Anyone at the Nordschleife this weekend 25-28th Aug?

[Pip1968]

Got here and forgot how busy it can be. There is a bloomin' concert until 0400 tonight and Saturday night. Not only that but there is a road closure on the 410 by Bettledorf (15 km from the track) and as usual the German diversion signs don't actually tell you that you are still en route the the Nurburgring they only give the next town.

Anyway car parks seem to be closed and only the Lindner was not booked.

Oh and forecast is rain Sat and Sunday.

Oh dear.

Pip

[Pip1968]

Well I thought that I would update this thread even though CSL Register looks to be evry quiet.

The rain came along with thunder and lightning on the Friday night and so the concert was washed out early. The next day the track did not open until 1030 due to the fog which I did not mind due to being knackered from the drive over and the working week. Hot sunny weather was seen on both Saturday and Sunday.

Over 150 cars were out on the Saturday so it was plenty busy and whacky races ensued. There were of course plenty of 'enthusiastic' offs which caused closures but I still managed seven laps. Sunday saw only 90 or so cars out and obviously a quiet afternoon as many were heading home.

There were plenty of e46 M3 there and one other Polish CSL. There was also a 'looky likey' CSL with front and rear parts and a CF airbox which had been fettled and repaired by Schirmer. Apparently the upper front offside suspension mount had cracked and needed repairing and reinforcing. I think he said he was running with Nitrons. I cannot say I have heard of any failures here.

Anyway he was from Mark's part of the world (more specifically Aberdeen although now residing in Edinburgh) and had stripped out the interior and had a full cage put in. He seemed to know what he was doing on track and was staying for DN18 (?).

My only downside to the trip was starting the car up on the Saturday morning. Once mobile the gear selector would not go down to 2 or 1 and remained in 3 . I drove down to Adeneur and decided I would disconnect the the battery in the hope of a 'system reset' and then remembered I would need to borrow a 10mm spanner as there is no tool kit in the CSL.

Well I left the car at the off licence by the petrol station and walked into town and on returning to the car and starting her the gears were changing as up and down as normal.

Has anyone else ever had this problem?? All I can think is that the heavy rain (she is normally garaged) and lightning may have effected the electrics.

Pip

[select]

Hi Pip, sounds like you had much fun on the Nordschleife thanks for your story i always enjoy reading them


About your SMG issue:
I think it probably was the gear position sensor getting confused for whatever reason.. so it didn't let you select any gears. I wouldn't worry about it much seeing how it "fixed" itself after a reset.

If you have the tools you can read your codes and see what faults are stored. But as long as it doesn't come back i wouldn't worry about it.

If it does, it could be the infamous salmon relais or the gear position sensor at fault. Salmon Relais is cheap and quickly changed but the sensor.. not so much..

Originally Posted by Pip1968

Has anyone else ever had this problem?? All I can think is that the heavy rain (she is normally garaged) and lightning may have effected the electrics.

I don't think that rain caused the issue, the fuse box in the engine is covered up and normally no water can get inside it, i think it was just a coincidence.

[Chad]

...this may help Compression spring can often be an issue. As text says weakening or broken spring , personally had this problem, locking pin can also be an issue, worn bearing on end of pin . I always keep a spare �� Cheers select managed to post a picture

[Pip1968]

Right, thank you for the heads up to you both. My initial reaction as I thought my weekend's fun was kaput were maybe it is time to sell.

I am just sorry that I did not take my second set of wheels with Cup tyres now especially as they are getting quite old now.

Pip

[select]

I think if the compression springs are at fault it would jump out of gears. at least thats what happened to me when mine were broken. But as i said, don't worry about it unless the issue creeps back.

Originally Posted by Pip1968

Right, thank you for the heads up to you both. My initial reaction as I thought my weekend's fun was kaput were maybe it is time to sell.

Nah, don't worry, actually most SMG issues are cheap to fix. Its just that BMW is too lazy/incompetent to diagnose it properly. So they often just end up replacing it completely.

If you somehow happen to end up in Bavaria you can drop by and i will get you your error codes read

[Chad]

Originally Posted by select

I think if the compression springs are at fault it would jump out of gears. at least thats what happened to me when mine were broken. But as i said, don't worry about it unless the issue creeps back.



Nah, don't worry, actually most SMG issues are cheap to fix. Its just that BMW is too lazy/incompetent to diagnose it properly. So they often just end up replacing it completely.

If you somehow happen to end up in Bavaria you can drop by and i will get you your error codes read

As select says hopefully nothing, busted spring tends to throw up cog light, but they can be hit and miss for a while when changing gear if spring breaks, until it throws a real wobbler
But not a big issue for anybody to do themselves now, always worth bearing in mind before blowing tons of cash on other repairs to smg system

[billyboysm3]

Originally Posted by Pip1968

Well I thought that I would update this thread even though CSL Register looks to be evry quiet.

The rain came along with thunder and lightning on the Friday night and so the concert was washed out early. The next day the track did not open until 1030 due to the fog which I did not mind due to being knackered from the drive over and the working week. Hot sunny weather was seen on both Saturday and Sunday.

Over 150 cars were out on the Saturday so it was plenty busy and whacky races ensued. There were of course plenty of 'enthusiastic' offs which caused closures but I still managed seven laps. Sunday saw only 90 or so cars out and obviously a quiet afternoon as many were heading home.

There were plenty of e46 M3 there and one other Polish CSL. There was also a 'looky likey' CSL with front and rear parts and a CF airbox which had been fettled and repaired by Schirmer. Apparently the upper front offside suspension mount had cracked and needed repairing and reinforcing. I think he said he was running with Nitrons. I cannot say I have heard of any failures here.

Anyway he was from Mark's part of the world (more specifically Aberdeen although now residing in Edinburgh) and had stripped out the interior and had a full cage put in. He seemed to know what he was doing on track and was staying for DN18 (?).

My only downside to the trip was starting the car up on the Saturday morning. Once mobile the gear selector would not go down to 2 or 1 and remained in 3 . I drove down to Adeneur and decided I would disconnect the the battery in the hope of a 'system reset' and then remembered I would need to borrow a 10mm spanner as there is no tool kit in the CSL.

Well I left the car at the off licence by the petrol station and walked into town and on returning to the car and starting her the gears were changing as up and down as normal.

Has anyone else ever had this problem?? All I can think is that the heavy rain (she is normally garaged) and lightning may have effected the electrics.

Pip

Thats StevenEk9's he is a member on here, very nice car that is.

[MKoop]

I was there the Sat/Sun too.

It was very busy on the Saturday with a few crashes. One bad e46 m3 crash at the foxhole.

We rented two Meganes.

[Chad]

Fookin ell, less traffic on m6 on a Friday