This car drives me insane. A bird will shit on it and it stops working.

OMG ROD….. my lil 2015 328i kept hesitating to start lately so therefore I came to KZfaq University , clicked on your video and gwala….. I checked my gas cap, it was not tightened, I tightened it, tried to crank it again and it turned over like nothing was ever an issue 🙏🏾 thanks so much because I had began going through my head trying to figure out who to call for help. I feel so accomplished now 😂……..also great tip on being selective on gas stations.

I like this guy, he reminds me of a friend not like a KZfaq tutorial.

Best kind of youtube videos... Thanks a ton Rod!

Appreciate the reassurance man I just got a 535i and I got the drivetrain malfunction and got freaked out 😂

Thanks for sharing this information, I had this problem a week ago

Great video!! Made me feel at ease about my constant drivetrain issues on my 328i

My Dad always said don't put cheap fuel in the car!!! My car has had the light on for a few days now but still driving fine as far as I can tell. Although a friend did comment that it is over "revving" ??. I'm going to take out my USB cord and fill up with some quality stuff from BP! Will also get the car scanned to get to the bottom of the error message. Thanks for the video, will be following your advice 🙂

Thank you Rod for doing this video!

Thanks for this! I take care of my 2011 BMW Alpina B7 so well. Actually, all my vehicles are well taken care of. This does help. I wasn't driving my BMW much during COVID and my battery started to get low and kept saying please charge, etc. Ever since those battery charge notifications, I started getting the Drive train and chassis error messages.

Had this code on my 2012 750li not too long ago. While driving, my car started trembling badly. Got home and my scan tool said it was a cylinder 4 misfire. Turned out, it was a spark plug that completely failed. I replaced it, cleared the codes...problem solved. So yes, that message could mean a number of things. A good scan tool is a life saver. I use the Foxwell NT510 Elite with the downloaded BMW/MINI/Rolls Royce software.

Thanks Rod . I just had that pop up on my 528xi - I removed my charger per your advice

There is actually more than one malfunction, so if it’s your fuel pump or ekps module, you’ll get a fuel system malfunction. If you take it to bmw they will keep recommending to keep changing parts until it’s fixed or they might say “bring it back when the check engine light is on”

I had an M6, had numerous probs and issues even though I used 97 octane fuel from the start, had trunk leaks, limp mode several times and these only cured on the day by switching off and leaving for a few moments NOT good when actually on the road. I eventually parted with the car and was so bitterly disappointed in it as loved it. This was after new electric units fitted at mega bucks and a broken front suspension, finally had enough. I have just been offered a 650 V8 6 series and turned it down, far too many bad memories.

I appreciate your video I just purchased a BMW 2017 Gt love it.

Thank you everyone for your comments. This is crazy that thousands of BMW lovers are having Drive Chain... wait... I meant to say Drive Train ... malfunctions! crazy, Crazy !!

You know, I have heard this about getting gas at name brand stations before. I was at a local Non-Brand station a bit back and saw a Shell truck pull in and offload a load of gas. Another time I saw a Chevron truck come in a offload fuel in the same stations tanks. Regardless of what some say, these non-brand stations don't make the gas in their back yard. If I could burn water I would.

Sometimes it will throw a drive train error on cold days. If you get onto a long hillclimb with the engine not fully warmed up it will feel like it doesn't know what gear to change into and throw the drive train/transmission fault error. This is because the torque converter only locks up at a certain coolant temperature.

Just picked up a 2013 650 I xdrive .. love it !

Thank you for this video. It gives me so much peace of mind to know that message is not unique to my 2010 750 Li x. Now my evap leak detection pump OBD2 code went off (P1449), which is surprisingly cheap and easy for DiY. I bet that has a lot to do with the drive Chain malfunctions messages. I don't get them too often, about once every 1 - 3 months. Repairing this car is painful, but it IS 100% worth it. I 🥰 My Bimmer.

This guy rocks!!! Thank you so much. Love/hate relationship with beamers. Got rid of my X5 on carvana and got a 535 loaded. Got the drivetrain issue literally 300 miles after limited warranty expired. Was told it needed a valvetronic swap for $4000. My wife hasn't talked to me in two weeks saying I should i have got a new Hyundai. Fuck that. I love bmw's. They rule over most cars i have driven. I borrowed a friends new Tesla Y while my 535 is in the shop. It was shaking at 100 mph. IN my 535 when I am at 100 mph it feels like i am going 30-40. Probably due to weight distribution. Point is - there are faster cars out there. There are cars that don't have any problems. But are they fun to drive? For me I will drive nothing else until I can afford a Ferrari, lambo, Mclaren, etc. which is probably not going to happen. 6 year old beamers seem to be the sweet spot as far as price and value are concerned. Yes I wish I didn't have a drivetrain issue after owning this car for 3 months. But I still love it more than anything I could have possible got for $25k. LOVE/HATE relationship. Hopefully BMW will eventually pay for these stupid drivetrain issues. I am glad they are protecting the engine but diagnosing the issue blows. Live well, laugh often, love much.

