My car just pass the 50k miles mark. It is time to change the tranny fluid. Has anyone done it and what is the cost of tranny fluid ??

Thanks,

Hello,
I have an 04 545i with the 6 sp. ZF tranny.
The BMW fluid is like $30 a litre here in canada.
I used Castrol new ATF for imports which is compatible with Shell M1376.4 which is the BMW fluid.
it was about $7 /ltr. i bought 9 litres. you can get 4-5 litres out when u drop the pan.
after that i just started/stopped and drained/refilled the fluid like that.
There was a noticeable change in shifting when cold. My vehicle was close to 120K kms. or 70k miles.
hope that helps.
Ali C.

Thanks for your response. Is there a drain nut in the pan or I have to drop the whole pan to take out old fluid ? I am planning to drain the pan only as there is no instruction around to do a flush.

The latest Bavarian Autosport newsletter has a little blurb about changing the fluid. Go to www.bavauto.com, click the "Free Newsletter" link on the left, download the Winter 2008-2009 edition, and look on page 3.

Good info. I will take a look.

Thanks,

I read that issue + the 2006 spring issue. They used a 3 series as an example. Does that apply to our E60 ? It looks like that our tranny fluid pan has a drain plug ? Since our car do not have a dipstick for tranny fluid, we need to use "fill plug" hole to monitor the level of the fluid ?? Can I used measure how much fluid came out from drain plug and add back the same amount + a little bit more ?

Thanks.

I don't know - I've never done it and haven't really researched it. I'll have mine done by an indie when it comes time.

I see. I will research more and then try to do it myself. It should not be that hard to do.... because we are not doing a flush, just drain and fill.

Hi,

Did you drop the pan ? How much new tranny fluid did you use to refill ?

Thanks,

if its the same tranny as mine the filter is part of the pan so needs replacing too.