Automatic Transmission Problems of BMW 540

On my 2001 BMW 540i with 84000 miles when the car is put into reverse it will not reverse just fills like it is in neutral.

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Reverse gear stopped working completely and with no symptoms.

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On 7/19/2008, my 2002 BMW 540i with automatic transmission caught fire while myself and my wife driving toward an evening party. At first I smell something is burning then see a tiny bit of smoke. I parked the car in a bank of America parking lot and my wife went out to check the car, and she saw fire started to burst. We call 911 and within five minutes, the front end of the car is in flame. The local fire department came the put out the fire. The car is now been tow to a local shop and will be moved to the "total lot" of my insurance company. I did a quick search on the internet, and found out I am not the only one. I hope BMW can find out exactly what cause the fire and fix the problem. My wife and I are lucky since we got out of car soon enough. This is not a good example for BMW such a luxury brand. Sincerely, steve hung.

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After approximately 75,000 miles on my BMW 540i, the transmission will not go into reverse. The dealer says it has internal slippage/damage and will have to be replaced with a remanufacuted one. . Read more...

I own a 2001 BMW 540i. I will put the car in drive, the car will move really slow, as I give it a little gas to go, the car will only rev up then jump into gear. This will cause a very strong jerk to the car. The car only has 70,000 miles, I feel that it is much too soon for a $65,000 car transmission to go bad. I took the car to BMW to find out that I need to replace the transmission. (cost $5600) I have not fix the car in hope that I will find a solution for BMW to fix it.

- 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.

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

Transmission from working perfect one day. And boom the next morning put it in reverse and it rolls back and revs as if it is in neutral.

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.