Here's a puzzle...

I start my '93 325i I6 automatic sometimes and it takes off in 2nd gear , climbs to a comfy 65 darn near 5K rpm in 3rd gear, no 4th. At first i thot it was the AC dragging the engine down but it did it with AC off as well. Remember this is intermittent in nature, not all the time.
I have discovered when it starts out like this I can pull over, kill the power, start it up again and varoom, off we go in 1st thru 4th no problem. Does this sound like an electric switch, sensor, or computer glitch maybe?
Other than this I love my beamer so much so that when a work associate put his same model up for sale I talked my son in law into getting it for my pregnant daughter. We can do some back yard bonding together like inlaws should, with my Bentley Publishing manual and the diy's i copy and print off this site and others. Good clean fun (besides the grease).
The American Dream!!

Well,
No takers eh?
I'll just renew this to give us one more chance to connect.

well, sometimes I wonder if there is anyone actually on these forums because I have trouble getting answers myself. While I have a good working knowledge of cars I am new to bmw. I will however take a stab at your problem. First if you have a book I would read the trouble shooting area to see if any resemble your problem. Second, your problem could unfortunately be mechanical or electrical. Meaning it could be a sensor/bad plug connection/ or the tranny computer or possibly some dirt in a valve body. If I was guessing and I am I would say it is electrical due to the fact that sometimes it corrects itself by restarting. I don't know if there is a way to check codes on the tranny computer but maybe you could bum a computer off someone to try or find some schematics to tell you how to check your sensors. I would start by making sure all your plugs on the tranny and the sensors are clean and connecting well.
Good luck

Thanx 87e,
you mirrored my feelings on the matter with the connections on tranny and 'puter. I'll try them first, then go to my family mechanical guru and see if he has bmw capabilities on his hand held diagnostic 'puter.
Thanks for the input.

I am also a fair mechanic and pretty good with dc electric circuits as well. Although, I'm also new to the BMW world. But for what it's worth, I agree with it sounding like an electrical malfunction. I would check all my grounds real good for starters. Especially any and all grounds to the tranny.

Another thought I had is the possibility that your alternator is not performing up to par. This would explain why it first began to happen when you ran the ac. The extra draw or demand for power may have left some circuits coming up short in the voltage/current required to operate them. But as time goes on, the problem will get worse and problems will occur without the ac being on. Ultimately, the alternator will fail alltogether.
Do your headlights ever dim slightly, like when you turn on your ac at night or run the power windows?

If so, have someone qualified check the oputput of your alternator to see if may be the culprit.

Thanks out.
Wilco.
Hadn't thot of the alternator. preciate the input.