Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

An E60 M5 and the Red Cog of Death

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • An E60 M5 and the Red Cog of Death

    When you have the Red Cog of Death in your SMG-equipped BMW, you need to get your car to a service facility ASAP ... if you can even get the car to drive, that is. For one customer, the Red Cog of Death struck at a bad time, but with our magic touch, he's back on the road in fighting form.





    DSC_3977


    Recently, a customer sent us an e-mail detailing a new issue with his SMG-equipped E60 M5. While driving in first gear, the Red Cog of Death appeared, but it went away after he shifted. Two stop signs later, the car stalled out, and it could not be restarted. The gear position on the dashboard showed Neutral, but nothing could get the car started. This was after a random check engine light appeared earlier in the week, but it went away on its own.





    DSC_3979


    Once he had the car towed to us, we put the M5 up on the rack to see if we could locate the cause of this issue. Sure enough, after we got a peek at the underside, we noticed what was wrong. The wires you see above are all frayed, and that's not a good thing at all; those are the wires for the gear-position sensor, so the car didn't actually know what gear it was in. Hence the inability to restart. Unfortunately, when these wires fray, you can't just replace the wires; instead, you need to replace the entire pump.





    DSC_3981


    DSC_3984


    Thankfully, the customer had already intended to replace the entire SMG pump assembly, in order to reinforce the SMG against any sort of future problems. He was also intent on replacing other pieces of the SMG, so that he had a perfectly-functioning transmission that acted and felt brand new. So, along with the SMG pump, we replaced the clutch, flywheel, PLCD sensor, throwout bearing, SMG fluid, and other components.





    DSC_3999


    DSC_4000


    DSC_4003


    DSC_4005


    As we've said in the past, it's best to get multiple jobs done at once if they are all centered around a specific region of the vehicle. That way, you save money on labor, because the transmission will only need to be dropped once (rather than twice or thrice, depending on how long you put off the forthcoming repair work). Plus, there's no feeling quite as nice as having a whole slew of components replaced at once. The car feels like it's brand new again.





    DSC_4006


    As always, if you're having any problems with your car, Fluid MotorUnion is equipped to diagnose and repair the problem. Give us a call at 815-230-2900 and let's see what we can do for you!




    www.fluidmotorunion.com
    www.stanceworks.com



    Originally posted by Oxer
    I'm pretty sure I will molest any exhaust systems you leave lying around
Working...
X