General Cost of Transmission Fluid Change?

[Eurosport]

the right fluid from VW dealer is about $18 a quart, filter/gasket/washers kit is $50ish from bavauto? something like that.
just make sure you clean the bottom of the pan magnets, you'll see the deposits there no doubt

[BlackX54.4i]

What's the interval this is usually done at?

[c4racer]

Originally Posted by BlackX54.4i

What's the interval this is usually done at?

OK - now that is a loaded question

Personally I think it should be done every 50K miles. BMW used to recommend such fluid changes every 30K, then I think it moved to 45K under a Service II. Then they went to a lifetime fluid recommendation for trans and 100K for other driveline fluids. And now I think they recommend 100K, or maybe they are still lifetime - unclear to me which one actually.

I have two ZF tranny equipped BMW's that I purchased with ~90K miles on them. I am going with BMW's lifetime recommendation that was given at the time they were built. I figure if you have not changed the fluid by 60K miles you may as well not risk changing it because there will be deposits and the new fluid may very well dislodge those deposits and cause a problem. I have seen more evidence of failures from a late fluid change (ie. 75K+ miles) than from fluid going bad on a high miles transmission. Chances are something else will cause the trans to fail before the fluid ever wears out. That was the engineering behind the lifetime fluid recommendation. Now for some reason BMW may have switched to 100K fluid change, but I don't buy into that. Either change it every 50K or leave it in there, IMHO. But that's just my opinion on the matter and I'm sure for every 5 people on here you ask you will get 6 different opinions.

[BlackX54.4i]

Originally Posted by c4racer

OK - now that is a loaded question

Personally I think it should be done every 50K miles. BMW used to recommend such fluid changes every 30K, then I think it moved to 45K under a Service II. Then they went to a lifetime fluid recommendation for trans and 100K for other driveline fluids. And now I think they recommend 100K, or maybe they are still lifetime - unclear to me which one actually.

I have two ZF tranny equipped BMW's that I purchased with ~90K miles on them. I am going with BMW's lifetime recommendation that was given at the time they were built. I figure if you have not changed the fluid by 60K miles you may as well not risk changing it because there will be deposits and the new fluid may very well dislodge those deposits and cause a problem. I have seen more evidence of failures from a late fluid change (ie. 75K+ miles) than from fluid going bad on a high miles transmission. Chances are something else will cause the trans to fail before the fluid ever wears out. That was the engineering behind the lifetime fluid recommendation. Now for some reason BMW may have switched to 100K fluid change, but I don't buy into that. Either change it every 50K or leave it in there, IMHO. But that's just my opinion on the matter and I'm sure for every 5 people on here you ask you will get 6 different opinions.

Thanks for the input...I'm at ~65K and have my inspection II coming up...I'm going to have to look into this a little more...

[c4racer]

Originally Posted by BlackX54.4i

Thanks for the input...I'm at ~65K and have my inspection II coming up...I'm going to have to look into this a little more...

tough call, but I would probably do a swap at 65K if I had owned mine at that point.

[dkl]

Originally Posted by c4racer

OK - now that is a loaded question

Personally I think it should be done every 50K miles. BMW used to recommend such fluid changes every 30K, then I think it moved to 45K under a Service II. Then they went to a lifetime fluid recommendation for trans and 100K for other driveline fluids. And now I think they recommend 100K, or maybe they are still lifetime - unclear to me which one actually.

I have two ZF tranny equipped BMW's that I purchased with ~90K miles on them. I am going with BMW's lifetime recommendation that was given at the time they were built. I figure if you have not changed the fluid by 60K miles you may as well not risk changing it because there will be deposits and the new fluid may very well dislodge those deposits and cause a problem. I have seen more evidence of failures from a late fluid change (ie. 75K+ miles) than from fluid going bad on a high miles transmission. Chances are something else will cause the trans to fail before the fluid ever wears out. That was the engineering behind the lifetime fluid recommendation. Now for some reason BMW may have switched to 100K fluid change, but I don't buy into that. Either change it every 50K or leave it in there, IMHO. But that's just my opinion on the matter and I'm sure for every 5 people on here you ask you will get 6 different opinions.

The current BMW stance is that it uses a "lifetime" fluid, but recommend changing it at 100K. It's a tough call on the fluid change. It's a good argument either way.

[c4racer]

Originally Posted by dkl

The current BMW stance is that it uses a "lifetime" fluid, but recommend changing it at 100K. It's a tough call on the fluid change. It's a good argument either way.

Oh that makes sense - it's a lifetime fluid, but go ahead and change it at 100K.

[Eurosport]

Originally Posted by dkl

The current BMW stance is that it uses a "lifetime" fluid, but recommend changing it at 100K. It's a tough call on the fluid change. It's a good argument either way.

lifetime
of course they don't want you to change it, that way you'll be in a new bmw, and the next person will be in their shop buying parts for the old one.
they just caught 2 rabbits w/out much hassle
if they made them to last trouble free for the intended motor/tranny designed lifetime like 350,000 or 500,000 miles, then that wouldn't make them enough money...board of directors wouldn't be happy

[c4racer]

Originally Posted by Eurosport

lifetime
of course they don't want you to change it, that way you'll be in a new bmw, and the next person will be in their shop buying parts for the old one.
they just caught 2 rabbits w/out much hassle
if they made them to last trouble free for the intended motor/tranny designed lifetime like 350,000 or 500,000 miles, then that wouldn't make them enough money...board of directors wouldn't be happy

It really has nothing to do with BMW. Modern 5 and 6 speed AT trannys are simply not designed to live for 350K miles, certainly not behind a V8. You are really lucky to get half of that. And at that point with the quality of fluids they are using these days and the cooling, and the filtering, the fluid is not really what is causing the failures. So they call it lifetime but if it makes you feel better swap at 100K. If you want 350K miles, manual is the only way to go. Or 1 or 2 rebuilds on an AT and hope the motor and the rest of the car will last that long. Probably not as likely with something as complex as the X5, especially not with the V8 engine. But I think you can realistically take these things up over 200K with one tranny rebuild. My buddy has a 740iL with 185K miles on it. Rebuilt the trans around 150K and it runs perfectly at this point. Keeping up on maint is the key, and not just talking about oil changes here - this ain't no Honda.

[FSETH]

Originally Posted by Eurosport

lifetime
of course they don't want you to change it, that way you'll be in a new bmw, and the next person will be in their shop buying parts for the old one.
they just caught 2 rabbits w/out much hassle
if they made them to last trouble free for the intended motor/tranny designed lifetime like 350,000 or 500,000 miles, then that wouldn't make them enough money...board of directors wouldn't be happy

BMW slushboxes don't typically break because the fluid has broken down. It is usually due to something else and new fluid doesn't guarantee that it will last longer. Plus, there is a lot of evidence that changing original fluid for the first time at higher mileage can possibly contribute to a failure.

On a side note, I don't think any automaker uses an auto trans designed to go 300,000 miles. I would guess the average automatic trans life is about 100,000 - 150,000 miles or so.