Q: BMW in Limp Mode

Your car has an electronically controlled transmission. If the controller sees a failure in any of the components, it will go into limp home mode to enable you to continue to drive the car but it will not work as it should. Likewise with the engine controller. If the engine controller sees any malfunctions such as overheating, it will light a warning light, store a trouble code and go into limp home mode. If you are using a generic scan tool, you may not be getting the whole story. The BMW capable tools have far more lines of data available and a trained technician can interpret the data and tell you what it means. If you contact Your Mechanic, they can send an experienced technician to your home or office with the appropriate equipment to read the codes in your BMW and tell you what they mean and what needs to be done.