Proud new x5 owner! 2001 - 4.4i

[CHE53]

Just thought I'd introduce myself, I've been researching the X5's for quite a while. Found a model I liked, then waited for a low mileage/reasonably priced one to pop up.

Low and behold, day before yesterday I found the one locally! Carfax'd it, inspected it, Drove it, loved it, bought it.

2001 Silver, 19" wheels, blk interior, 4.4 Sport pkg & Navigation. Only 65k miles!

I'm not new to the BMW realm (also have a swapped ti), however I am new to the BMW V8/Auto Trans..

Right off the bat, I have two questions which I couldn't find any definitive information on through searching.

-The swap from mkIII to mkIV navigation, is just a matter of buying the DVD unit, and following procedure outlined on bimmernav to "Plug and Play" the unit? End of story? Seems too easy..

-Flushing the Auto-Trans fluid.. I know that BMW cars historically have weak auto transmissions.. at 65k is it too late for me to worry about? (My mom's 06 x5 3.0 is at ~50k.. perhaps a good time to flush hers too?)

Thanks guys! I look forward to countless hours of reading through these forums, haha.

[IMG][/IMG]





The School parking posse




Here is the other toy too, in case anyone was curious

[tmv]

Congrats and

Do NOT flush the tranny. Do a drain and re-fill twice with filter changed, 1k miles apart. Find out what tranny you have and use correct ATF.

[TerminatorX5]

congrats on the find!!!

MK3 ---> MK4... remove MK3... connect MK4... done... update MK4 software to the latest with perspective view if not updated already...

tranny... do as TMV said... it is not just the mileage, it is also the age... i would not touch it...

[BigBlack48is]

Originally Posted by TerminatorX5

congrats on the find!!!

MK3 ---> MK4... remove MK3... connect MK4... done... update MK4 software to the latest with perspective view if not updated already...

tranny... do as TMV said... it is not just the mileage, it is also the age... i would not touch it...

Completely disagree... No fluid is "lifetime" and no filter can un-clog it's self

At 100k miles I dropped the pan on my ZF 6HP26X, changed that filter and topped it back off with redline D4. Then about 1k miles later, drained and re-filled it a 2nd time and now my tranny is VERY happy!! And no... no one had ever done any kind of service on it prior to this.

[TerminatorX5]

Originally Posted by BigBlack48is

Completely disagree... No fluid is "lifetime" and no filter can un-clog it's self

At 100k miles I dropped the pan on my ZF 6HP26X, changed that filter and topped it back off with redline D4. Then about 1k miles later, drained and re-filled it a 2nd time and now my tranny is VERY happy!! And no... no one had ever done any kind of service on it prior to this.

i never said it was lifetime - it is not... nothing is lifetime... well... maybe the pyramids...

the problems with those gears is that as they wear off and contaminate the fluid, the material builds up inside and becomes part of the fluid - if it has not been changed early in the cycle, those chunks of the metal shavings inside actually "help" prolong the agony of the system... however, once you remove them and fill the void with the fresh fluid, the worn gears do not have the gunk to stick to and they start to slip...

i am tryinig to say, that if the tranny was not serviced before 40K, then just let it be... if it was serviced at that time, then do the regular changes at regular intervals..

it is like dental clean up - the moment after the clean up, the teeth are very sensitive as they protective layer of "gunk" is removed... I am not saying that you should stop doing the semi-annual dental clean-ups!!! just a reference to the tranny!!!

[CHE53]

Originally Posted by tmv

Congrats and

Do NOT flush the tranny. Do a drain and re-fill twice with filter changed, 1k miles apart. Find out what tranny you have and use correct ATF.

Ah I see, that seems smart. I'll figure out what that entails then. And thanks for the welcome!

congrats on the find!!!

MK3 ---> MK4... remove MK3... connect MK4... done... update MK4 software to the latest with perspective view if not updated already...

tranny... do as TMV said... it is not just the mileage, it is also the age... i would not touch it...

Good to know definitively on that Nav then. Thank you for that. The MKIII setup just feels so archaic how it sits, and the MKIV are about what you pay for a decent TOMTOM anyways.

But yeah I think I'll follow what TMV said for the tranny then.

Thanks!

Completely disagree... No fluid is "lifetime" and no filter can un-clog it's self

At 100k miles I dropped the pan on my ZF 6HP26X, changed that filter and topped it back off with redline D4. Then about 1k miles later, drained and re-filled it a 2nd time and now my tranny is VERY happy!! And no... no one had ever done any kind of service on it prior to this.

