E39 Auto Gearbox Problems

[topgeartom]

Hi. I am new here, but thought i would ask for your help, as i expect there will be one or two experts arround.

I have a UK car (i am British myself) it is a 1997 535i with the auto steptronic transmisson. We have had it for roughly 3 years now, and in that time nothing has ever gone wrong, nothing. Unfortuenately that record was broken yesterday. I had driven the car about 40 miles (ironicly to go look at a Jag xkr i am looking to buy) and we were on the way back when we stopped at a mcdonalds - when parking i noticed a slight wining noise that hadnt been there before. When i came to reverse back out again, everything was fine, but the noise was stil there, it went into reverse fine and then D. The car pulled away as normal, but after roughly 200 meters, when going round a junction, the car started to loose forward motion, and then just gradually lost all forward drive. The engine runs fine, reverse gear is fine, but for some reason there is no forward gears at all - it just acts as if in neutral and makes the whining noise when revved. The AA mechanic sasy discovered that it was not the linkage between the shifter and the gearbox, because he could clearly see it moving when a gear was selected.

I am have no idea what it could be, or what to do with the car (i.e. take it to a BMW dealer or just try and get it fixed cheaper elsewhere - as it may be just a minor defect)

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Paul

[billB]

topgeartom

Do you have lights display on the shifter. Red P.R.N etc. when shifting do you get a display on both the dash and the shifter? any of these doen n't light up. I.e when in drive do you see the light of the letter D ? let me know

[topgeartom]

Yes, all the lights work correctly both by the gearlever and on the dash - when you it into steptronic, it also correctly displayes the gear you have selected but there just isnt any drive.

hope this helps