Report on Trans Fluid & Filter Change 93k 3.0

[cary]

Hi All,

I figured I would give a report on the condition of the fluid on my wife's car when I had it changed yesterday. It was dirty and oxidized, and should have been changed earlier than 93,500. This car was used for highway commuting by the first owner and came with all the service records, the transmission did not see hard use (50 year old couple). My mechanic said that in the X5 trannies he has serviced the fluid has been dark and oxidized when people wait to the 100k mark. Likely the extra weight of the X5 causes faster wear than on the sedans that use this transmission.

For those who are on the fence, it would be prudent to change your oil earlier than the factory 100k, if it were me, I would do it at 50k miles. MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE THE FILTER AT THE SAME TIME. The filter is expensive and a pain, but many transmission failures occur as a result of people not changing the filter with the fluid. The new fluid will often break loose existing deposits, varnish, etc., and with an older filter these deposits will add to the existing particles it has filtered out and plug the filter. The result is fluid starvation to the tranny and failure.

BTW, BMW should be ashamed of the cost of the filter and the fluid for this tranny, not to mention the time it takes to do it. $100 for the filter, $100 for 9 quarts of fluid, and 2 hours of time. $400 for a fluid change is ridiculous. My Toyota landcruiser takes 20 minutes to do a drain and fill and uses a special screen that automatically back flushes when you drain the fluid, there is no filter to replace. You end up spending $40 for fluid every 30k miles(if you use synthetic, $10 for mineral), and it is done easily when doing the engine oil and filter. The best part, the transmissions on the Landcruiser, even when poorly maintained go 300k+ miles. On the landcruiser group I am on, out of 1000+ members, there have only been 4-5 tranny failures.

[rayxi]

Not there yet but good to know. Thanks for sharing the info.

[chefwong]

My fluid looked the same way when I did a drain/refill around 32,000-35,000 miles. I did not do a pan drop though.

This year, when I did a OCI, I did another drain/refill.

[NOVAX5]

cary, i think you must have picked the GOOD mechanic to do this if is not BMW certified one. i have 2 friends have their non BMW certified mechanics did theirs, they ended up adding the bits in the trans. failure. both of them has trans failure message came up not so long after the ATF change. so watch out for your x trans. the next couple of months.

[cary]

I have had a long relationship with my shop. The father is Austrian and has been a BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche mechanic since the early 70's, the son has been working on BMW's for 10 years. I actually do legal work for the local BMW dealer and take my car to this independent instead.

[Aimster]

I called the BMW stealerships in Virginia and Maryland.

They said they won't change it because it is lifetime sealed.
Wtvr

[Zulu95]

I know my mechanic said my fluid was shot when I had the fluid/filter change around 40K. He even suggested doing a further change of fluid only about 10K later to get more new fluid into the mix.
For the cost it seems like a good investment.
I was reading on a Caddy board that the Caddy models with the same GM ($6K OEM price.) tranny they are having all sorts of early tranny failures.
I guess Aimster they don't want to chane the fluid so they can turn around and sell you a BMW reman. box (Which is all BMW stock.) when the tranny fails.

[cary]

Originally Posted by Aimster

I called the BMW stealerships in Virginia and Maryland.

They said they won't change it because it is lifetime sealed.
Wtvr

Call and ask to speak to the service manager. If he claims the same thing, ask how they service it on the 2002 and later models that use the same transmission that has a 100k service interval?

[JCL]

According to the post from Aimster, they didn't say that they couldn't change it, they said that they wouldn't change it. It is likely that they know perfectly well how to do so, but don't want the liability of an resultant transmission failure from disturbing it.

[NOVAX5]

JCL you got it right there buddy. Be careful with ATF change, it might do more harm than good.