I just got the same issue today on my 750i… THANK YOU!

Thank you! This was helpful!

Thank you!! In my case it was the fuel tank cap! My BMW 225xe also said "Regenerative braking not available". -And all the trouble because the fuel tank cap was not completely closed.

Rod You rock!

IF THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT IS OFF, DON NOT WORRY.. ITS A SIMPLE THING.. BMW WILL FIND ANYWAY TO TAKE YOUR MONEY..

Rods Garage ai love It We Love you Rod thanks for the Reviews

About to buy same one. Has the malfunction code. Thanks for the video I feel better they told me new plugs and wires would fix it . They told me they'd get it off .

Thank you shared it my bmw has same problem dealership doesn’t figure out what’s problem

Thank you Rod

I just started experiencing this as well, so now comes the fun part - loading the parts cannon until the problem goes away, lol! BTW, BMW motorcycles are Beemers. BMW cars are Bimmers. Kinda like Porsche is a two syllable word. I know, call me a purist, lol! :)

I have a 2012 550i, I recently returned from a three day trip to the airport where I parked my car. When I started it, a drive train malfunction warning came up, parking break malfunction, ABS malfunction. Engine sound fine but the power steering was all but gone and the speedometer would not work. I replaced the battery and some of the functions came back but not all. Speedometer stayed off and the parking brake malfunction warming was still active. Luckily for me my mechanic found that the passenger rear door handle active comfort where you walk up with your key fob and it know your there was not working. He traced the wiring diagram and knew he needed to replace the door handle and everything worked and came back on line. This car is way more complicated than it needs to be, but when its running right, no other car beats it.

Most of the BPs and high end gas stations don’t even get gas from that company. They just use the chain name! So it’s kind of tough.

Very informative

The IBS Cable could be getting wet. Just check it out.

Thanks all for keeping the comments coming. This is an issue that is hard to explain, hard to detect, and harder to solve. Random is the key word here. Keep pluging folks! Comments on your finding or experiences will help others!

Thank you for the information well appreciated

🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷👏🏻👏🏻, Awesome video, it’s so true, it can be basically any thing, One time I had it in my car, and the problem was the hight pressure fuel pump gosh knows why !

why do you keep saying driveCHAIN? it's a driveTRAIN malfunction warning

Thank ks for the vid..I had the same problem with my 6 series. And yes the 6series is one the BMWs most beautiful cars

Ever go into limp mode after the DT malfunction. The car has reduced power and doesnt drive smooth. Turn the car on and off and it drives fine but the check engine light remains showing misfires. It seems to be coming back to a bad alternator.

Thanks makes me feel a lil bit better about the malfunction!!

Thanks, that’s a long intro before we get to the issues. Any word on drivetrain malfunction on shutdown?

Very true! My battery was very weak and needed changing and i got DriveTrain Malfunction show up on my idrive..Changed my battery and the message never came up since. Been 8 months since then

11/14/22 just got my bmw435i X out of the shop, and sure enough I get on the highway and once I get to passing cars the drivetrain light came on again! I called bmw here in Midland,Tx obviously upset because I just paid 1300 for a new battery and a update for the battery. Well the light is off and it’s not turning back on. So idk if it just needed to break in or what! I wish I would have watched this video before hand, instead of just giving my $$ to BMW just for them to keep on changing things out!!! I still love my bimmer though!!!

true beast! love ya!

It was MY gas CAP NOT TIGHT AND THE ERROR when I turned it off and back on it WENT Away lol this GUY IS awesome!!!! #BMW328i

seems everyone is having this Drive Train Malfunction Problem Keeping the batter fully charged - lock your doors, even in your garage, and do not have your phone charger plugged in, unless you are in the car and using it. as well as adding a trickle charger to use once in a while. Part 2: buy the best gasoline you can find. Shell, Chevron etc. Be Safe all! Go Beemer ! Go

Rod its drivetrain!!! Your killing me smalls 🤦‍♂️😂

I have a 2015 BMW M6 and I just switched my spark plugs a few months ago! I was able to do some pulls and it ran like a champ and then I did it again a week later and it came back! I’m going to try fuel pump next hopefully it fixes the issue 🤞🏾 I love the car but there’s no point in owning it if you can’t go fast when you need to 🤦🏾‍♂️

I had this problem and it was all a matter of the camshaft wasn’t properly plugged in & needed to be replugged in

I have a bmw series 3 hybrid 3.0l turbo shows that too and after starting engine a few sec later he losses power and start running ruff

This happened to my m135i on a 15 plate yesterday left it for 5mins and running fine now.... going to start putting v power in.... a lot of help thanks

Thanks ROD !!!

