As soon as I found out the truth, I drained and refilled it no problem, boy was the fluid black at 110k miles! The refill was a bitch, you had to be underneath the car with the engine running (that's really scary actually) but it was an easy job overal. My 12yr old E46 also had the BS "lifetime" ATF. The owner wound up buying a BMW factory rebuilt automatic transmission every time,Īnd this is the course I recommend to readers - "back to the dealer."Ĭlick to expand.Why would you say so? Unless a part is computerized and requires specialized software/hardware to reload it/reset it/you name it - all mechanical parts will probably be changed as easily as before. Have no current experience with domestic rebuilders.
Transmission rebuilding, and you'll see their ads in Roundel and Bimmer. There are some domestic specialists who concentrate in BMW automatic Local transmission shop cannot rebuild BMW automatic transmissions, even those builtīy GM (BMW's GM transmissions bear no resemblance to GM transmission in domesticĬars). Whether to maintain a modern BMW automatic is up to you.Īt automatic transmission replacement time, we are confronted with the reality that the You also buy into the vagaries of the darn things, which is one reason technicians hate When you choose to buy an automatic transmission, Un-maintained automatics last 200,000 miles, although both are very rare. On the other hand, I have seen maintained automatics last 200,000 miles. Told you to spend it on maintenance you're probably not going to be very happy with me. On the ATF and filter change to put toward your new automatic transmission. In that event, say it happens at 90,000 miles, you would like to have the money you spent However I have seen BMW automatic transmissions that were maintained break anyway. My inclination is to tell people to change "lifetime" ATF and filter every 60,000 miles. Recommending an ATF and filter change every 100,000 miles for the current BMW
TRANSMISSION FLUID CHANGE PROFESSIONAL
Problematic for a professional BMW technician, dealer or independent.Ĭopyright © 2011 by Mike Miller, all rights reserved.īMW has backed off its lifetime fill mantra for automatic transmissions, currently Overfilling, underfilling,Īnd cleanliness are also issues in ATF and filter servicing, but these should not be Place where it was doing no harm to a place where it does do harm. I can't explain it, but my feeling is the fresh ATF flushes a bit of sludge from a Service on a neglected but well-shifting automatic, and then all of the sudden it starts Many times, where a well-meaning owner or technician performs an ATF and filter It is risky to drain a previously un-maintained automatic transmission with high mileage,Įven though if it were my car I would probably chance it. Which they sell along with filter kits, for independent BMW shops and do-it-yourselfers. Perhaps others are now importing the proprietary "lifetime fill" ATF at reasonable prices, And that's assuming you can get them to do the job, which is not often the That BMW dealerships charge about $500 for an ATF and filter service, due to the price No one knows exactly whatīMW's proprietary ATF is, so no one knows if there are viable alternatives. However, the modern automatic transmissions are different. Older automatic transmission models, which do not have "lifetime fill" should have ATFĪnd filter services every 15,000 miles if using petroleum ATF every 30,000 miles with Proprietary ATF for "lifetime fill" automatics. Synthetic oils, but not for automatics with "lifetime fill" - you need the factory Know recommends a 30,000-60,000-mile interval, and many recommend Red Line
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Many dealerships are now recommending manual gearbox and differential oil changes beĭone at customer expense every 60,000 miles. Then, some time later, it came out that "lifetime" means 100,000 miles. The factory's initial position is that these lubricants never need toīe changed. If it was the component, then obviously anythingĬould be "lifetime fill". There was no explanation of what "lifetime" meant, i.e., lifetime of the car, theĬomponent, or for that matter the driver. Tell, is marketing and not engineering - the idea being to foster the notion of the lowmaintenance The reason for this, as far as anyone can Manual gearbox lubricant and differential oil. Switched to their so-called "lifetime fill" ATF in automatic transmissions, as well as The short answer for the modern BMWs with "lifetime fill" ATF: Change it and the filterĪt least every 60,000 miles using ONLY the factory BMW proprietary ATF.Īt various production dates in the mid-1990s, which vary according to model, BMW
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