decided to select neutral as I got to the end of the street. I switched the car off and it would not restart.

Can anyone advise me if they think they would know what the problem is here and if anyone has a rough idea do you know how much I would be looking at to get this back on the road?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Rich

[rdunn]

Hi Rich

based on your description I would recomend you change the gear selection module, it is a small part outside the box with a electrical plug on it. I will try to get a pic of it for you.

Best Regards
Riyaad

[LJTS]

rdunn said:

Hi Lloyd,

I am in need again,

I finally got the spring as per your part number above and we inserted it in the place where we found the old one broken in two pieces,

After inserting the spring, the mechanic assembled the gearbox on to the car and now the gear in stuck in 5th, so he suggested that we drop the box again and swop the new spring around with another one we found below in the box, So this box has 2 places for this type of spring and we simply going to swop them arround and re-assemble and then test again.

Any ideas or suggestions on this 5th gear stuck issue after we inserted the new spring?
Is the spring tension not maybe incorrect>?

Rgds
Riyaad

I don't understand why you have swapped the springs!

If the other spring isn't broken then I'd leave it alone.

You should have replaced the broken spring with a new spring & then done a teach-in using diagnostic software eg. Autoenginuity

The spring pushes the locking pin against the gear identification sensor shaft

Have you managed to fix it now?

[rdunn]

Hi Lloyd,

Thanks for you response, We did'nt manage to fix it yet, The mechanic said he wants to try and teach it again on Monday and see what the outcome is. I also told him that he should rather leave the new spring in where we found the broken one and not move the others that are fine...

Is there not a chance that the cap that holds this spring was push incorrectly somehow, must it go in a certain way or does it just clip in and hold the spring in place.

Please see link:

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E46/Cabrio/Europ...

No 5 is the cap that holds the new spring.
No 6 is the place we found the broken spring, and replaced it with a new one.

Thanks
Riyaad

[LJTS]

rdunn said:

Hi Lloyd,

Thanks for you response, We did'nt manage to fix it yet, The mechanic said he wants to try and teach it again on Monday and see what the outcome is. I also told him that he should rather leave the new spring in where we found the broken one and not move the others that are fine...

Is there not a chance that the cap that holds this spring was push incorrectly somehow, must it go in a certain way or does it just clip in and hold the spring in place.

Please see link:

http://bmwfans.info/parts/catalog/E46/Cabrio/Europ...

No 5 is the cap that holds the new spring.
No 6 is the place we found the broken spring, and replaced it with a new one.

Thanks
Riyaad

The cap No.5 is a push fit in the location hole, No clips etc to locate it

Sounds like the mechanic doesn't have a clue what he's doing!


I'd make sure the mechanic has done the following:

- Replaced the SMG Relay

- Checked that the SMG is priming

- Reset all fault codes

- Check SMG Reservoir oil level

- Gearbox & Clutch Teach-In


The SMG has loads of sensors so make sure they are all working as well, scan tool can tell you if any are faulty!

[rdunn]

Hi Lloyd,

I am starting to believe as well that my stealer has little knowelgde on this SMG'S, either that or he is stalling me as he has other cars that he is working on....

My issue is, the car is not in a condition to have it towed away to another workshop, otherwise I would removed it last week already.

I am going to wait it out for another day or two and what comes but I will be sure to post a message once the car is done.

Thanks
Riyaad