Howitzer

I was telling him that my car was at 67k miles and a 2004 and whether or not I should flush my transmission fluid. He told me time and time again that it could be an ok thing and it could go terribly wrong. He said that the reason BMW says lifetime fluid is if you put the WRONG fluid in there you will destroy the transmission. He also said that the other reason is on higher mileage cars you can easily strip the clutches inside there because the new trans fluid has very strong detergents in it. I suppose that is what he meant by "it could go either way".

How it ended up was he told me in all his years since the E60 has been released he has not seen even one of them come back to service for a new transmission and he said that he deals with the most-stupid customers who don't give a rat's ass about their cars and beat on them to death and not even then has one come there for trans replacements. He told me to either get the work done for $400 bucks to flush it all out twice and drive it for a couple of months. If the trans fails it'll happen within CPO warranty time and it will just get replaced.

So is he full of it, should I replace the trans fluid or just forget about it? He made it pretty clear to me that these transmissions are really made to last but then again E60 is only as old as 2004... When are you gonna see major trans failures in just 5 years?

pjinca

Good question, considering you can search here and see quite a few threads concerning "Tranny SLAM" and many of them have had theirs replaced. Anyone who had the "slam" issue want to chime in?

PraiseTheLowered

Honestly, with BMW shops and BMW NA doing everything they can to deny claims in this economy, why take something that isnt broken and attempt to fix it?

Youre taking a gamble with your car, which is your lifeline to your job and money and for what? To replace fluid that you dont need to replace.

You baby your car so i understand you wanting to maintain it, and you should do that but not with something that could pu your car out of commission for months at a time.

CPO isnt the best warranty and you may void it by replacing something that bmw says you shouldnt replace.

I think its just a hassle that you dont need to go through or put your car through

Put that money elsewhere, like sway bars or something that will actually help the car that does need to be replaced

stoic1

PTL has it right. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

TEAM M

+1

Howitzer

Thanks, this is why I love this forum.

bmwbill

i just had my 05 545 serviced two weeks ago and the did the tranny fluid. I asked about lifetime fill SA said key told him it has to be done so they did tranny service. I have 68k on the car. Mine is under full warrenty. who knows but lifetime fluild just doesnt seem right.

oxycontin

My indie mechanic is a bmw master technician, and he recommended against flushing the fluid after I asked him to. I don't know what that means to you, but hopefully that helps in your decision!

sessionmc

+1 My mechanic also recommended against changing tranny fluid.. even at 106k miles.

SCardamon

I heard it was always a good idea. Granted, I was talking to myself when I heard this so there is really no credability to the advice .

I would side with don't do it as well. I know the engine of an e60 is designed to run aggressively so I would assume the same consideration goes for the tranny and what BMW says is a good idea when it comes to fluid.