I only followed Mike Miller's recommendation.
Who's Mike? He is Roundel's Technical editor.

My only complaint with Redline is that it seems to breadown faster than factory fills. I recently did a rear diff oil change on a 1998 E36 with 165K!. Original rear diff fluid, looked very clean and could have been reused. In contrast, most people that use redline in manual gearboxes have found that it tends to breakdown after 20k or so.
I filled this car up with Redline but I doubt it will go as far as the factory oil would. Pentosin is an oem fill so that would be your safest bet.
Raj

20K wow. That's pretty low for Diff oil.
I expect to change my rear diff and transmission oil every 60K miles.

Raj,
Do I have to get the Pentosin from stealership?
Is there a difference b/ dealer's oil and aftermarket Pentosin sold at vendors?

Thanks :)

Pentosin is available via online vendors. Our PS fluid, even when sold at the dealership comes in pentosin bottle.
Raj

Where did you get the 2 Oil Drain/Filler plugs from? Part number? I've got a 04 530 and plan on doing this soon..

Great DIY btw!

From the dealer. Screw plug with O-ring M22X1,5-ZNS3 1 P/N: 33117525064 Price: $3.91 (from realoem.com).
The M54 shows qty of 2 and the N52 has only one.

Thanks for replying with this link. this is a very good DIY. appreciate very much.

k

According to BMW TIS, only 1.2 liters (1.3 qts) of fluid is needed.

It's really hard to buy 0.3 quart of oil :lol: .

Was that 75-90 synthetic or just regular gear oil? Do you know what BMW recommends?