lcc014

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,

Rummat81

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.

lcc014

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.

beaker

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.

lcc014

Good info. I will take a look.

Thanks,

lcc014

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.

beaker

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.

lcc014

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.

lcc014

Hi,

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

Thanks,

Rob Hall

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