Driving at 50 mph I was being harassed by another motorist because I was driving the speed limit. I decided to let him pass but first I had to speed up to 58 mph inorder to completely overtake a passenger car to my right (passenger side) I gave the throttle some gas and the car went nowhere. The needle went all the way into the red zone on the tachometer. The driver behind me (another BMW 3 series),tailgated me. It scared me so bad, that I did not see a deep pot hole in the road surface. I hit it so hard, that I spun around and all of my wheels were damaged. I had all four wheels repaired and tires at a cost of $2000.the day before, I noticed the service engine soon light was on. Of course, I want this checked out.so I scanned the car. It was displaying 000030 BMW/ or for/ P code P0741 " torque converter clutch valve stuck off.so I went to a BMW dealer. Explained everything. They show me the codes pulled from the car. The code for the tc clutch valve not working was shown.(their equivalent to P0741) they tell me it is the disa valve."??? is BMW trying to cover this up?.disa has zero to do with the torque converter. I see how many have failed and BMW does nothing? I could have been killed. The car did not respond with my request in a manner that affected my well being. If this problem is involved with many, many claims because of a part that is proven to be deficient as it sounds, I am sure if investigated you will find some injuries and/or damages and deaths have occurred and when the dealer sees a bad one, they try to bill it out as something else. I can not be the only one. And why did the BMW dealer try to rip me off? I like my car but the letters BMW put a bad taste in my mouth. Right down to the jerk who tried to run me off of the road. BMW= ? anyone else? anyone who was told something else was bad when it is a bad seal inside the torque converter"

- West Babylon, NY, USA

On May 28th 2012 on the highway, the BMW threw a service engine soon light. Using a scanner, a code P0741 was thrown. When I searched on google, I found it was very common for the E39 BMW 530ia cars housing zf manufactured transmissions to have the torque converter turbine shaft seal deteriorated causing the fault. It is unreasonable to have BMW to replace the transmission at a cost of over $4000 for a seal that is no more than $25. Therefore it should be a goodwill replacement due to the manufacture of a faulty transmission with a known part failure in the first place.

- Carbondale, IL, USA

At 78,600 miles the check light illuminated. Diagnosis was P0741 (BMW code 48) which is a fault with the torque converter clutch (tcc). This failure until corrected results in lower fuel mileage, and a guaranteed failure to pass the emissions test during state mandated vehicle inspections. Add to this that continued use of the vehicle will likely result in transmission damage since the tcc lockup clutch is slipping resulting in debris building up in the fluid. This fault is due to a defective torque converter clutch seal that BMW has a hidden service bulletin on. See si 24 03 06 dated February 2008. Replacement of the torque converter is expensive. BMW dealer quoted a bit more than $3000 for the replacement. I've since determined through a BMW forum that this issue is widespread with a large number of failures taking place. I was told by the dealer that the seal in question has not been updated and that failure of the seal will likely take place again in the future.

- Cupertino, CA, USA

At 104,700 miles the service engine soon light illuminated. Diagnosis was P0741 (BMW code 48) which is a fault with the torque converter clutch (tcc). This failure, until corrected, results in lower fuel mileage and a guaranteed failure to pass an emissions test during state mandated vehicle inspections. Continued use of the vehicle will likely result in transmission damage since the tcc lockup clutch is slipping, resulting in debris building up in the fluid. This fault is due to a defective torque converter clutch seal that BMW has a hidden service bulletin on. See si 24 03 06 dated February 2008. Numerous postings on BMW forums indicate that this issue is widespread with a large number of failures taking place. There is no documented evidence that the seal in question has been updated, meaning failure of the seal will likely happen again during the (expected) life of the car.

- Thompson's Station, TN, USA