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      07-06-2011, 09:03 PM   #1
BuddhaPilot
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DCT problems

Did a search and didn't find much so I'll apologize for starting a new thread if I'm ignorant and missed it.

I've got a 2011 135i with DCT and it ended up going to the dealer on a flatbed today after repeat problems with the tranny. I had it at the dealer about 3 weeks ago because it had been making some crunching noises ocassionally when you came to a stop, started cutting off when you stopped like the clutch wasn't disengaging, and then acted like it was searching for a gear when you started off. They kept the car a couple of days during which they reflashed the DCT computer three times before it finally took the new software. They drove the piss out of it (as evidenced by the single digit mileage the trip computer recorded) and returned it saying it was fine.

Fast forward three weeks to today where I'd been thinking about taking it back to the dealer because it never seemed right after the reflash. The clutch takeup from a dead stop has been inconsistent, the clutch judders sometimes when you downshift, and the feel of the shifts in sport mode is most definitely not the same.

I was driving from one location to another on the facility where I work and and it went into what I assume is "limp mode." I started off from a stop sign when it made a strange clunk as it shifted to second, the car jerked hard, and it wouldn't shift out of second. I drove the 1/2 mile back to my office in 2nd where I started getting the warning chime continuously and an exclamation mark in the message/warning area as I pulled into the parking lot. As I pulled up to stop, the trans shifted itself into park before the car even stopped rolling. It wouldn't come out of park and I kept getting the warning chime and the exclamation mark whenever I tried. I let it sit for about 30 minutes and still couldn't get it out of park. Called BMW roadside and had a flatbed there in less than an hour.

I was really impressed with the DCT when I bought the car, especially since I opted for it when I originally went looking specifically for a standard 6 speed. I've driven several M and non-M SMG cars and really didn't care for it, so the DCT didn't figure into my buying plan until I had the opportunity to drive it. Barely 7K later, I'm not happy with the fact that my car has been in twice for essentially the same type of issue. Anyone else having heartburn with how their DCT is acting?
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      07-07-2011, 11:19 AM   #2
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A friend of mine had the "same" problem.
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      07-07-2011, 03:01 PM   #3
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      07-07-2011, 04:00 PM   #4
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My car just got the new software and was clearly run through its paces at the dealership - mpg was terrible and the trip odo was reset. My mpg has been suffering 1-2mpg ever since I got the new software. However, it does seem to shift smoother. Either non sport mode was softened up or the sport mode was made more aggressive, but there is definitely more of a performance gap between sport / non sport mode. It also doesn't have a 'push' feeling upshifting in sport mode - in a good way. Just solid, fast shifts. I am happy with that respect to the new tuning.

What I'm not happy with (and the reason I took the car to the dealership) is the throttle lag from a slow roll. Don't tell me this is turbo lag - I know what that is. Rather, there is literally no motor response for a full second regardless of throttle. It seems like they didn't even address this problem when I took the car in for that reason, and they just put the new software on it and let me go.

I agree tha the transmission might be prone to problems and am eager to see if BMW offers more fixes down the road.
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      07-07-2011, 04:27 PM   #5
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DCT

No problems with mine so far- about 4700 miles now. Love it so far- hope it holds up. I didn't get the SMG on the E46 M3 I had because of the bad rep. The 6 speed on the E46 M3 wasn't as good as the E36 M3 I had before that.
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      07-07-2011, 04:36 PM   #6
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My car was built 5/10, and I've had it since 10/10. It currently has about 11,500 miles on it, and I've had no issues whatsoever with the transmission or the car in general. I still haven't gotten the software update, because I haven't had to take it in for service.

ParkNuts, I agree there is a lag from a slow roll, but I have learned to deal with it, because I truly believe that it is how they had to design the transmission software to save people from burning out the clutches too early and/or spinning the wheels after every stop sign. I know a lot of people don't agree with me on this, but being an engineer, I can understand what is going on and why. Yes, it is very annoying, especially after driving a brand new Impala that was nice and smooth, but even with the small lag after stop signs and the 'strong/touchy' brakes, I wouldn't trade the 135i for any other car in this price range.
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      07-07-2011, 04:44 PM   #7
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Hard to imagine the lag being caused by the transmission. If it's in gear, any input will cause an output. It must be the engine. My guess it's the traction control killing the power to prevent the wheels from slipping. Try turning it off and see if it goes away.

