M5 gear shift selector lights

[3200gt]

Not my usual forum but I'm hoping you M5 afficienado's are going to be able to help a mate of mine.
he's got an 07 M5 and is having trouble with it. Basically he can park and leave the shifter in any position but the dash always show it is in first which means he can't start it again until he has rocked it back and forth for several minutes with the ignition off. When he switches back on it still displays first but he can start it and immediately it fires up the display changes to neutral and the display and car behaves normally untill it is switch off again and it all starts again. Maindealers can't locate a fault and seem less than enthusiastic to help even though the car is still under warranty.
I would assume it is a sensor of some description but it is not my feild of expertise.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Zod]

Er, he has clearly never read the manual or driven an SMG car before.

If you switch off with the stick in the middle (usual driving position), it will select first for safety's sake (to prevent the car from rolling if the handbrake fails). To start the car, you need to knock the stick over to the left to select neutral and put your foot on the brake pedal.

[3200gt]

Yeah, he's doing all that but the display still reads D1. Therefore the car thinks it is still in gear and wont allow him to start it.
If he switches it off and rocks it back and forth it will then allow it to start (even though the display still reads D1) and as soon as the engine catches the display flicks to N and all is normal again until next time he stops/try's to start it.

[Rawhide]

Maybe try another dealer? Surely the warranty is there to prevent headaches such as this.

Sorry can't be more help.

[dubbs]

So an easier explanation is he selects neutral but the car stays in gear?

Explanation given sounds like it's driver error.

If proper explanation is that car won't go in Neutral then question is does it go in reverse?

If you can have your foot on brake and car in reverse will it start?

[3200gt]

dubbs said:

So an easier explanation is he selects neutral but the car stays in gear?

No, the gearbox goes into nuetral but the display remains D1.

dubbs said:

Explanation given sounds like it's driver error.

I would like to think so just so that I can rib him about it but he is no novice and has had several M3's and AMG Merc's so I don't think so.

dubbs said:

If proper explanation is that car won't go in Neutral then question is does it go in reverse?

The gearbox will select all gears but the display will always show D1 and engine won't start/turnover presumably because it thinks it is in gear. After rocking the car for several mins the display still reads D1 but the engine will start and the display immediately flicks to N

dubbs said:

If you can have your foot on brake and car in reverse will it start?

No it won't, display still reads D1.