First have you checked there is plenty of oil and does it smell burnt?

It might be worth changing the oil and filter if your unsure, as low oil pressure of old oil causes gear changing problems.

Don't let them tell you it's sealed for life. it's not.

Hi mrwhattie,

I've gotten exactly the same problem and i'm very curious if you found out what it was? I'm quite nervous as have just acquired the car and it is in otherwise perfect order. Please do let me know.

Neal

Hi everyone,

I am posting this as a newby and hope someone out there will be able to assist me with my problem. I recently aquired an imacculate 2003 E46 320D Auto BMW with 210k kms on the clock. Thanks to posts on this site I managed to sort out the faulty fuel pump relay which seems to plague many of these cars. My other problem is when the gearbox changes from 3rd to 4th gear there is a sort of rumbling / vibrating noise with a slight hesitation. I get the same noise occationaly when it changes into 5th gear, if i take my foot off the accelerator slightly it goes into gear without any further noise. I unfortunatley cleared all the fault codes at a nearby independant auto electrician, so I cannot give you any fault codes coming from the gearbox. Has anyone experienced a similar problem? Searching on the other forums, it seems as if it may be a faulty pressure solenoid?

Hi everyone,

I am posting this as a newby and hope someone out there will be able to assist me with my problem. I recently aquired an imacculate 2003 E46 320D Auto BMW with 210k kms on the clock. Thanks to posts on this site I managed to sort out the faulty fuel pump relay which seems to plague many of these cars. My other problem is when the gearbox changes from 3rd to 4th gear there is a sort of rumbling / vibrating noise with a slight hesitation. I get the same noise occationaly when it changes into 5th gear, if i take my foot off the accelerator slightly it goes into gear without any further noise. I unfortunatley cleared all the fault codes at a nearby independant auto electrician, so I cannot give you any fault codes coming from the gearbox. Has anyone experienced a similar problem? Searching on the other forums, it seems as if it may be a faulty pressure solenoid?

Hi, I have the same problem, anybody find out what it is & the solution?