treiberg

Going to change transmission pan / fluid on my 2007 530i. It has 150K miles, so I am trying to consider that when deciding how much to spend on various things I want to do. I realize there is debate over whether you should do this job on a high mileage vehicle that has never been done before (I think this will be a first for mine).

Here are my questions:

1) The bolts for the pan seems to add about $60 to $70 to the job. Is that really necessary, especially considering the car may only last another 50K miles? What happens if I try to reuse them, do they break?

2) As long as I am in there should I do the sealing sleeve? And is it easy?

3) I bought the ZF 6 fluid to do the change, is the correct? (I see that one site says ZF-5 or ZF-6 will work).

Any other advice?

KyleB

1) I like use new hardware, but I'm sure a lot of people reuse them without issue.

2) depends on what your definition of 'easy' is. for the average DIYer with a few repairs under his/her belt, yea it's pretty easy.

3) ZF Lifeguard6 is the fluid ZF specifies for your gearbox, so yes it sounds like you have the correct stuff.

twh

BMW has a lot of one-time-use bolts. On the BMW, those are generally the aluminum bolts. That's because they are torque to yield bolts. The act of tightening them actually deforms them by lengthening them. When you see a tightening spec that calls for X torque and then Y degrees more turn, that's a torque to yield bolt. You can't reuse TTY bolts.

The oil pan bolts are reusable. If they look clean, I'd use them again. If they look rusty or otherwise not so great, I'd replace them

CVTBenhogan

I'd change the transmission sleeve for sure while doing the job. DIY my tranny 2 years ago, only to have the sleeve fail this winter. Or there was some minor leaking and I didn't want to chance waiting. Too busy and too cold to tackle the sleeve myself and I'm $800 poorer as a result.

Bolts are reuseable and little torque is applied to them, I think 7lbs. I bought 4 extra with the pan in event I broke any. Never did and the 4 were someting like $4 bucks each.

You can use Pentosin AT1 and its cheaper than the BMW stuff.

cakes

I DIYed mine this summer, and I thought I'd change the sleeve while I was at it. It was in there so tight I wasn't able to take it out. So now I'm crossing my fingers it won't leak until it's warm. I'd still get it, and try to do it, but be prepared, access is very tight.

CVTBenhogan

Yeah I can imagine it was difficult to remove. I saw a YouTube where a guy removed the sleeve on a ford. Looked helpful on how the sleeve pops out. Good luck on your sleeve holding up. Maybe check for leaks down the road as a precaution. Tranny leaks look worse than they are.