LCI 8 spd Auto - how to put in neutral without engine running

[Chrispy]

Hi all,

With the recent occasional refusal for my car to start (loose connection from jump terminal to starter cable) and the almost 2nd need for Green Flag to come out again I found myself struggling to get the car into neutral so it could be moved and put on a flatbed.

Now all instructions on here suggest the use of a red hammer shaped tool in the boot and a mechanism beneath the left hand side cup holder to release the tranny.  Now I don't have this tool in the boot, and opening up the cover beneath the left side cup holder shows a gaping void underneath.  Nothing that looks like it needs a key, nothing that looks like the missing red tool would work - just emptyness.....

Chances are I've never had that tool as there would be nothing for it to plug in to.

So instead I tried the whole "pushing the shifter into drive for 2 seconds, then back for 2 seconds thing" too but the car refused to go into neutral.

So the question is, on the later cars, how is this done?  Please tell me it's not a case of getting under the car with tools.......

[Horizon]

http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/index.php/t ... #msg110021

[Chrispy]

Ah now this is the thing.  My car had power but wouldn't turn over due to the bad connection to the starter.  As such there wasn't a specific point where the starter would have been working, therefore a time when I can move the selector into N and wait. 

It sounds highly possible that the screw under the car is the thing that would have been needed......

I need to play around with this some more me thinks.  Good to hear BMW were doing clever things like deprecating useful things like mechanisms to put the car into neutral meaning the car needs to be dollied onto a flatbed.  Idiots.