XDrive Transfer Case Fluid DIY

[kevinkay]

THANKS for the great instructions, changed mine today.
166K, 1st time, didn't knew it was necessary maintenance.
2004, X-drive

Read that bolts get stuck -easy to strip, lots of the "kits" come with new bolts. Mine came off very easy, sprayed them with penetrating oil an hour before. I bought new crush washers but would not have hesitated to reuse the old. The proper torque of 33nm didn't seem tight enough or my torque is off - although I am defiantly an "over tighten". I used a scrap piece of pipe to slip over the wrench and act as an extension breaker bar on the drain side (you can't get a socket in).

I prefer to shimmy under the car rather then use ramps and jacks, couldn't do that with this one as your breaker bar or socket handle hits the ground.

I took the BMW bottle of fluid to AUTOZONE to get a pump. The guy there asked how much I paid for the "BMW" fluid and laughed when I said about $40. He showed me there equivalent and said it meets all standards and costs about $20.

I shook the bottle to mix the additives? read that in this thread.

I only have INPA and very confused by it, read different opinions on if INPA can clear the adaptation value??

[JCL]

Don't trust any sales rep at a local auto parts store that says his generic fluid is the same as the specific BMW fluid. Ask him what spec it meets (since BMW doesn't publish the X-drive fluid spec, should be interesting to hear his answer).

[ripp222]

For those that are curious what the screens look like in DIS v57 when running the transfer case oil change "job"... see attachment. Takes less than 1 minute to run through the screens.

And here were Blackstone Laboratory's comments after my 2nd change (35k miles on the oil).
"Some very nice improvements turned up in this second sample from your transfer case. Aluminum, iron, and nickel are still just high enough compared to averages that we're going to leave them highlighted for now, but hopefully they'll keep improving like this in the future. The shorter oil run seemed to help, so we'd stick with this interval again. If metals get down to the average range, or start to steady themselves, maybe a longer run would be in order but for now, this seems like the way to go. No water/insolubles found, and the viscosity was fine. Better!"

[JCL]

Originally Posted by ripp222

And here were Blackstone Laboratory's comments after my 2nd change (35k miles on the oil).
"Some very nice improvements turned up in this second sample from your transfer case. Aluminum, iron, and nickel are still just high enough compared to averages that we're going to leave them highlighted for now, but hopefully they'll keep improving like this in the future. ...."

Did they tell you what their definition of average was and how many were in the sample population? All transfer cases? All BMW transfer cases? All X-drive transfer cases?

[ripp222]

Originally Posted by JCL

Did they tell you what their definition of average was and how many were in the sample population? All transfer cases? All BMW transfer cases? All X-drive transfer cases?

Yes, that is one short-coming of Blackstone Labs. They do not define "UNIVERSAL AVERAGES" on their reports, so I don't know sample count or qualifiers, though you could always ask.

[JCL]

That is a major shortcoming.

Their recommendation to change the fluid appears to be based on a comparison with an average that doesn't mean much, if anything.

They are selling these tests based on fear, IMO.

The presence of wear metals in microscopic quantities in the oil does not require a change of fluid, as they suggest. If you left the same fluid in, and took four or five samples of that same fluid, over the same interval, then a change in the rate of wear metal increase would indicate something. It would tell you about the component, which is more valuable than trying to discern something about the fluid. But simply having the trace metals in the fluid shows nothing.

[texmln]

Four years and more than 70,000 miles later my X-Drive transfer case is still going strong after my initial fluid change. The car now has more than 160,000 miles on it. I never did reset the adaptation values and have had no negative impact. I am thinking about doing another fluid change in the near future...

[kevinkay]

Originally Posted by texmln

Four years and more than 70,000 miles later my X-Drive transfer case is still going strong after my initial fluid change. The car now has more than 160,000 miles on it. I never did reset the adaptation values and have had no negative impact. I am thinking about doing another fluid change in the near future...

I am just an amateur, but read this Thread about coding the reset, no so much about how the car may "feel" differently but about how the clutch will respond. Some sensor is telling it to error.

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

And who wants ANY errors in car, not that its worth paying the dealer......