Car not shifting

[Lawrencec412]

I have a 1998 BMW 528i. A little back ground first. this is my 1st BMW, i have owned, or my wilfe owns, so if i ask a question that seems silly please bear with me. The car was some what of a basket case when I bought it 2 months ago. It was well below blue book so i knew going in there where problems. The prior owner favorite tool was duct tape, and losing parts. I have worked though almost all the problems and codes except one P1761 shift selonoid. I know leave the tranny work to the pros, and I'm fine with that except, with the amount of work to put this car back in working order, leds me to think I need to check some other things first. The car will shift smooth when you manualy shift, all though the gears. This car is an Automatic Transmission. I really get the feeling something else thats wrong, not the transmission

Is there a relay I can check? yes the box under the hood was open, wet and taken apart.

i heard ther was a way to reset the computer by holding the gas pedle down for 30 seconds.

I also read on this site that the round OBD connection under the hood could short out with the cap and cause problems. Brings me to my 1st unusual question is the OBD connection suposed to have an oil like substance in it?

I want anything that any one has an idea about.

A little bit about my skills I built street rods in the 70s and raced them, of course things have changed.

[ajay41]

firstly the round obd connection should not have any substance in it, there is obviously an issue with seepage from somewhere, it should be dry. i have an auto with the manual paddle up and down sport mode, its called a steptronic gear box, its in the se tourers, if its fine in manual, then the auto needs a diagnostic, as the asc, dsc fails then the auto box wont do auto. u may have a difficult time with this unless you have the software, and if u have crap in the obd theres a possibility u may not be able to connect to the ecu unit, the 30 second re set holding the gas pedal in key stage 2 is a phallesy, the only way i have heared to re set is disconnect the battery for 10 mins and re boot, but ive never tried it, and unless u have the way to re boot the system afterwards in case of a cock up i wouldnt do it myself. it sounds to me like u have quite a project, i hope u see it through, i love my bmw, and its 14 yrs old but feels like new, but there comes a stage when u look at these things in a financial sense and think "pig in poke?"