Locked into "park" mode while moving

A worrying event occurred as I was pulling out of a parking place at slow speed.

Car stopped with a thump & I then noticed drive selector was showing "P".

Has anyone else seen this? I would hate it to happen at higher speed.

Sounds pretty scary, especially if it were to happen at speed as you say. With the potential for both a serious accident and untold damage to the drivetrain I'd be surprised if anyone else on the forum has experienced it but not posted.

Did you for chance open a door? OR, did you get a warning that one of the doors wasn't closed? Did you have your seat belt on?

If you open the door without your seatbelt on, the car will try to go into park.

error

Worrying. Not a fault I've encountered, fortunately.

I did once inflict something similar on myself - pressed the parking brake button instead of eco button while driving along. It tried to slam the anchors on but, I think, was over-ridden by the fact I was accelerating.

Sounds like two different things are being discussed, I read the OP as referring to P(ark) mode on the 'transmission', as opposed to selecting the parking brake (to the rear of the drive mode selector). I think I've read somewhere that the latter does indeed operate as an emergency barke if used on the move.

Well, the parking brake will act as your emergency brake if you pull up on it and hold while moving. If you pull it up while stopped, and you have your seat belt on, the car will automatically release it for you...it will NOT if you don't have your seatbelt on, though.

As to the park function on the transmission, at least on mine, it works as I indicated - it will go into park if you open a door while your seat belt is not fastened. I think it is smart enough to not go into park while you're moving above a crawl, though. I haven't tried that.

It was definitely the transmission that locked into "P" mode.

I've used the car since & it seems OK.

It was raining - so I'm wondering if I could have knocked the selector when reaching for the wiper stalk, but it seems unlikely.

I'm reluctant to try and replicate it in case something breaks

I've heard of this for a couple people but it is rare and fortunately it can only happen if you are going very slowly, like under 4 mph or so. as others have said, it can also happen if you open the drivers door at those low speeds. Did you get any malfunction warning when that happened, that is what others have reported. Mind you, I communicate with hundreds of i3 owners and this is indeed rare but I have heard of similar experiences. If the car is going any faster, it cannot be placed into park and the software won't put it in park under any fault condition at faster speeds.

Thanks Tom - perhaps I'm not getting senile after all

At the time it happened,doors were closed, seat belt fastened and I was slowly exiting a covered parking space in a congested parking area with considerable left steering lock applied.

There was no fault indication and the car stopped with a sharp thud - my instantaneous thought was that I might have hit a nearby vehicle, until I noticed the transmission was showing "P".

Jeremy said:

Thanks Tom - perhaps I'm not getting senile after all

At the time it happened,doors were closed, seat belt fastened and I was slowly exiting a covered parking space in a congested parking area with considerable left steering lock applied.

There was no fault indication and the car stopped with a sharp thud - my instantaneous thought was that I might have hit a nearby vehicle, until I noticed the transmission was showing "P".

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Personally I wouldn't be concerned about it. Write down the date, time and conditions when it happened and if you see anything like this again, bring it to your dealer for them to look at it. Is does help them diagnose strange occurrences like this when you have all that information ready to provide to the service writer though.

I have had this issue, I tried to drive onto my drive but it just rocked aggressively and breaked as I tried to pull away. The car was not locked properly and I think I might have had the key fob undetected anyhow I doubt that this would happen at speed

FWIW, my two BMWs will not both reliably work if I have both fobs in the same pocket! And, I found out today that it doesn't like to work if I have my new smartphone in the same pocket, either. This is to get comfort access (and the start/stop button) to work reliably. If I only am carrying one fob, it's not an issue. Not sure about the phone as I've literally only had it a few days, and probably haven't gotten into all possible permutations.

Seems like buying a new BMW is a bit like getting married. There are many puzzling little secrets to be learned

Jeremy said:

Seems like buying a new BMW is a bit like getting married. There are many puzzling little secrets to be learned

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My mother drove her car for 5-years before I showed her she had a heated steering wheel...now, it is one of her favorite options on the car (at 87, she's not likely to read the manual)...to get the most out of any new car, you have to read the manual, usually more than once unless you have a photographic memory. The newer cars have so many computers in them that it doesn't really cost that much more in hardware, if anything, to add features...while software isn't free, you only have to do it one time...adding hardware costs every vehicle you build and sell, so if there's a software option to do it, that takes some precedence, and with the ability to share that software development across multiple platforms, the cost per vehicle comes way down.

BoMW said:

I have had this issue, I tried to drive onto my drive but it just rocked aggressively and breaked as I tried to pull away. The car was not locked properly and I think I might have had the key fob undetected anyhow I doubt that this would happen at speed

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All of the BMWs from mid-2000s on have had this safety feature where the vehicle will engage into park when you are trying to drive off with a drivers door open. I haven't experienced it from a passenger door or rear door.

Older than 2013 body styles wouldn't actually go into park, the gears try to and it makes a very unpleasant grinding noise as you try to roll forward.
Very glad the i3 doesn't do this as it sounds pretty nasty!