A Must Read For All DIY X5 Owners
 

Recently 2 friends of my friends had a lot of drivetrain problems with their BMW's and both were related to the "Lifetime Fluids" One the transmission needed a rebuild at low miles and the other needed a new rear differential as the ring and pinion gears were totally shot. In both cases routine fluid changes would have saved them serious green. 4k for the trans and 2k for the diff is a lot of money.

So to protect my 75k 2001 x5 4.4L I just had the local dealer preform a transmission fluid change and filter replacement. I also wanted them to do the front, rear differentials and transaxle fluid changes also. My service advisor said It's easy service but expensive $395.00 at the dealership. I have done them in other BMW's so no problem. I asked for the differential and transaxle fluids so I could do them. He looked them up and said he cant sell it to me as it's sold with service out of 55 gallon drums both the gear lube and synthetic Dexron III ATF. So he went into the service bay and gave me a gallon of the differential oil free... sweet!! I can get the ATF anywhere as the transaxle on the 01's is just gears. No clutches or anything.


Later in the week I did the front, rear, and transaxle fluids. In all cases the fluids were LOADED with metal. The transaxle ATF was a nasty dark red too. No shards indicating damage but the very fine stuff that slowly wears away the gears. I used a fluid xfer pump and it was no sweat. I just wish the Germans cut a hole in the skid plate for the front differential drain too :)

The fluid charges are vital to the long file of these expensive BMW parts. It's just oil and the labor was really not that bad. If you can't get the BMW gear lubes, Amsoil or Redline are just as good. The only thing I would always have done at the dealer is the trans. The correct BMW fluid is very hard to get and you need lots of it. Most dealers don't charge over 1.5 hours of labor anyway. It's well worth the piece of mind.

I have some pic's on my .Mac here http://homepage.mac.com/thunderaudio/PhotoAlbum12.html

Later.

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Not good that you found metal shavings in the fluid you drained. What vehicles were your friends'? We have had more trans/diff on the board than we should have. I think all of them failed past the 70k mark.

Yea it worried me a little but I have seen that much in other BMW's also with this milage. I checked in the diff and I did not see any large particles. Any fluid that is in a meshing gear environment gets that. That's why it must be regularly changed. You should have seen the pile of metal on the bottom of the diff in my 1997 Dodge Ram 2500. I was able to write my name in the drain pan after I emptied it. fluid was original. Gotta love overbuilt American pickup truck drive trains!

Have you considered getting the fluids analyzed?

I've always changed the trans and differential fluid on my BMW's. You need to be careful with changing the fluid on Automatics with 100,000 miles though. Sometimes changing the fluid on high mileage automatics makes for problems that were not there to begin with. If you have an automatic change the fluid before 60K to be safe. I use Redline Synthetic in the differentials.

Here's a couple of BMWCCA articles that I have saved in my BMW reference library.

The PDF article written by Mike Perkins describing the wear and tear of individual drivetrain components.

The text file article is alternate lube schedule written by Mike Miller back in 2002. 30K is his recommended interval for diff and tranny drain and lubes. Sorry about the text format, if anyone wants this in MS word, PM me.

Thanks Asawadude for those great articles. I fully agree and plan to follow the procedures.

I've drained and refill the trans twice since 50k. I didn't drive it for a while since it's my wife's vehicle but I notice the rear diff being a little noisy yesterday. it's at 84k now so I plan to do the front/rear diff today.

Those are some really good read's. I knew the early BMW's has more maintenance done on them for a good reason. Some of my older friends always complained of all the maintenance done on there BMW's. But now that the cars have 195k+ with no major repairs everyone is all smiles.

The one thing I wonder is are the new BMW's with the plastic coolant systems going to last 200k with no failures? I think not. I have a small coolant leak that Is at the bottom of the radiator and every T, junction, line, and connector is plastic. Oh well cost of the new way I guess.

I just found the oil analysis when I first got my X5. The service indicator had 3 green bars left when I picked it up. I am on the 3rd oil change now so we will see if there is any advanced internal engine wear at the next oil sample.
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