I was also confused about the ebox or dme fuses. Mine has 2. 3503 and 0336, there's also a spot where it looks like abother should be plugged in??? I'm in an auto 2004 545i btw

 

Great write up. I just found my pan starting to drip oil from one of the corners and ordered the parts to change the pan out when it arrives. Thanks

 

Going to finally do this today on my 530i and I have a quick question:

-I ran into an issue while doing this on a 98 740il: After the initial fill of about 3.5L, I could barely get the last couple of liters in there. Also, is there supposed to be a small stream of fluid going when you are adding those last couple of liters in? I feel like the drain and refill procedure was unexpectedly messy! (it looks so damn clean in your garge while you are adding fluid)

-When I getting my quote done for this job at a respected bmw-indy, he had "Lubegard (red)" as an additive/conditioner. I used this in E38 and can tell you it works great. Only $13 a bottle from Napa. Check my posts, I don't work for them. Has anyone else noticed results from using this?

 

do the initial fill, start the car, and fill until fluid starts trickling back out. have your plug ready to insert quickly. you could buy a sheet metal pan that is available at most autoparts stores, if you're concerned about making a mess.

i've used lube guard before on gm vehicles, but not on my bmw. not sure if it'd help or not.

 

Awesome DIY, I will definitely be doing this soon! Thank you for posting!

 

Sorry volk i don't read the thread complete at this morning.
The 968TuboS make a really good job
but he only did the half job.
I have a small car service garage in germany
and did many oil changes at auomatik transmission
but at my 550 i wouldn't do it.
I bring it to the ZF Dealer
while i could only change the fluid
the ZF Dealer pu out the OIL-SWITCH-CASE,
You see it when you put the panel off,
and make a diagnostic and also a flush fluid with all the parts.
When you do this job so you get more new fluid in.
The price in Germany is about 500?,
and i thnk its justified.

HNY thomas

 

I did the Trans Pan and fluid replace job months ago and posted earlier in this thread. Happy to say my tranny is doing fine and shifts smoothly. There are at times where the tranny seems to want to find the right gear between 3 and 4th gear going about 40 to 50 MPH in traffic, but not anything I would say is really alarming. I used Pentosin and only replaced about 5 Liters with new oil. I did NOT drive the car for a week or so and then put back on jacks and drain and replace with more new oil like Turbo 968 did. I was just at Crevier BMW in Santa Ana, CA buying parts and one of the mechanics came out. I asked him about doing the trans job in the E60. I told him i replaced with Pentosin. He shook his head and said they only use the ZF recommended Lifeguard oil AND they save the old oil and replace with the old oil after installing the new pan! Yes that is correct the dealer mechanic says you should use the old oil as to not change the viscocity or chemical composition, age etc otherwise you risk getting slippage in tranny when it shifts through the gears! He says the color or the old oil being black doesn't matter. They replace with the old oil and only add new oil to replace what has leaked out (all over your garage floor) with Lifeguard only.... Has anyone heard this from the dealer? A local Indy also told me that there are 2 schools of thought, those that want to replace with fresh clean oil so less wear on parts and longevity, but then he said then you may risk slippage. In any event it has been over 8K miles or so and my tranny is doing fine even though I replaced with 5 liters of Pentosin. Wonder if any of you guys who replaced ALL the oil are having any slippage problems?

 

Thats why I dont go to Crevier. If Crevier is using dirty fluid and charging you for clean plus labor what does that tell you. Also I should have posted Spec sheets and links to other threads backing up the fact that you can run a ZF equivalent fluid. I am on my 7month of running Mercon SP and no issues what so ever and I paid 7 bucks per quart


FYI post 15
https://5series.net/forums/topic/115...n/page__st__15

 

I did the fluid replace on mine and replaced with Pentosin, several months ago, at around 30,000 miles and have since driven my '07 530i about 20,000 miles- no problems. However, the Mechatronics Sleeve recently began a very slow leak (unrelated to the fluid replacement I did) Since my car is still covered by CPO warranty, I took it to my local dealer & they replaced the sleeve, pan gasket, and a complete fluid change, putting in new ZF fluid, at no charge, except for the standard $50 per CPO repair. My service advisor said that they never put old fluid back in.

 

That could be just lip service, from my own experience dealer would put the old ATF back in after sleeve replacement (so did a different dealer on my friend's car). Dealer would charge $25 per unit of ATF (and get this 1-unit is half quart).

Also on old vs new on slippage, ATF is OK but Xfer-case on new BMW Xdrive AWD requires adaptaion after fluid flush (dealer only programming).