transmission fluid flush question
 

Has anyone got major problem because of changed or flushed the gearbox fluid?

my car has 176000kms on it, but I never changed the fluid. I know this noob question has been asked million times. but I did research, all answers like 50:50.

I get information from Gear-Matics in Melbourne. the boss explain to me the "life time" means the period of warrenty, after warrenty, it is no more life time.

and he told me few days ago they rebuilt a e53 gearbox for $5000.

so what I m thinking is i m not too sure if they know what they are doing and what they have to do for my car. i want to avoid problems before I spend hips of money to fix.

so please, if anyone has experience of transmission flush, please let me know how it goes?

thanks
Hong

I think this boils down to whether you want to take a risk for the sake of peace of mind.
There are numerous documented cases of transmission failures shortly after they had the fluid changed on higher mileage vehicles.
You also need to understand that it is impossible to completely change all the fluid in the transmission by simply replacing what’s in the pan as there is a fair bit retained in the torque converter that cannot be drained.
There are also numerous documented cases of vehicles with many hundreds of thousands of miles, some towing heavy loads; that have never had the fluid changed without any issues.

Ultimately, the decision is yours but I certainly wouldn’t let a transmission “specialist” coerce you into something you’re not 100% comfortable with.
When you think about it, the transmission place that provided this advice has everything to gain and nothing to lose. I would have thought a reputable place would explain the risks in changing the fluid on a high mileage vehicle. As I said above, the risks are well documented and are not just BMW specific.

Good point jdd :thumbup:, I might keep searching some good place who can explain to me what they gona to do. also I will ask BMW to see what they gona suggest to me. thanks!~;)

Do you want to hear that changing fluid is a good idea on a high mile car? No one is going to say 'its a good idea', the best they can say is that they did it and it didn't kill their transmission.

But like you have discovered, the cases of woe are like 50:50. That in itself telss you something - it tells you there is risk in doing the change and so you need to weigh up what you would gain from doing it.

If it were me, if I was having problems that indicated my transmission was on the way out anyhow, then I would think what do I have to lose. :dunno:

If my transmission was fine then I wouldn't mess with it.

thanks mobilejo, i will keep your words in mind.

another question is, If my transmission has problem and i have to rebuilt it, lets say cost $5000. normally, does insurance will cover that?

thanks

the reason I considered to change the transmission fluidis I just want to keep the fluid clean and keep the gearbox health. like the engine oil, we change it every 10000kms to maintain the engine, but for this gearbox, I have no idea how to maintain it. even I dont know if the fluid inside is dirty or not, and the fluid has been used such long time, then fluid chemical properties is becomeing bad. so is there anyway we can maintain this transmission to a health condition?

thanks

Insurance won't cover it, you would need a warranty.

I know what you are saying, but if the oil is over 100k miles old, then to flush it will disturb all the crud it has collected and this is the cause of problems for many. It is too late now to start flushing that oil. If it's going to be done it needs to be started early in the cars life.

The 'Lifetime' fluids are 60,000miles, which is the same as the warranty, so they're right on that score.

At the distance yours has done a fluid change has a greater possibility of accelerating a failure because cleaning the crud out changes the tolerances and you could get a failure. We're talking 'probability scales' here on the statistical approach.

A warranty or mechanical breakdown is the only kind of insurance that covers this.

BMW don't touch transmissions, they replace failed units with remanufactured ones - for a lot more money. Approx $16,000AUS (£10,000GBP), to change a complete ZF 6sp and Mechatronics Unit. $5,000 for a rebuild sounds a little high, but then Melbourne is expensive.

A stripdown and check can be a proactive piece of preventative maintenance and cheaper than a complete rebuild, but could also be seen as OTT.

There really is no hard and fast rule set covering this, it has to be done based on the balance of probabilities and what you can (a) afford and (b) be comfortable with doing.

Changing the transmission fluid has been discussed around these parts over and over again. The experts have had their say about the issue and the not so expert have
expressed their point of view as well.

Do a search and you'll see the dog chasing his tail discussions. No matter what evidence is given on either side people are gonna do what they want. Even more interesting is that people have decided that regardless of what BMW says about servicing their vehicles BMW can't be right or there must be a conspiracy of some sort.

The threads are fun to read though.........http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...intenance.html

I don't think the OP wanted a debate, I think he just wanted someone to tell him what he should do in his particular circumstances. :dunno: Which is cool, we all need a little push in the right direction sometimes.

Hopefully he'll do the right thing and leave it alone :stickpoke

Hey no arm wrestle from me. But the question remains. What is the right direction, what is the right thing to do? Who's opinion regarding this issue
is correct? I certainly don't know and that's why I referenced the link to the thread. Now he can make his own decision rather that have others tell him what to do.
After all this decision isn't like what tires should I buy. This decision could cost big time so how much better to let others debate and he can tune in and see the results....:stickpoke

:iagree:

I don't know for definite either, but I know this; if my transmission dies, I would rather be thinking "it was its time to die" as opposed to "did it die because of that flush I did at 110k?". I could live with myself if the former, but would curse myself if the latter.

OK, at the risk of upsetting Dick Thrust and any other extremely well read forum gurus.....


