The BMW is not always in Park when a driver thinks it is.
BMW is recalling 2005-2008 7-Series vehicles because the electronic key and shift by wire system can put the transmission in Neutral rather than Park. The recall, which affects more than 45,000 BMWs, came after NHTSA ungraded a preliminary inquiry to an engineering analysis last August. At that time NHTSA said that at least 14 accidents and five injuries had been reported with the start/stop “shift by wire” system in BMWs. (NHTSA Upgrades BMW 7 Series Rollaway Investigation to Engineering Analysis. Recall Likely Next for Electronic Shifter)
The Start/Stop button also controls switching the ignition and the radio on or off. There is no mechanical linkage between the gearshift and automatic transmission. Instead, it is an electronic connection controlled by a computer program. When parking, the driver has the can manually shift the vehicle to park by pressing the “Park” button on the end of the electronic gearshift lever.
The BMW owner’s manual says that pressing the Start/Stop button serves the dual function of switching off the engine and automatically shifting the transmission to park. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The computer under some circumstances may shift the transmission to neutral even though the driver thinks it will automatically shift to park.
First, if the transmission is in neutral when the key fob is in the ignition slot and the Start/Stop button is pressed to shut-off the engine, the transmission will remain in neutral. This is referred to as the car wash mode and is an operating feature described in the owner’s manual.
However, two circumstances are not normal operating features of the so-called Comfort Access System and are not described in the owners’ manual:
- With the transmission in Drive or Reverse and the engine running, if the Start/Stop button is pushed 2 or 3 times within a 0.5 second interval, the engine will stop and the transmission will shift to Neutral;
- If the Park button on the gearshift lever is pressed at the same time that the gearshift lever is moved up or down to select Drive, Reverse or Neutral, the transmission will shift to neutral or remain in neutral.
NHTSA fined BMW $3 million earlier this year, after the German automaker failed to comply with requirements of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act that BMW report safety defects to the federal government in a timely manner.
The BMW penalty was the biggest since Toyota Motor paid almost $50 million in fines because of its cover-up of safety issues that ultimately resulted in the recalls of millions of Toyota and Lexus vehicles in 2009 and 2010 for unintended acceleration.
