handyben

I have a 2008 535xi with 157K kms. As a preventive maintenance I wanted to replace the transfer case fluid. After putting the car on 4 jack stands and removing the front and middle bottom covers, I located the fill and drain plugs for the transfer case, however access to the fill plug was blocked by the transfer case mounting bracket, leaving only a small gap barely enough for my finger to touch the plug. Has anyone here done this DIY and if so how did you remove and reinstall the fill plug? I ended up changing only the front and rear differential fluid although I still want to do the transfer case once I know how to access the fill plug. Any tips or advice will be much appreciated.

Sarge

Did you ever find a solution to this? I am in the same predicament. I read on another thread about an 11" long-arm allen wrench being used to access it from the exhaust area without dropping the exhaust, but I can't get in that way either. I may try dropping the heat shield above the exhaust to see if that helps, but otherwise it looks like the exhaust has to come out. Another needlessly complex German design...

audiophool

I suspect it's not about being needlessly complex, more about cramming the t-case in to a space it was never intended to fit. And this is the consequence.