Quote:
Originally Posted by bogart View Post
ParkNuts, I agree there is a lag from a slow roll, but I have learned to deal with it, because I truly believe that it is how they had to design the transmission software to save people from burning out the clutches too early and/or spinning the wheels after every stop sign. I know a lot of people don't agree with me on this, but being an engineer, I can understand what is going on and why. Yes, it is very annoying, especially after driving a brand new Impala that was nice and smooth, but even with the small lag after stop signs and the 'strong/touchy' brakes, I wouldn't trade the 135i for any other car in this price range.
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      07-07-2011, 05:50 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 135-dmc View Post
No problems with mine so far- about 4700 miles now. Love it so far- hope it holds up. I didn't get the SMG on the E46 M3 I had because of the bad rep. The 6 speed on the E46 M3 wasn't as good as the E36 M3 I had before that.
Lol I am in the exact same boat. I got a manual over a SMG when I bought my E46 M3. I heard about so many problems with the SMG...however I never heard about any problems with the M3 DCT so I assumed the 135i DCT would be safe. I just hit 4700 miles also...and mine is holding up. Hopefully mine does not have a similar problem.
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      07-07-2011, 06:05 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ParkNuts View Post
What I'm not happy with (and the reason I took the car to the dealership) is the throttle lag from a slow roll. Don't tell me this is turbo lag - I know what that is. Rather, there is literally no motor response for a full second regardless of throttle. It seems like they didn't even address this problem when I took the car in for that reason, and they just put the new software on it and let me go.
I drove a 2010 135i with DCT at the BMW Performance Center last year and noticed the same thing. I wondered if there was a more aggressive setting that I didn't know how to activate.
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      07-07-2011, 06:48 PM   #10
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Yea, this is a special DCT made for the 1 series and it's brand new tech. Thats why I always wait for the newest generation so I don't have to worry about these problems.
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      07-07-2011, 08:05 PM   #11
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My DCT has been acting funny too. I have 5200 miles on my car. I have the horrible throttle lag from a rolling stop, and even from a full stop. I also had a weird thing happen where I took off from a full stop, got a little bit of power, was already in the middle of an intersection, then it cut out [maybe the clutch slipped?] and took a few seconds to give me any power again.
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      07-08-2011, 01:42 AM   #12
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[QUOTE=ParkNuts;9975138]

What I'm not happy with (and the reason I took the car to the dealership) is the throttle lag from a slow roll. Don't tell me this is turbo lag - I know what that is. Rather, there is literally no motor response for a full second regardless of throttle. It seems like they didn't even address this problem when I took the car in for that reason, and they just put the new software on it and let me go.QUOTE]

NO ONE IS HAPPY with the throttle lag! It is singularly responsible for taking most of the fun out of the car when not running in manual mode.
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      07-08-2011, 09:55 AM   #13
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I also have a 2011 135i with DCT and I too am having issues with the transmission, which is documented in this thread:

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=551796

My symptoms include super slow shifts and major clutch slippage.
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      07-08-2011, 11:00 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gmartan View Post
NO ONE IS HAPPY with the throttle lag! It is singularly responsible for taking most of the fun out of the car when not running in manual mode.
Not to mention it has been dangerous a few times when I'm saying "ooooookaaaaaay, when am I going to go...."
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      07-08-2011, 10:04 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ParkNuts View Post
Not to mention it has been dangerous a few times when I'm saying "ooooookaaaaaay, when am I going to go...."
Yeah, it's not a great feeling when you're pulling into traffic and would normally have plenty of acceleration advantage over the approaching traffic, then there's nothing when you hit the gas.

Well, got the car back after the dealer spent the last 2 days troubleshooting. They gave it to one of the technicians and told him "the owner says the trans is making noise and doesn't shift right." They didn't even relay what happened, even the part about how it put itself in Park while the car was still rolling. WTF! At least he took it upon himself to call me and ask what had happened. He cleared the "adaptations" from the DCT computer and put about 25 miles on it and didn't find anything wrong. There weren't even any flags/codes set despite the warning symbols I that were appearing in the message center.

