Five problems related to power train have been reported for the 2003 BMW 325. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Stall limps.
I have a 2003 325i when coming to a stop with the foot on the brakes (lightly), as the transmission downshifts I can hear a thud/clunk coming from the rear end of my car along with a increase in the rpm's. I also hear it as soon as I let off my foot of the gas pedal or accelerate causing my car to not drive properly and my transmission to hit my suspension very hard. So, I've searched this issue and other BMW forums and found that other people had the same complaints and this exact problem which is dangerous & very scary.
Xenon lights went out shortly after the 50,000 mark. Shortly after car kept going into fail safe mode, kept getting low voltage readings on diagnostics. One BMW dealers kept telling me I needed to rebuild transmission. All they would do is plug the car into the computer and see the tranny reading on the scanner. The reason there was a tranny reading was because the car was in fail safe mode. I eventually had the tranny rebuilt and I still had the same issue. I would cycle the ignition and restart the car and car would drive fine. It keeps going into fail safe mode everytime I start the car. Its harder to get it out of fail safe mode in the winter with colder starts.
Problems with transmission on 2003 BMW 325i. While driving the vehicle's transmission lagged followed by surging when shifting from park, neutral, reverse then drive when the engine was cold. Initially the dealer indicated that the transmission needed to be replaced, but three months later it was determined that the transmission needed to be reprogrammed. The dealer has not contacted the consumer in almost 2 weeks to perform this service.
The vehicle down shifted very hard when the brakes were applied, the vehicle jerked and jumped forward when decelerating.