white smoke coming out of the gear shift lever

[Newbie535i]

Hello all, it's been a while since my last post, but I do check out this forum regularly. I'm pleased that I usually find answers to my questions. However this one has eluded me: my 1989 535i automatic with 81K miles just spewed out white smoke and an acrid smell from underneath the transmission gear shift lever. It only did it once at startup and was over in a few minutes. Nothing electronic seems to have been affected, no error codes, no oil seepage underneath, or oil on the manifold, heater is working fine, transmission sounds and performs ok. What am I missing? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[spoolinturbo]

take it apart and look, i know on my 89 535i it gets hot at the base, so take it apart, if theres smoke theres fire so open up and see where it came from. wish i had more info for u man

[Kalevera]

Yeah, you definitely want to take it apart and have a look or have someone look at it for you.



....don't want that happening.

My guess is a gunked up or trashed neutral position switch. It's located just under the gear shift. White or black plastic.

Best, whit

[niall]

haha good pic mate

[an535i]

My 535i went through the same exact thing, and it was the neutral/safety switch.. I replaced mine but if you are up for it you might be able to dissassemble and clean the switch to prevent it from shorting and getting hot.

[Newbie535i]

Wow, that's some picture, I definitely don't want that. I'm gonna have to dissassemble it them. Thanks for the heads up.

[632 Regal]

Lowell, whose car is/was that??

[Kalevera]

Yup....another thing to note is that, in the picture, you can see the switch sitting at the base of the shifter. Here's the quick and easy way to get to it:

1) Get a set of hex keys and loosen/remove the gear shift knob via the hex fastener holding it onto the shaft (located on the dash side of the knob shaft), then pull the knob off.

2) Using a flat blade screwdriver (or a broad knife would also do the trick), pry up and disconnect the A/M switch (careful - the plastic on the harness is probably brittle and may shatter). You may even want to disassemble and clean the A/M switch while you're at it, as it does tend to get nasty.

3) Pull up on the dash edge of the woodgrain panel to loosen and remove it. Should come out without much fuss.

4) Locate the switch at the base of the shifter, remove the screws that secure it, make sure the parking brake is on and set the shifter to D to remove the switch.

Mine was nastily gunked up. I pulled it to clean it in hopes that it would solve a no-reverse issue. I used electrical contact cleaner & fine grain sandpaper to clean it up.

Best, whit

[Kalevera]

Jeff, that was a 750iL, recently on eBay, located in Columbus, OH. Owner said that the car was running when it caught fire. FD cut the posi lead on the battery.

I'm trolling around for other projects. Looks like a pain in the ass to fix, but I think the owner got a grand or so for the car...at least $700.

Sometimes, I wish eBay didn't have so many idiots running around using it -- keeps me from getting any good deals. Just lost a $2000 '89 5 speed 535 for that exact reason.

best, whit

[uscharalph]

That picture has me thinking about a fire extinguisher.