The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has stepped up its scrutiny of BMW 7-Series models because of a rollaway problem. NHTSA said in documents just released that a rollaway occurs when the BMW transmission is in neutral, even though the driver thinks it is in park.
This alleged safety defect could result in the recall of more than 121,000 BMW 7-series cars. At least 14 accidents and five injuries have been reported over the operation of the push button start/stop “shift by wire” electronic system in BMWs.
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 BMW, the driver has the can manually shift the vehicle to park by pressing the “Park” button on the end of the electronic gearshift lever.
Instructions for engine shutoff provided in the owner’s manual state that pressing the Start/Stop button serves the dual function of switching off the engine and automatically shifting the transmission to park. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. The computer under several circumstances may shift the transmission to neutral even though the driver thinks it will automatically shift to park.
First, for the so-called Comfort Access System (CAS) on BMWs, 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 and are not described in the owners’ manual:
1. 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;
2. 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 is the biggest since Toyota Motor paid almost $50 million in fines because of its cover-up of safety issues that ultimately resulted in recalls of millions of Toyota and Lexus vehicles in 2009 and 2010 for unintended acceleration.
