Automatic Transmission problems of the 1999 BMW 540

- the contact owns a 1999 BMW 540ia with failure mileage of 100,000 miles. The contact stated that while driving at 40 mph he began having problems with the transmission. The contact stated that the gears began to function improperly, and could not be operated in 1st through reverse gears. The contact took the vehicle to the BMW dealer, where they stated that there was nothing that they would do to fix the recall. They refused to repair the vehicle without cost because the recall was issued by NHTSA and not by them. The contact stated that as of 4-13-07 the dealer has had the vehicle for over a month, and wanted to charge him $5,000, even though the failure was due to the recall. The current mileage was 140,000.

On occasions when slowing, transmision downshifts "hard" maybe 2-1or 3-2-1 and even a thumb??and difficult to control at that time??.

I have experienced an occasional hard downshift or clunk when slowing my vehicle and then briskly accelerating. This is very similar to the problem reported in service bulletin number 240300.