transmission problem or sensor problem?

[John Rodriguez]

I have a automatic 1997 528i and I live in Florida.

Recently the "All season traction" AST, light came on in the instrument cluster. When this happens the car does not want to shift past 2nd gear.
This means I can not get on the hiway, or go past 40mph. The RPMs are too high over 40 mph. It's not shifting to 3rd or 4th gear.

This happened once before and it want away within an hour and all was ok. The problem seems to be spuradic.

Is there some sort of sensor that is causing the AST to engage and not allow the car to shift to 3rd or 4th gear.?

Is this a transmission problem?

When the car shifts properly, it runs great.

Please help, this is all new to me.

thanks, John

[supercharged]

I guess you are talking about ASC, and not AST.

I think it is a common problem with ASC accelerator control cable. When you spin the wheels, ASC engages and the control cable just sticks in it's sleeve after that ASC stops working and the light comes on. However I do not know how it affects automatic transmission.

You'd better visit a BMW service to test it. If it is really an ASC accelerator control cable (not sure about proper name) - replacing would be cheap.

[John Rodriguez]

Thanks for the reply.

Your right it is the ASC.. Automatic Slip / traction control light in the middle of the dash board. When that light comes on, the car thinks its in a slip mode and will not shift to the 3rd - 4th gear.
The dealer read the faults and it said the sensor under the gas pedal is bad. Lets see if this is the problem. These dealer techs have no clue.
Another well repected BMW mechanic said it may be that the control unit is bad. read his article here:
http://www.continentalimports.com/ser_ic100076.html
I dont know... tommorow Im going limping (40mph) back to the dealer in orlando to replace the sensor under the pedal. Something tells me its more than that. This is the problem with all elec. control units that control transmission and engine.
I will keep you posted.
-john

[supercharged]

Here is the image with ASC control cable. Number #3. It is located somewhere on the engine air intake pipe, closer to the engine block. The part number is #35 41 1 163 018 and it should cost about 3 dollars.

Image

Hope somebody will help you there.

[publicbus]

I am a newbie here. Sorry to bring back this old thread. I just owned a e39 523iA year 2000. I have the ASC appearing on the instrument cluster + an "EML" too. Went to a mechanic whom PC can detect the problem but he suspect the ABS Control Unit malfunction. Unconvinced, I went to another mechanic and his PC able to detect it is the "EML" problem. He cleaned the code and my car was running fine after that. Less than 2 hours later, the "EML" light came on again. Another thing I would like to mention is that the "ABS" light does not come on when I switch my ignition to potision "2". Not sure whether this has anything to with the ABS control unit or EML. My 2nd mechanic said that these "ASC" and intemittent "ABS" light problem are due to the malfunction "EML".
Does anyone have this problem before?
Cheers

[stas91]

Hey John.. So did you figure out the problem>???
I thought it was fluids, i checked on my 97-528i and it wasnt it.. Changed the ECU transmission computer and still no luck, Changed the spark plugs, NOPE!!!
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU FIXED THE PROBLEM!!!