Drive train message… bmw. Can anyone please help as i don’t trust the dealership…

[Yeryuuu]

This error message has come up ‘drive train.’ We urgently need the car to take a family member somewhere necessary (and awful) next week and bmw have said it’s ok to keep driving as long as it’s ’moderately driven.’ DH says this is fine and we can take it in the following week but I am worried, surely this is dangerous?

Could be all kinds of stuff from a faulty sensor to a stretched timing chain. Is the warning amber or red? I’d speak to a local Indy or BMW specialist and see if they can fit you in to at least read the codes.

@Shade17 just spoken on the phone and they said it was totally fine to drive ‘moderately’!

If you don’t believe them or your husband, rent a car for the day next week

Can you call AA/RAC? If you're a member they can check the codes and advise if it's ok to keep driving

What Does Drivetrain Malfunction Mean In My BMW?

I think that the main issue is that the car could go into limp mode, which isn't great unless you are close to home.
I would drive a BMW a few miles with that error message to get somewhere safe but not set off on a new journey

They have no idea what’s wrong with it though. Could be fine, could be a symptom of something more serious which then does become a problem during your journey. If I had to bet money though, I’d say it’ll probably be fine if it’s amber. If you get a red warning stop immediately and shut the engine down ASAP.

Is the warning light red or amber? That will give you a clue

Is It Safe to Drive MY BMW with a Drivetrain Malfunction Message?
There are some messages that come up that don’t need to cause major alarm. Sadly, the Drivetrain Malfunction message isn’t one of them. You should always take the BMW drivetrain malfunction message seriously, to the stage of critical importance.

I found that online.

We had a similar warning message on our bmw, the dealership were spectacularly useless and offered an appointment over a month later. Do you have Bmw roadside assistance? I called bmw roadside assistance, it's part of our extended warranty and they ran some diagnostics remotely and then came out to look at the car. They said it was an occasional gearbox issue and were happy for us to continue driving it. We were told that if bmw roadside assistance had thought it needed to be looked at quicker, then our dealership would have had to book it in within 48 hours.

We had a similar issue a couple of years ago and the local service centre provided terrible (dangerous) customer service. It was an issue related to a BMW recall. BMW roadside assistance were more helpful but there was only so much they could do before having to refer us back to our local centre. Our BMW broke down on us (lost all power on main roads) three times. I would strongly advise not driving the car, it's not worth the risk. We ended up borrowing a relative's car for two months, getting the BMW fixed by a different garage and selling it.

It’s really scary when they go into limp mode - mine did it a few times when we had an intermittent drive train message. Once on a big roundabout 😱this was a few years ago so I can’t remember what the exact cause was …. I think it’s one of those catch all messages that doesn’t really tell you exactly what’s wrong until the bmw dealer plug in their computer to get the actual error code.

Take it to the dealer to get them to run diagnostics. I wouldn’t go on a long journey with an erroring car.