I like this guy

2016 BMW 528i xdrive has happened to me a few times. It is usually bad gas. I go and buy octane booster for $5 and a techron fuel system cleaner for $10. Put it in and put 93 octane in from Shell. Drive the car around in limp mode for 10 miles and then it fixes itself. Super annoying and dont buy cheap gas or high octane gas in cheap areas that have the premium sitting for a long time due to only selling 87 octane.

On Sunday, I was driving in an area on Sunday over an hour or so away from my home. My tank was near empty when I found a gas station outside a 7-11 type store. I didn’t pay any attention to the brand of gas since beggars can’t be choosers. The car ran fine all the way home. I used the car for about 15 minutes on Monday and Wednesday. No problems. On Thursday, I took it to get a regular service. After about 40 minutes on my drive back home, the drivetrain malfunction warning appeared. I took it back to the mechanic on Friday. He checked the codes and found five errors related to the fuel system. He assumed it was the fuel pump but told me to check with BMW because he could see the pump was subject to recall. BMW said they had already replaced the pump when I was there for something else 4 years earlier. They didn’t think it was the pump but told me a diagnostic is $200. Plus, they’re backed up so they’d have to keep the car 3 days and they’re out of loaners. My mechanic said that since it’s hard to pinpoint an issue when the car runs fine, it might be better to wait and see what happens. He cleared the codes and said maybe it won’t come back. When I got just about the same distance from my house as the day before (40 minutes) the warning reappeared. Friday night, I remembered your fuel comment and thought, since my tank is half empty, I’ll fill the other half with gas that I know is good. The station is only 10 minutes away. The warning came back as soon as I restarted the car. The car sat all night and this morning, after about a 10 minute drive, the warning disappeared. The only difference was the fuel. I posted this to say thank you for your video and as a advisory to anybody else who thinks fuel can’t possibly trigger this warning.

I’m bracing for my mechanics inspection on my 2014 X3. I can start in Comfort Mode and it will automatically change to eco pro mode without changing it. I change it back and it goes back to eco pro at the next stop. When it started I thought engine shut down at a red light.

Just had this problem now, car lost power. Pulled over and turned it off for 5mins. Running fine.

Im having same drivetrain problem in my 116d f20 after remap when i floor it(but not all the time) but yeah same my charge is connected in usb place, i eill try without it and we will see maybe it will work or maybe will be something more

I own a 17 f12 and the other day I started the car and it had a rough idle on start and went away. Then this malfunction lite came on. Now my car is do for the 60k service which I hear is sparkplugs. So I ordered Bosch type plugs and coils. Plus after watching your video I noticed something that I've been doing. My car has two radar detectors in it. One for scrambling the other for detection. So I'll start unplugging them at night. I'm leaving the car alone till I change plugs. And then see.

I took to advanced auto parts and had them run a diagnostic test and showed a couple of my cylinders miss firing and an o2 sensor malfunction could this be a tune up issue or something else it also had a tcm issue

my g05 45e same problem, they diagnosed that starter not working properly.

I've filled my 2013 328i xdrive baby with 93 BP gas its entire life span so far. I did need an emergency refuel and used speedway 91 octane. After driving perfect for a week, I received a drivetrain malfunction, car had a rough idle coming off a highway, I pulled over to a gas station and let it rest a few minutes. Restarted and when I drove, it felt as if the car was operating at 50% power output, check engine light came on and all. Car doesnt stall or limp so far and actually performs great at constant 50-60 MPH. Had my routine oil change and my guy said no code errors came up even with the CE light and Drivetrain Malfunction, he thinks it could be a coolant expansion tank issue, going to monitor the issue further, start and stop traffic is my enemy but clear parkways are great still, such a confusing car sometimes

Just happened to me after driving over 4 potholes. Turned the car off & turned it right back on & it was fine

A train carry links so you got to check out the bad links in the train

BMW has extended warranty for the leak diagnostic module, high pressure fuel pump, and injectors up to 10 years and 120,000 miles. You can replace these for free at your dealership. Most likely the HPFP can causes over boost and charging off issues. Very common N63TU issue.

He said "drive chain" Soo many times , I had to call BMW to verify if it's different from drivetrain 😆😆😆😆😆

I’ve been getting this message on my 2017 m2 scares me every time luckily my car is still alive

That’s good to know, I literally unplugged the boot/trunk battery and got the drivetrain error thinking something serious had happened

The ultimate fixing machine

Drive train fault is too vague. Bmw needs to find a better way to relay the problems that arises. I have a 2014 bimmer and i'm very disappoited in it because i've tried to illiminate all z faults that came up in z drive train and each time i thought z problem is solve here comes this drive train fault again and each time it's somthing different. It's very costly to get these repairs done and not gettin anywhere , don't think i'll ever purchase a next bmw. No thank u.

