[wazzuengineer]

Our 2012 X3 has less than 4k miles on it when driving home on the freeway from dinner with the family, the transmission slips and the engine revs up to 4500 rpm. Immediately, I get a "Transmission malfunction" alert that that I should drive moderately to the nearest BMW service center. Understanding that this was a bad place to pull over, we tried to make it to the next freeway exit when 3 minutes later the engine roars up to 5000 RPM again. I take my foot off the gas and slow to the shoulder while the engine revs wildly all the way up to 7000 RPM. I'm getting dual alerts of "Chassis destabilization" and "Drivetrain malfunction". Suddenly the car puts itself in park and locks the transmission. At this point, I smell transmission fluid and visibly see it leaking below the engine block.

After calling a cab to get the family home, the next surprise came when the tow truck couldn't even get the car on the flat bed, because the transmission is locked and wouldn't even release into neutral (this model has the all-electronic transmission). BMW roadside service says to use a dolly to lift all 4 wheels onto the flatbed. Because one wasn't available so the tow truck guy decides to grease the wheels with dish soap to slide it on to the bed. Amazingly, this works quite well.

A few days pass and the service center discovers that the transmission line popped off because of a failed seal and everything else checks out. The crazy engine revving was the computer trying to compensate for the low transmission fluid pressure. The service manager also said he's never seen this happen on this model before and thinks it's a 1-off event.

Has anyone else seen this kind of thing before? Considering the car is so new, I can't help but worry about what other problems might be lurking.