Does anyone have the official procudure for filling a checking a zf tranny

[blaubenz]

I have a 2005 4.4 6 speed. I believe3 a zf tranny. Does any one have the official procedure on how to check and fill a zf tranny from BMW and/or ZF. I have one of those fill plugs in the pan.

Long story short. I drain and fill my tranny 5K miles ago (a few years ago). I can not put bank in the same amount of tranny oil that I taken out. 1.25 quarts short. My feeling is that I may be a quart low. But can fill it if the oil keep coming out.

[upallnight]

Engine has to be running.

[blaubenz]

Originally Posted by upallnight

Engine has to be running.

yea. I know engine running. press break run it through the gears and tried with engine hot and cold/warm. The only thing I don't have is the fixture they use the thread and pump the oil in.

[bcredliner]

When you drain the transmission it does not drain the torque convertor. If you have run it through the gears with brake on- cold or hot. If you have removed the fill plug when the fluid is 140 degrees or more when the vehicle is level and a small stream runs out the difference was what was still in the torque convertor.

[wpoll]

I'd like to know too. My ZF 6HP26 is also a bottom (pan) fill and I don't want to mess with it without a way to properly fill it to the correct level. Going to be a messy job!

I'm familiar with bottom fill transmissions - VW do them this way too - but I cannot find any tools or info. on the ZFs.

[bcredliner]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZbA-OqoPJQ

[blaubenz]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

When you drain the transmission it does not drain the torque convertor. If you have run it through the gears with brake on- cold or hot. If you have removed the fill plug when the fluid is 140 degrees or more when the vehicle is level and a small stream runs out the difference was what was still in the torque convertor.

I don't follow what you are saying. "the difference is still in the torque convertor". Maybe I don't fully understand how the flow works. But if I put it in gear and with engineering wouldn't the fluid go back into the torque convertor and allow me to fill the pan?? Please help me understand.

As best I can recalled. I drive the car up on a ramp and drain. Then to fill I started up the car, ran it through the gears and fill with the car running to over flow.

Then I ran the car to temp (140 degree or more) put it on a ramp. Ran it through the gears. Open fill plug and it started to leak out so I tighten the fill plug.


The only thing I have not tried is to run the car at dead cold, run it through the gears and try to fill. The idea is that I run the car and the gears to get the oil away from the pan and cold oil less volume to get more oil in (but I would think I kind of did that when I first fill, the car was draining for hours, and it took my time to get the filter in only thing I did not do is to let it cool over night).

[bcredliner]

If I understand what you did properly, the transmission should be full. If you have driven some distance since the check and are concerned do another hot fluid check. When you say up on ramps, I assume you mean ramps under all four tires and the trans pan is level.

[pels]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRrgmfM8VlQ

[wpoll]

Had a look at a lot of videos online etc. and still never seen any info on the bottom fill process/tools etc.

Here's what the pan looks like (from a ZF manual): -



I guess a decent fluid pump and a good set of safety glasses will get it done!