I'll agree with some of the items in that article, but only to a point.

First, I have an E39 528, one of the BMWs with the clunky GM trans. My father bought it new and maintained it by the book at his dealer. When I bought it from him 3 years ago, at 92K miles, it had never had a trans service done. So I had the trans fluid and filter changed at a local indy with lots of BMW experience. I frankly don't even know what fluid they used, just trusted them to do it right. Here we are 3 years later and it works just fine, but there was absolutely no change in how it shifted. So much for the "if it's past 50K don't let the magic out."

On my X5, I've asked my dealer twice in the past year to service the trans and they won't do it. And as recently as 3 months ago they again said no, said that BMW tells them not to service the automatics. If they do and the trans fails, customers will hold BMW liable for the trans failures. How's that for convoluted logic. So since I tow a race car trailer all over the eastern US, I guess it's back to my indy and have him do the trans for me. Just need to figure out what fluid for this trans.

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'04 E53, 4.4 Sport
'97 E39 528i
'86 911 Carrera, track car
'96 BMW R1100R