I see.. I think I will go talk to the material science specialist on campus about this to see what his perspective is on the metal particles inside the lubrication fluid. This is the type of thing they dedicate their lives too.. So maybe he'll have some interesting input?

Good to hear this method worked for you even after 100k miles though! gotta love that! Nobody want to spend all that $$$ on a rebuild that may or may not last..

[Whitecat]

Hey Welcome and congrats !! Here is a link for your sat nav dvd update

2013 BMW Navigation DVD High Version Map Update East Disc Replaces 2012 BMW | eBay

[giodog2000]

Congrats and

[JCL]

Originally Posted by CHE53

I see.. I think I will go talk to the material science specialist on campus about this to see what his perspective is on the metal particles inside the lubrication fluid. This is the type of thing they dedicate their lives too.. So maybe he'll have some interesting input?

Forget the metal particles. They are irrelevant. If they are large enough to be caught by the filter, they won't do any harm. If they are small enough to pass through, by definition they are below the critical size you need to worry about. Transmission fluids lose their additive package effectiveness more than anything else. Lubricity isn't the failure mode you need to worry about.

It isn't a material (fluid) science question. It is a system question. There is no debate that new fluid is "better" in an absolute sense. The two points of debate are (1) whether installing that high-detergent new fluid in an aged system that is contaminated from normal use will result in the detergents loosening and shifting the contaminants, thus causing a blockage in the valve body and subsequent failure, and (2) whether the fluid condition is the cause of transmission failures, early or otherwise, ie before the transmission would have had a non-fluid-related failure in any case. In the case of (2), the other approach is to put aside the money you would have spent on original Lifeguard fluid and save it for when a sensor or other item fails in the transmission. It may sound like it, but this approach isn't fatalistic. It is driven by the desire to reduce the total cost of ownership.

There isn't one correct answer.

Preventative maintenance is a good thing. But maintenance that isn't preventative is just sunk cost. After 12 years in that transmission, if it was shifting fine, I would leave it alone, as I don't think the mileage is as much of an issue as the time.

[CHE53]

Originally Posted by Whitecat

Hey Welcome and congrats !! Here is a link for your sat nav dvd update

2013 BMW Navigation DVD High Version Map Update East Disc Replaces 2012 BMW | eBay

Hey look there, Thanks for that! A lot cheaper than I thought they were going to be..

Congrats and

But:

Thanks for the welcome! Haha, I know I know.. I'll upload some shortly! School has been insane this week.

Forget the metal particles. They are irrelevant. If they are large enough to be caught by the filter, they won't do any harm. If they are small enough to pass through, by definition they are below the critical size you need to worry about. Transmission fluids lose their additive package effectiveness more than anything else. Lubricity isn't the failure mode you need to worry about.

It isn't a material (fluid) science question. It is a system question. There is no debate that new fluid is "better" in an absolute sense. The two points of debate are (1) whether installing that high-detergent new fluid in an aged system that is contaminated from normal use will result in the detergents loosening and shifting the contaminants, thus causing a blockage in the valve body and subsequent failure, and (2) whether the fluid condition is the cause of transmission failures, early or otherwise, ie before the transmission would have had a non-fluid-related failure in any case. In the case of (2), the other approach is to put aside the money you would have spent on original Lifeguard fluid and save it for when a sensor or other item fails in the transmission. It may sound like it, but this approach isn't fatalistic. It is driven by the desire to reduce the total cost of ownership.

There isn't one correct answer.

Preventative maintenance is a good thing. But maintenance that isn't preventative is just sunk cost. After 12 years in that transmission, if it was shifting fine, I would leave it alone, as I don't think the mileage is as much of an issue as the time.

That is some very informative input. I hadn't realized that the detergents were even a factor in all of this. But that definitely does make sense.

I've done some more reading on the subject, and it appears that often times transmission fluid lubricity isn't incredibly affected by time (like you said), as it is heat. If the transmission was ever run at excessive temperature the ATF will degrade at an exponential rate, because it is outside of the specific ATF design parameters.

-With degraded ATF comes slipping/more overheating (IIRC)
-Also, a possible sign of overheat would be discoloration of the ATF (though other things may cause this too? May not be a dependable method..)

I definitely agree with you though.. There isn't one correct answer, with the exception of a known-overheated transmission, it seems like a roll of the dice either way. (being a used car and all)