I looked at www.pelicanparts.com and saw that the filter is part of the pan. Therefore, replacing the pan would replace filter at the same time. Then my question is that can we just drain and refill the fluid without changing the filter at 50,000 miles ? Can the filter be changed later, say at 100,000 miles ?

Thanks.

According to this.....the auto tranny holds 4.2 quarts on a 530

http://www.autozone.com/N,23200239/s...pecsSelect.htm

Thanks for the info.

did my last year at 45000km

Thanks for the closeup photos. :)

How much did you spend for ATF and oil pan?? are they OEM dealer parts??

Thanks.

total $320us
yes the are BMW parts

Yes, I did this very recently to my 04 530i and it was easier, but messier than I thought it would be. I used the new fromula Mobil 1 synthetic ATF. I used about 9 quarts total, a spilled maybe a quart or two. The ATF cost 7.99 per quart at a local autozone.

There are two plugs on the ATF, one to drain, of course, and the other to fill. You need to fill while engine is idling and the transmission at a certain temp (not sure off hand what exactly the temp is), I just did it while warm to the touch.

You'll need a little hand pump to pump the fluid into the fill hole. Also, you'll need to jack the car up at least 10 or 12 inches so you can fit under, and you'll have to remove the bottom panels.

You might as well do the coolant at the same time when you have the bottom panels off.

Not too difficult, but like I said, it's pretty messy. Took maybe an hour or two to do both the ATF and the coolant.

I suggest against messing with the pan to drop it or anything...especially at only 50,000 miles.

Hope this helps, let us know what you do.

And, my tranny and car for that matter have been perfect since the drain...and all was well before the drain and fill too. It's been about 5000 miles since I did this.

See my other post regarding this...but, yes, I would NOT drop the pan at 50,000 miles just for basic maintenance. If you're having a transmission problem or something, then that's another story...but ofr routine maintenance drain and fill is the way to go in my opinion. If you want to be really thouropugh, just do the drain and fill two or even three times.

I was thinking just drain and fill as you did. I would change the pan if the mileage is about 100k miles. I read the BMW instruction provided by Rudy in this forum. It did mention about filling the fluid first then idling the car to wait for fluid getting warm. Then filling fluid the second time with car running. My questions are :

1) do both drain and fill nuts have washers (O-rings) ?

2) if both do, then we need to replace them ?

Thanks,