F80 Puts itself in Neutral then Turns Off?

[SergioRamirez]

Hey everyone! A new (to me) F80 owner here. I have an automatic with DCT and my car has over 100k miles on it.

Several months ago, I noticed that my car (especially on a cold start) after about 5 minutes would start to have an intermittent rough idle. Like a little sputter every 5 seconds or so? And eventually on one of those sputters, the car would automatically put itself into Neutral and turn off.

This would happen regardless if I was stopped and idling in Park or even in Drive (at a light). Intermittent rough idling leads to Natural and turns off.

When this happens, the only way I can get going again is to turn the car back on from Neutral, throw it into Drive and try to give it enough gas to get it going. What I've had to resort to is that when I am at a stop light, I keep one foot on the brake and the other foot giving it some gas. As long as I am doing that, the car won't do it's Neutral into turning off thing.

I thought that maybe it could be the ignition coils and spark plugs so I changed those out. Once I did, this issue stopped for about a month and a half. But now it's back.

Any advice? 🙏🏼

[N1rve]

Originally Posted by SergioRamirez

Hey everyone! A new (to me) F80 owner here. I have an automatic with DCT and my car has over 100k miles on it.

Several months ago, I noticed that my car (especially on a cold start) after about 5 minutes would start to have an intermittent rough idle. Like a little sputter every 5 seconds or so? And eventually on one of those sputters, the car would automatically put itself into Neutral and turn off.

This would happen regardless if I was stopped and idling in Park or even in Drive (at a light). Intermittent rough idling leads to Natural and turns off.

When this happens, the only way I can get going again is to turn the car back on from Neutral, throw it into Drive and try to give it enough gas to get it going. What I've had to resort to is that when I am at a stop light, I keep one foot on the brake and the other foot giving it some gas. As long as I am doing that, the car won't do it's Neutral into turning off thing.

I thought that maybe it could be the ignition coils and spark plugs so I changed those out. Once I did, this issue stopped for about a month and a half. But now it's back.

Any advice? 🙏🏼

Sounds like a fuel issue. I would check/replace fuel injectors and measure the PSI from the fuel pump. It should be like 73 PSI or 5 Bars.

[Hadden14]

How recently were the spark plugs changed? Fuel is a good place to start, too.

[SergioRamirez]

Good thoughts! 🙏🏼

Spark plugs and ignition coils were changed about 1.5 months ago.

[Brandoch]

Pull codes using a scanner that can read BMW specific codes.