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