2003 BMW M3 Transmission and drivetrain Problems

“Smg hydraulic pump: I was driving on the highway at 65 MPH in the #1 lane and my car all of a sudden dropped out of gear and my car started to coast losing speed very fast, I looked at my speedometer and it was 45 MPH. Cars were honking and high beaming me but I was helpless and was trying to move to the right with my hazard lights on. All of a sudden the car kicked back into gear, I was able to accelerate and exit the highway. I went to research the problem and found out it is a very common scary problem these cars have. There are thousands of complaints on this subject. …”

“While driving on a relatively hot day (92 degrees f), my vehicle's smg (sequential manual gearbox) malfunction indicator light turned on and I began having problems with the vehicle randomly dropping out of gear into neutral or 0 for 6-15 seconds at a time. When out of gear, there was a complete loss of power. On one instance of dropping out of gear, I was turning right at around 10-15 MPH when I found I could not accelerate and an oncoming vehicle almost ran into me. …”

“As you remember, we all spent about six months this past summer figuring out why our e46 M3 smg's were randomly throwing on the transmission check light and randomly cycling into neutral for around 6-15 seconds, displaying a constant 0 during an up or downshift in hot and/or humid weather. We determined after plenty of research and physically removing the smg's hydraulic control unit(hcu), and comparing hard-to-find blueprints of the unit what the malfunction was. …”

“1. I live in lancaster, ca and when the summer comes around it gets really hot really quick. My Bmw M3 2003 which happens to be an smg keeps having problems with the transmission. It causes my transmission to function improperly by shifting to neutral automatically. Today, on my way back from work I almost got into an accident when my transmission change automatically from 3rd gear into neutral almost causing the vehicle behind me to crash onto my vehicle. 2. The smg light keeps turning on. …”

“Bmw M3's with smg transmission 2002-2006. On hot days the transmission with pop out of gear and into neutral for about 15-30 seconds before reengaging into the appropriate gear. This just leaves the car helpless coasting down the street.this has happened every day for the past week and today this happened to me while making a left turn at a busy intersection and an oncoming vehicle had to brake n swerve to avoid t-boning me. This is an issue that us Bmw owners have been trying to get Bmw to acknowledge for years but they act like its not a problem. …”