[Jackalripp]

I tried starting my car and it made a bunch of noises like back firing and died. I tried starting it several times before it would idle and then I tried backing out of my driveway and it died and on the screen it said Drivetrain Malf. Drive Moderately. Maximum drive-train output not available. Have the system checked by your service center. I finally managed to get the car to stay running and drive to the BMW place I go to here in Germany and they hooked it to a diagnostics machine. Two hours later the service tech came to me and said there was a problem that was serious. He said they thought it was a servo to the turbo and installed a new one but, it still didn't work. He went back and after another hour he came back and said that he called BMW to see about replacing the cars computer. They have had my car for 3 weeks and still haven't g received the replacement computer for my car. The excuse they gave me was BMW changed their computer system for the service and parts departments and they are having problems working it. It appears they are having problems with the computers in the cars also because there were 3 other people with the same car as I brought in having the same issue. We all have the 6-speed manual trans along with every option available on our cars. Whats really strange is they are all the same color exterior and interior as well. Any way they gave me a 316D to drive these past few weeks and when I called they said it could be another 2-3 weeks before it will be ready or they get the part. You would think they could jump on the autobahn and go get the parts they need in a day instead of letting me drive a loaner car for it looks like its going to be over a month. It really sucks and I only have 5012 miles on my car and fixing to put it up for winter here if I get it back. I just had to let everyone know how bad it sucks here in Germany when you have a car that you can drive as fast as you want but can't because BMW can't repair my car because of changes in their computer system country wide.

[richie_s]

jeez- must suck driving around in a 316D on the unlimited sections of the autobahn.

I had a very similar issue with my 335i xdrive m sport 6 speed manual. The car started shaking a bit while I was cruising at 40 mph and I had to stop. The same drivetrain malfunction notification popped up on my idrive and my car was shaking violently at idle. After shutting the car off and restarting it, it simply stalled and refused to start up again.
I called BMW S.O.S. and they were unable to help me due to my location. I ended up waiting for 3 hours for a tow truck to arrive in the cold on a dangerously narrow country road. I had to make sure to call the cops to set out flares and direct traffic because that's how narrow the road was. Great service, BMW!

Anyway, after I towed the car to my local BMW dealer here in Pennsylvania, they called back a day later and stated that the issue was simply a fuel indicator malfunction. The car actually ran out of fuel even though it was telling me that there was 1/4 of a tank left.
Keep in mind that this was a year old car with only 18,000 miles or so!
Everything's perfectly fine now, though. The car's running great.

I hope all goes well with your car. If you're lucky, it's probably just a fuel indicator malfunction.