Sport/Economy mode

[SC David]

My manual tells me that my car comes with both. However, when my car is in D4, there is no "E" next to it on the dash display. Same goes for D3, theres no "S 3" like there was on another '92 525i I drove a few weeks ago. The way the car shifts in D3 doesn't seem to be all that different from D4. There may be a slight difference, but with an automatic stomping the pedal feels all the same to me.

The second question I have is how does the tiptronic (I don't know the real term for it on E34's) transmission work? I'm just confused because it just appears to be nothing more than a button w/ a + and - on it which doesn't seem very practical, so I know there's gotta be more to it.

[Dick Schneiders]

your 1989 525i, it has a totally different transmission than do the 1991 to 1995 525i's. The M50 engines use a GM tranny and the M20 engines use a ZF tranny.


My manual tells me that my car comes with both. However, when my car is in D4, there is no "E" next to it on the dash display. Same goes for D3, theres no "S 3" like there was on another '92 525i I drove a few weeks ago. The way the car shifts in D3 doesn't seem to be all that different from D4. There may be a slight difference, but with an automatic stomping the pedal feels all the same to me.

The second question I have is how does the tiptronic (I don't know the real term for it on E34's) transmission work? I'm just confused because it just appears to be nothing more than a button w/ a + and - on it which doesn't seem very practical, so I know there's gotta be more to it.

[SC David]

your 1989 525i, it has a totally different transmission than do the 1991 to 1995 525i's. The M50 engines use a GM tranny and the M20 engines use a ZF tranny.
Sorry about that, I thought you'd look up at my screen name area, but I drive an M20 '89 525i. I understand that they use different transmissions, but still think it's a little odd that my manual tells me that my car has a sport mode when nothing indicates so.

[Raz]

Not sure if this is any help - but my 1995 E34 uses 5 gears in E and only 4 gears in S. Sports is a much smoother ride in my opinion as it prevents a lot of gearshifting and stays in the gears longer when accelerating, resulting in a quicker response to the pedal.