C63 (2012) Gearbox dropped to neutral whilst driving and wouldn't engage gears

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jimmybell

New Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2016
Messages
9
Location
SW London
Car
C63, Z4 M Coupe
Hi Folks,

Driving home late last night in my (new to me) C63, when coming down to a roundabout (at normal speeds, not spirited at all) i double tapped the down paddle to drop down a gear or two, i think i was in 3rd or 4th at the time - the gearbox then seemed to (whilst showing D for drive and C gearbox mode) go into neutral, and disenaged any gears. Revving resulted in free engine revving out of gear (which is what gave away it was no longer in gear)

I then attempted to change gear (no change), and put it in neutral, then back to drive again and still it wouldn't go into gear. The gearbox symbol appropriately changed on the dash, but gears did not.

I pulled over using my momentum (thank god the beast has so much weight, the momentum took me far enough to pull over safely on a dual carriageway!), stopped the car and tried all the gearbox options with no luck. I turned the car off, took the key out, turned it back on again, and the car was fine - engaged drive and drove off no problems.

Any ideas? Somewhat disconcerting with a new car! I had an issue the other day with the transmission mode selector not lighting up (started a thread for this here) and having to restart the car for it to come back, i wonder if it's related?

The car is still under Merc warranty for the next month or two should i need to get them to investigate - being a techy myself, to me it felt like some sort of firmware/software bug or something.

Thanks! JB
 
Jimmy

Good on you getting it safely off the road.

I would think it may well have stored a code. You really need to get it put on STAR and have the codes read.

You could try checking the ATF level and quality just in case there is an issue with low or poor quality fluid. You will need an ebay dipstick to check this or a friendly Independent Garage. You can push some curtain line down the dipstick tube for now. This will at show that you have fluid (or not) and if it is red.
 
So the car was serviced just before i picked it up - the invoice i see has 'GEAR OIL' included, Qty 3 @ £29 total. Would that imply the ATF has been replaced?

The car has done ~27k miles, and servicied exactly on time each year since collection in 2012.

Annoyingly being bank hols today i can only really check documentation and scour the internet! I'll perhaps try MB Brooklands tomorrow.

Thanks!
 
Gearbox oil change is at 3 years old.
 

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