Quote:
Originally Posted by oldskewel
I'm about to do an ATF change on my (new to me) 169k mile 2001 x5 3.0i. I've spent hours reading things on the site, trying to make this as successful as I can, but I have a few questions still:
Based on what I'm learning about the car and the maintenance, the PO was more into repairing things when they break than in preventing anything. He gave me all the receipts since 2004/46k miles, including $12k+ of repairs in the last two years. So I'm assuming the ATF is original.
I will be using Castrol Dexron VI, certified ... I have the Bentley manual and will be using that as my main instructions, with info from the site here to fill in some blanks.
Does it make sense, as a precaution, to try to check the ATF level under the same conditions (idling in Park, car level, at 30C) BEFORE doing the change? Anyone ever done that? That way, measuring what came out vs. what goes in would be more meaningful.
Wanting to get as much old ATF out, but without doing anything with the engine running, I'm considering also disconnecting the ATF cooler lines at the radiator (only with the engine off) - even if it only gets another quart out, it seems easy to do. Comments?
For the step that includes shifting through all the gears after the initial cold fill, I figured I'd test how that works, and did so earlier today. Car idling, foot on the brake, I shift into Steptronic mode and shift into 1, then 2 (no problems so far), then 3, and the display shows it go to 3 but then back to 2 a second or so later. I don't know if any shift actually occurred. Same thing with 4 and 5. I can shift the manual lever so it shows 3 then 4 then 5 on the display, but it takes itself back to 2 within a second or so and I can't tell if any shifting actually occurred. Is this normal? Did shifting to the higher gears actually occur? Will this phantom (if I'm right in thinking that nothing actually shifted) shifting be sufficient for the ATF change procedure? Am I right that this cycling through the gears happens with the parking brake on, and my foot on the brake?
It would not be hard for me to do all of the above, take a spin around the block, where I actually do shift into all gears, and then check the level again.
And in case it helps anyone else, while changing the diff oil over the weekend, I determined that the ATF drain bolt is a Torx T40. I cracked that and the fill bolt loose and then tight again to make sure I won't have any problems there.
Thanks.
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Most of us that are on the side of changing ATF fluid in the never ending debate just drain the fluid, remove the pan to replace the filter and be done with it. Some wait a few hundred miles and drain and refill the transmission again to further remove some of the old stuff. The majority of the AFT fluid that is not drained is in the Torque convertor. So disconnecting anything is not going to be of much benefit. If you want to remove all the fluid you could have a transmission flush done but I don't think that is necessary nor a good thing to do.
Even in manual mode the transmission will downshift to the programmed appropriate gear. So, yes, the transmission is changing gears. This is normal. Cycling the gears as you have done is fine though allow time for the fluid to heat up some. It is important to then check the fluid level and top it off as needed after that process. The fluid fill and check should be done with the vehicle level.
Each of us have a history of costs for repairs and or PM. There is a wide variation of the contents of that list. I think those on the low side are far more likely to be on the side of PM. Many here bought there X5 after it already had significant miles on the clock. Even with a good history there are a so many factors that can compromise the worth of that history and thus what can happen in their ownership. I bought my X5 new and have always been a PM freak. My list of repairs is on the short end even though I drive very hard and have many performance mods. One thing that I have noticed from decades of taking the path of PM is that there have been many times that I found something that was near failure. An example is a cooling hose. If that cooling hose had burst it is quite possible that I would have lost the water pump, blown a head gasket, warped a head or even the block. Those are the kinds of simple PM procedures that result in a short side list. In the case of the hoses, I consider PM as checking the hoses rather than replacing them at some set interval. This is another reason why my list is on the short side. Using the transmission as an example, I never even considered the ATF fluid as lifetime. I have changed the fluid and filter every 50,000 miles as the appropriate PM I choose.