General Cost of Transmission Fluid Change?

[Roadkill]

For those of you that have replaced transmission filter and fluid, what was a rough cost of doing so? TIA.

[c4racer]

A simple drain and refill will take about 6 quarts. Esso sells for - what, $15 a quart or so? Maybe not quite that much. Anyway - figure ~$150 ballpark for the fluid and filter. No idea what an indy service dealer charges for labor - probably a good 2 hours so $400 ish total if you have it done.

[dkl]

Yep...c4racer guessed it correct. My indy changed mine about 2 years ago using OEM fluid/filter and charged me $400 for it. The dealer wants roughly $700 for the same procedure.

[Roadkill]

good info, thanks guys.

[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...

[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.

[sunny5280]

Originally Posted by BlackX54.4i

What's the interval this is usually done at?

I had mine changed at 108K when I first purchased the vehicle. I'm at 114K now and not problems to report.