Temporary gear selection mystery

[John_B]

A few things to note before I start

• I was not there when this happened, although it has been confirmed by another witness
• I have personally driven the car c.2000 miles before and 500 miles since this happened. It has never happened to me.

My wife drove my Z3 ('98 1.9 M44, manual) a few weeks ago, and reported that when she was driving it was like the H-pattern of the gear stick disappeared. She was still able to select gears, however it was like the gear stick was free to move in any direction, e.g. sideways from 1st to 3rd, diagonally from 2nd to 5th, around in circles like stirring a pot... etc. There was also no reverse gate, meaning if she moved the stick too far to the left and up she could easily select reverse rather than first. Luckily she was only doing a local run, and when she came to do the return journey it was back to normal.

Has anyone heard of anything like this before or able to explain what could possibly have happened!? I had similar in a Mondeo once when the gear cable snapped and the stick was free to move in any direction, although I could not select any gears and it certainly was not a temporary issue!!

 

[Delk]

Goggle BMW detent pins.

They get stuck over time and need to be replaced. Not uncommon.

 

[John_B]

Thanks Delk, I am sure they could do with replacing, but I'm not sure that was the (only) issue here. This isn't something that has gotten worse over time, this was:

(previous drive) car was perfect
(this drive) gear stick was like stirring soup
(next drive) car was perfect again

 

[the Nefyn cat]

It only takes a spring or plunger to get stuck for the gearchange to get messed up. Might also be worth changing the oil, despite what BMW say the oil doesn't last forever.

 

[John_B]

Changing the gearbox & diff oil is on my to do list

That's really good to know about springs and plungers though. I'm not too familiar with how a gearbox works, but that sounds very plausible

Thanks!