As the owner of a late 2004 X5D that I purchased with 185K on the clock, the transmission when hot lurched quite badly into 1st when pulling up in Drive N mode. So I got the guys at Autologic to drop all the fluids , flush the transmission which can be done with time, and the first thing I noticed is that the lurch was reduced about 50% when hot. That said it has covered another 10K and the lurch is starting to come back and I am getting fed up with shifting into S mode when slowing to a halt (Changes the shift pattern and selects 1st while still rolling up to a halt.) Another fluid change is my next option or some work on the transmission to adjust the 2nd gear band or solenoid operation if possible.

If your transmission is not behaving badly, maybe an oil sample analysis could be performed to see what else is in the oil. Changing the fluid to fresh correct specific synthetic transmission oil would seem like a good idea to me.

Cheers, Dan.

I’m not trying to re-ignite this debate however; if you have a problem with the transmission and are willing to risk the potential outcome when changing fluid then it’s really a no brainer.

I too also have the ‘lurch’ problem although I suspect not as bad as others I’ve read about.
I’ve also learnt to drive around the problem for the most part which involves reducing the brake pedal pressure just as you’re coming to a stop. Prior to owning the X5, I used to brake like this anyway but have learnt to exaggerate this effect a little to combat the problem.
At this stage I’m not willing to risk a transmission rebuild to cure the ‘lurch’ but if the problem gets worse then I may be forced to reconsider.

So has anyone actually done the oil change? and changed the filter?

Ok so I took my X5 to BMW Sydney for a service and inspection 1. My first since buying my new amazing car.
So the final bill was $980!!! But that did include $180 to change brake fluid and labour to do so.
They also gave me a quote for $2100 to change the transmission fluid, transfer case fluid and replace the cam cover gaskets!
Besides the hectic pricing it was certainly interesting to know they suggest to change it.

Transmission
 

Had mine flushed & changed last service thankfully it was black & dirty, fixed my shift problems within a week they also did transfer case & diff for $380
I have 2002 E53 4.6is

where did you have this done?

Had it done by Adamstown Car Doctors Newcastle, EXCELLENT for fluids & general maintanance service etc...

BMW wanted $980 for the same job

the flush is just a gravity flush about 4 - 5 times as no one seems to have a power flush adapter large enough for the gearbox...
but it went from black sludge to clean fluid and you can't tell me having dirty old transmission fluid is good...

Transmission flush
 

Well been 4 months since the flush & it's smooth as silk, I have a friend with a Ford Ft6 Typhoon SAME gearbox & he could not believe how smooth the gear changes were, in Normal Sport or Manual modes.

Since then had from & rear camber/caster kits fitted & aligned New front castor bushes new front & Rear brake rotors & pads plus a set of NITTO INVO rear tyres, very nice

wow that sounds amazing! i just had my trasnmission rebuilt...and while its functioning amazing...the shifts are not smooth as silk.I feel a little bit jibbed for $3500 for a complete rebuild.
tell me this Shaun, when you are stopped at lights and in drive...do you have any vibrations from the driveline? i have a small amound with the AC off, but the car shakes alot with the AC on.

when I changed mine last time, after searching alot all over the web, I ended up by using ZF lifeguard 5 fluid which is made exactly by the same transmission manufacture in germany. So I don't see anything wrong doing using this fluid which is rated as: LT 71141 NOTE: Only for "Green Tag" . And my car is a:2001 X5 4.4i E53. Also whatever where I search for ATF fluid for my car, this fluid always stated as: OEM and always much expensive.($22.99/liter)

I bought a case of 6 quarts and it took nearly all 6 bottles because I had a leak
somewhere by the front torque converter. I will post a few pics soon how the job went down. So far so good, transmission shift smoothly just as it was.
I don't use shifting anyway, I simply put my car in Letter "D" and take off.

I strongly believe that a lot of people do not know how to properly use the
shifting method, meaning they dont know that "Each gear:1-2-3-4-5 should be corresponded to certain speed exactly. If not, you're using the risk of crashing your transmission by putting too much compression inside.
Let's say that you're going 50 mil/hour and your selector is still on 2 gear.
Or going over 55mil/hour but suddenly decide to put the gear on 2 or 3, when your gear supposed to be around 4 through 5 @ this speed.

This is where most transmission crashed/failed but blaming on fluid change later, after all they have already caused. (It's like thinking to put a new lock on the gate to secure the house after it has already been vandalized inside)

Transmission
 

My X5 is like a new car, no vibration it's perfect. You forget about all the annoying problems & just drive when everything works as it was designed to.
Love it

wow, good to hear. guess i will have to get mine looked at again.
there guys did the build: Automatic Transmission Serivce & Repairs to Bmw - Saab - Volvo - Range Rover Transmissions and Valve Body - We offer and Sell Transmission Parts
clearly not very good....
Where did you get your camber and castor kits from?

Camber & Caster kits. Front & Rear
 

I got my camber/caster kits from Kmac Rockdale
I would definitely get them to instal as the rear are a huge job. Anyone else will mess it up and take days they are so familiar with the kits they can do it in half a day. The front are straight forward the rear are a big install