My 550i did it when I passed a car when accelerating. Then all of a sudden my car started shaking like it wanted to give out

Thank you. Quite helpful?

My beemer sat during Covid until 2023, and I put Shell Gas in last week and now Ive got this malfunction . Normally use chevron

I have 2015 328i SULEV with 72k miles and I had drivetrain malfunction 2 times. The car stalled and shaked and the transmission went to N while I was driving. I had to pullover and the car died after. Luckily I was able to start the car both times. Imagine experiencing this on freeway when driving 80 mph! I went to dealer today and they said I have to replace the low pressure fuel pump for $1000. I called independent BMW shops and the lowest quote I got is $520. I will go there tomorrow to replace it but the shop told me that they recommend replacing high pressure fuel pump as well. He says, if one of them fails the other fails right after. This is going to my last BMW. I always take care of my car. I always got gas from Shell or Chevron. Nowhere else and yet fuel pump fails at 70k miles. It's time to go with Japanese cars from now on.

Yes! Today I reluctantly took my '11 535i x drive to the dealer service dept and was told battery testing showed fault for under voltage for multiple modules which caused chk engine light on intermittently and finally a "drivetrain malfunction". Said all I needed was an $800 battery. Ugh

When mine came on for my 6 series , it was a weak battery

Hey Rod, Been getting the same thing on a 2016 328i with about 150k miles on it. The problem has been getting worse and only started after getting my spark plugs changed at BMW.... hummmm leads me to think they fucked something up. Will ask them about it on my next oil change. Weirdly enough I had it stall out on me today witch has not happened before how possible that the fuel pump does not have enough pressure to push whats left into the engine and thats why im getting this issues almost always happen at or below 1/4 of a tank.This leads me to think that its just some real shitty fuel thats gotten stuck in the tank. Will get some injector cleaner as well as some octane boost and see how it likes it. Also when im parked I can hear a clicking or pumping noise behind the rear seat. Any ideas... I have read somewhere it could be a fuel pump relay.

We are all in this together with Drivetrain Malfunction thank you all for almost 100,000 views and 1000 likes. come on BMW, this is 2022, you can zero in the issue and give the electronic feed back to exactly what the issue is and not call it #Drivetrainmalfunction #please

lmao i am getting that powertrain warning on my new electric iX drove it for a month only ........taking it to the dealership in sept...

More news on the BMW Lawsuit 2013 to 2019 Series 5, 6, 7 etc. N63TU1 engine good luck. #BMW

Love the "drive chain malfunction"....

This happened to my 2013 750li it was my spark plugs $2400 to replace. Car drives great now.

That drive chain.

My car started trembling right after I full it up my car at Costco and gave me this message.

I think it’s the battery with mine too

Gas station in USA and Europe sell totally different gas as far as quality I’m Europe they sell octane higher the 93 And quality is so much better

Thank you so much so honest and right to the .5 stars

Can't cut corners with BMW I love them & hate them.. very expensive to maintain, even when new

thank you

My DT message keeps coming on and off and my car is running rough. The rpm needle is floating up and down by itself when stopped or in park and it is struggling to drive.😢

Hey rod, when I got my 2012 535xi m sport years and years ago I had this problem and I noticed it first showed up after a fill up at Sunoco. Since then I’ve only been going to Exxon. Well as the cars we own get older we tend to think about them a bit less every month and I’ve been filling up at Sunoco again (I really like those guys that work there) and low and behold the issue popped back up. Thanks for the reminder, headed to Exxon now.

Thanks a lot, great video. My X3 is having this issue, but the drive terrain warning comes only when I come to a stop and the auto start/stops the car and starts again, after this the warning goes off. If I turn auto start off it does not come. Can’t understand what the issue is.

Now I'm at a point where it starts up sluggish

This is the Queens' English. For those of you that ask. Yes, it is no doubt, and everyone recognizes the Queen. The Queen of Alabama of course! Thanks everyone for the comments, glad this video has helped thousands of us, in the same "boat" or situation, or predicament... (depending on your country!) Cheers! Safe driving.... FAST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boy you drug this video out 😂

Bmw are nice. I will say I have had hyundia fastback I30N santa fe and tuscon and not on single problem at half the price. Starting to think why I'd I swop my santa fe for m4. Yes it a performance car but the cheap plastics hidden under the plate under car is shocking.

Don't want a disc Kroger's 🤣

My 2018 528i … just started shaking really bad down the street from my house then shut down I barely made it back up the street. The check engine light came on and I saw the drivetrain malfunction sign come up…. I have a tow truck picking it up in the morning