Transmission oil

[valex9499]

I have 130,000+ miles on my X and I have never changed my tranny oil I do not know exactly how to drain the oil and how to put the new oil in. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[John Galt]

I changed mine and documented it here:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ed-bmw-gm.html

[JCL]

Automatic or manual transmission? Your profile doesn't say.

If it is a manual, good idea to change it at that mileage.

If it is an automatic, it is better to have clean fluid in it but the process of changing it can lead to transmission failures. There is a long debate about the benefits of ever changing the fluid on higher mileage vehicles. Do a search on here and read some of the threads. The automatic transmission shops will tell you to change it, but will also know that it is those changes that create most of their rebuilt opportunities. The dealers will tend to tell you not to change it, as they don't want the liability associated with any failures post-change.

[c4racer]

An Indy BMW / MBZ shop owner that I trust told me not to do it at 100K miles on mine. He has seen no evidence that going against BMW's current recommendation for lifetime fluid is a good idea. He had no issue with changing the diff and transaxle fluids at this mileage. I am going to leave it in there myself. If the trans makes it to 150K I am more than happy with that and will have it rebuilt at that time. I do not want to risk a premature failure by changing fluid knowing the problems it can cause.

[valex9499]

well thank you all. I am not sure what I am going to do at the moment, but I will talk to some more shops and see what they say. By the way I have an Automatic Trans, I have not updated my profile yet.