Trans said "E R" in 4th . . . not a good sign.

[azale]

The other day, my . . . uh . . . friend had a disagreement with his wife and a Diet Squirt can was thrust down onto the center console in his e34; pop went everywhere. It is an automatic, and for troubleshooting purposes, let's just assume we are driving the same car . . . to protect my friend.

For a while, there has been an intermittent 'pendulum shifting' issue; they have driven it in 3rd until up to speed and then they shift it into 4th.

Well, Friday there was a new problem. The car was in 4th and then it magically shifted to 2nd. The dash said: “E R” when the shifter was in “D” and it said “S 1” when it was in 3rd.

I drove the car home . . . for my friend . . . in 2nd (1st and 2nd gears worked great), and on the way, it snapped back to normal operation, then regressed to weird mode, and then back to normal mode.

Is this safe mode?
I assume the gear selector is mainly mechanical but is there something that pop could mess up down there?
I remember someone saying he had cleaned the valve body on his trans. Is that possible to do without removing the trans?

My friend is very interested in what you guys have to say . . . and things have been resolved with him and his wife

[Rus]

My guess is that the liquid that was dispensed on the console trickled down into the selector switch, which has many contact strips. Chances are, it is now malfunctioning. You can take it out in about 5 minutes. Remove the shifter handle (small allen wrench needed). Pop out the A/M switch, if equipped, and then pull the entire panel out by grabbing hold of the switch hole. You now have full access to the switch. Disconnect it, unscrew it, and lift it out. The switch comes apart using a few small screwdrivers to disengage the locking tabs. Use denatured alcohol or electrical contacts cleaner to remove any liquid and gunk that is in the switch. Reassemble. I used a little dielectric grease on the contacts, but I don't think that is totally necessary. I can't offer any advice on the valve body service aside from knowing for sure that it can be serviced with the transmission still in the car. Hope this helps and good luck!

Best regards.

[Javier]

range switch (94/A4S310R). You can see that missing contact in L1 will mix R and D in the cluster indication.

Follow Rus advise and you should be OK (also clean A/M switch).

Javier

[azale]

I'll check that out tonight.

So if contact L1 is sticky and is mixing R and D in the cluster indication, will the computer do weird things like take me out of 4th?

[Javier]

the trany computer, no idea on what excatly will it do, but may be interpreted as "Sport mode" request and do funny things on the shift programming.

Javier

[Rustam]

I'll check that out tonight.

So if contact L1 is sticky and is mixing R and D in the cluster indication, will the computer do weird things like take me out of 4th?

You can go to my website to see about cleaning the shifter selector switch:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzerdcib/e34a/

look under "TRANSMISSION"

[Javier]

Javier

[azale]

Nice website Rustam. Unfortunately, I can't get the switch out of the center console.

The selector switch is the off-white blob center right, below the yellow bolt. To the immediate left of the selector switch is my problem. It is an "L" shaped lever and it rides on the brass shaft below the yellow bolt. Just below the shaft you will see the topmost part of the selector switch (square-shaped) and the outside edges of another allen bolt. I think I need to remove that lever, to remove the allen bolt, to remove switch. Any thoughts?

[Javier]

Javier

[azale]

Thanks for the email Javier but it still doesn't solve my problem (unless I'm missing something and I probably am). Fortunately, it did give me proper vocabulary. My problem is the interlock lever. The Bentley only mentions it in passing ("for cars newer than '93 . . . "). In your picture 32 25 071, the interlock lever is riding on a shaft that has a bolt on one end. My shaft is mushroom-shaped on that side so I can't figure out how to remove it.

I'll double check but I'm pretty sure even if I remove the entire shift lever assembly, I will be faced with the same problem, only portable.