reverse lock

[streetculture]

hi, just wanted to check, a buddy of mine explained a problem i had this morning with my 323 steptronic, well not problem more of a concern...
the reverse gear out of park was abit harder than usual and he reckons that his e90 320 steptronic box done that a few times due to the car locking the box or something almost like an automatic handbrake system

its when you in park and the handbrake is not on the, the car rolls slightly to the back and locks, hence the reverse gear going so hard in.
He explained exactly what happend to me an kinda makes sense, just wanted to check if this is accurate or basically the case.

 

[msm]

Don't have a full technical explanation, but a summarized high level version:

If you're in park, it is always good idea to use your handbrake. Basically putting the vehicle in park engages a "small pin" that prevents the car from rolling. However, this can get damaged if there is too much weight on it (for example on an incline). The reason it gets hard to take the car out of park, is that all the weight is on this pin which needs to disengage (i.e. when the car rolls without the hand brake on).

Hence, make sure you use your handbrake, especially on an incline, else you risk doing some damage.

I'm sure someone here can provide a better technical explanation than me.

 

[streetculture]

nope that is perfect, did a test now with handbrakes up and with it down and got the different results.
only have the car for 2 weeks now and didnt know this.


thanks

 

[pain68]

yeps yeps exactly that, on my brothers 320d I experienced the same thing, took me quite sometime to figure it out though :fencelook: lol what I do is put in neutral, then pull the handbrake, then if the car is stationary I put into park.

 

[Christ29]

Mine does the exact same..at first i krapped myself especially with the noise it makes and bump you feel when moving from park to reverse and on other occasions its absolutely seamless. Mine only does it on inclines though, hence the stress on the gearbox.

 

[gconry18]

I figured this out this year as well. Let the handbrake lock the wheels before putting the box into park makes a massive difference.

 

[pain68]

gconry18 that def does help, however quite recently I realized though when I put into reverse, the car takes a couple seconds to actually reverse, and sometimes I have to give throttle to reverse, is this normal?

 

[gconry18]

gconry18 that def does help, however quite recently I realized though when I put into reverse, the car takes a couple seconds to actually reverse, and sometimes I have to give throttle to reverse, is this normal?

Depends on if your gearbox is in good nic or not. It takes about a second before it goes into gear but more than that you should maybe have the gearbox serviced. Fluids, Seals, Filters. Low ATF can do funny things to your gearbox.

 

[pain68]

thanks :ty: