[chx437]

In the Finish BMW X forums there are several reports indicating problems when reversing X3/F25 in modest off-road conditions. The reports concern several new (2012?) cars with automatic transmission: even with all the DTC/DSC functions switched off the car does not want to back up in thicker snow or does not even want to rise up to a pavement when backing up, see the videos below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=UMU6g9GstTw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=FEFCUc2xXBQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Asys3vdaBJk

This is rather odd considering a four wheel drive car which should have at least some off-road capabilities. The reporter says the problem are known to the local BMW service personell and have been reported also to BMW but there are no any "results" so far.

Here a link to that Finnish forum (...mostly finnish):
http://www.bmwforum.fi/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=4848

[plymjack]

Had no problem reversing in snow when in Austria in January - when parked overnight there was a large fall and I have to reverse out of snow. Going to give the pavement reversing a go at the weekend and see what this is about?

[buze]

Interesting, visibly a bug somewhere. I tried to use google translate to understand the finish topic, but it's pretty bad :-)
I'll try with my manual box also if I get the occasion. As mentioned in the other topic I posted yesterday, the clutch/gas pedal are a bit finicky, even on the manual...

[liverman]

Does this happen with any engine or just the 2.0 diesel?

[mge92]

Had no problem with 28i and 35i

[rtm]

Originally Posted by liverman

Does this happen with any engine or just the 2.0 diesel?

Only with X3 X-drive 2.0 diesel and automatic gearbox.

X3 owners with X3 2.0 diesel manual and 2.0i petrol have reported that they do not have this problem. Drivers of 320 diesel X-drive automatic and 520 diesel automatic (same powertrain as X3 20dA) have also not found this behaviour.

[X3Baller]

That sucks. That's a major flaw (life threatening as well). Please keep us updated when more info becomes available.

Good luck.

[plymjack]

Well I have found a pavement to try this on and had no problem at all - reversed easy - made several passes at various angles and did not have a problem. Ours is the 2.0l Diesel Automatic. The pavement was about 140mm high.

[jeschiotz]

I posted this a while ago:

http://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=787165

And yes,I got the 20d automatic..
Next ; I need to investigate....

[HighPlainsCruiser]

I just had trouble in reverse while backing up a mild gravel slope. The car could not make progress in reverse. I tried dis-engaging traction control with no change. Going forward was not a problem. Was wondering what is happening with the 4WD while in reverse.

[HighPlainsCruiser]

After looking at the Finnish videos my problem was a bit different. The car moved backwards but the wheels seemed to turn weakly, some pieces of gravel were spit out from the wheels but the car made no progress uphill, as if the wheels were spinning in mud. When the hill was approached in Drive the car made it up with no wheel spinning.

[saulgoodman]

Originally Posted by HighPlainsCruiser

After looking at the Finnish videos my problem was a bit different. The car moved backwards but the wheels seemed to turn weakly, some pieces of gravel were spit out from the wheels but the car made no progress uphill, as if the wheels were spinning in mud. When the hill was approached in Drive the car made it up with no wheel spinning.

Was your rear parking sensors beeping continuously and your back-up cam was showing any obstacles in Red markings?

This is my personal experience, my car hesitated to reverse couple of times when there is a obstacle or curb close to the rear bumper, parking sensors was screaming and back-up cam was full of red squares. My rear wheels didn't even hit anything nor my bumper (there was enough clearance)...but felt like Auto-H engaged even though it was off.

[HighPlainsCruiser]

The parking sensors weren't beeping but one of the reasons I'm not 100% sure what was happening is that this occured in a parking lot where some care had to be taken as to direction of travel to avoid cars and other objects and the ground was rolling in addition to being uphill. So I'm wondering if being able to see more clearly in Drive and having to be more cautious in Reverse was a factor. It sure felt strange in Reverse though.

[buze]

As a side note, I noticed that on my manual transmission, reversing up a slope has a tendency to trigger a pretty nasty burning smell... rubber sort of smell. I have no idea if this is the same problem -- ie the sane root cause...?

[The X Men]

A few days ago, I had to reverse my X3 up a pretty steep driveway. I was surprise how much I had to push on the gas to get it going. The rpm was over 4000 and the engine was making quite a bit of noise. I am thinking this has to do with the gear ratio of the reverse gear being too high.

[HighPlainsCruiser]

To follow up on this I've done two reverse tests. The first backing up a very steep paved hill. Nothing out of the ordinary, RPMs stayed around 1K, no problems. I've also tried backing up a gravel road steeper than the parking lot where I had the problem, once again no problems, RPMs stayed at 1000-1100.
It's difficult to recreate the place where I had the problem, there was a gully which may have meant that either one wheel could have gone off the ground or perhaps the left rear and right front at the same time.
There was definitely a problem because no progress was made in reverse and it was necessary to turn around and proceed in Drive.
Still have yet to take it on a half way challenging off road trip, I'll try more tests when the opportunity occurs.

[rtm]

BMW examined and hesitated their decision in the finnish index case for three months. BMW factory now admits that the car in question has the "feature" as seen in the videos.

It's unclear, how widespread this feature is among the F25 X3 20dA:s. It will be changed in LCI but the cars already manufactured will not be fixed.

Renaming a defect or a bug a feature is all too common nowadays and definetly not premium class responsibility.

[dfcoelho]

So, everything is quiet but the problem remains.

Some weeks ago wasn't able to reverse through a very small amount of packed snow because of this...from a certain point on, the car seemed to give up on maintaining traction, the engine revved but it felt like someone switched of traction to the wheels.

Some months ago, during summer, the car was at the dealership to verify the situation and the answer was that it was known by the factory, and accepted as normal, but that it would be corrected on the LCI cars, as mentioned by rtm, via software update. Now, isn't it obvious that there should be a service bulletin for the updated software on older cars? At the time the dealership said that it wasn't expected.

[PX3]

What with winter coming, I just wondered whether anyone still has an issue with reversing?
I recall I tried to reverse up a curb once and failed too and I wouldn't have said it was a particularly a big curb either. I'm just not sure how well it will behave if I have to reverse up my drive with snow on it!
Maybe something I can mention to the garage when it goes in shortly for it's 3yr maintenance health check, as I'm interested to see what they say.