I got another call from the service manager later yesterday asking if they could send it home with one of their engineers so it could be driven in more varied conditions. I agreed in hopes it might act up for them. Of course nothing happened and it ran like a top. They called me this morning asking me to again describe the issues I was having because they still couldn't duplicate it. BMW gave them some additional tests to run and had the car hooked up so it would send data directly to them. Still nothing. Picked the car up this evening and things seem fine...so far.

I'll keep you all updated if I have more problems as I'm not convinced the issues are resolved. We'll see if things go south again once the adaptations are re-learned. I'm definitely concerned at the prospect of it putting itself in Park again at a speed higher than a slow roll. I was told by one of the service managers that it wasn't possible for the trans to do this at all while a different manager told me that they'd had another DCT car do the same thing.
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      07-08-2011, 11:24 PM   #16
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This is interesting.
I hope BMW sorts this out before it becomes the "HPFP" for the N55 DCT.
I'm sure the majority of N55's are DCT.

If I go BMW again I want the DCT so I hope they find what's causing this.

I don't recall issues like this with Audi/VW DSG.
There have been some complaints about a "stutter" on decel to 1st, and a few on a light stutter on take off, but nothing like a lag or no-go once the car is moving.
Or maybe I just haven't read enough on the DSG.
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      07-09-2011, 05:46 PM   #17
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Talking

Quote:
Originally Posted by KinoBoom View Post
+1 No issues here! Almost 6k miles of fairly hard driving.
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      07-09-2011, 08:27 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ParkNuts View Post
Not to mention it has been dangerous a few times when I'm saying "ooooookaaaaaay, when am I going to go...."
I've been experiencing this very thing for quite a while now. It seems to have gotten worse since I've had it, but it might have been doing it all along and I'm just more aware of it now. It's very annoying though and like you said, there have been a number of times where I started to pull out in traffic where I would normally have been clear and long gone, but with the lag, it created a close call and me pissing people off since it appears to them that I'm just rolling out into their path and not going anywhere. Makes me look like a tool. I'll be taking my car in for service soon and will be asking them about this and see if there's anything they can do.
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      07-09-2011, 10:01 PM   #19
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22k and no issues, yet? I think SW/adaptation is the root cause to OP and lag. Standing starts are wikid fast for me which is joy.

Lag from roll is mitigated by a downshift to first (in D) before you roll off, then the DCT doesn't have to guess the next gear. The biggest shift delay (from 2nd) is when the DCT decides to preselect 1st gear when it should be 3rd.

Another look at it is when you are in D2 and rolling into a turn and then plan on punching through, ideally you should be in 2M, but this is not possible from 2D, so paddle to 1M and then 2M if possible and light off out of the turn. Boo ya , no lag. Paddles line up pre and post turn so gear selection is critical since you can't use the gear shift in D. Or just rive in M.
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      07-10-2011, 12:17 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JB135MDCT View Post

Lag from roll is mitigated by a downshift to first (in D) before you roll off, then the DCT doesn't have to guess the next gear. The biggest shift delay (from 2nd) is when the DCT decides to preselect 1st gear when it should be 3rd.
Interesting...that's exactly what had to do in my '07 328 while driving manual with the steptronic trans.
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      07-10-2011, 10:53 AM   #21
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I have an early 135 DCT with 13000mi on it. I have had no reliability problems with transmission at all. I had the engine and transmission reflashed 3 weeks ago before going to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. A lot of different road conditons there and back and everythign worked perfectly (I was there to watch not race). In my case, the reflash has been good.

Regarding the throttle lag in corners, I am also an engineer (electrical & nuclear) by education and experience and agree with the previous engineer's comments. When you drive a manual transmission you know what you are going to do before you do it. Also, you change the gear and engage/disengage the clutch based on your observations, even if they are wrong. In our DCT, in auto, the transmission computer has to make a decision about a gear selection based on maintaining an acceptable rpm and gear relationship. It makes this choice based on what is occurring right now, not what will occur 1 second from now. I eliminate this lag by driving in manual and shifting to 2nd at the start of the turn and keeping the rpms up. I have also found the lag to be less severe with the transmission in sport. The other option is to smile while driving and ignore it.

This is my second BMW and in general the best car I have ever owned
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      07-10-2011, 02:30 PM   #22
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The problem some are experiencing with lag may be related to the transmission shifting into second gear at low speeds. Try driving in the manual mode to completely avoid this.
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