I don't buy into the "lifetime fluid" claims made by BMW for certain components. My E61 currently sits with 83,000 miles on the clock. This weekend I decided to flush the power steering and transmission fluid.

I used CHF-11S for the power steering and Mercon XT6QSP for the transmission; power-steering was flushed x2 and the transmission was flushed once and then flushed again when I replaced the oil filter/pan.

Some rear-diff fluid is in the mail and I will tackle that shortly; I will follow a similar protocol a expect similar results.

I hope these photos can help if you are deciding between changing your fluid or not. Please keep in mind the fresh power-steering fluid looks like green mouthwash and the fresh transmission fluid looks like fruit-punch.

Evan

Power steering fluid 1st flush


ATF 1st flush


ATF 1st flush


ATF flush 2


ATF flush 2

 

hey man can you help me out too? according to bmw my atf fluid hasnt been changed and i have 135,243 miles on my 04 530I BMW she runs great! Just sometimes feels like its a little sluggish to respond

 

One of the reasons I looked into flushing the fluid was the behavior of my transmission, it was very clunky on downshifts, especially 2-1. It felt like I was rear ended at 2mph by a car with pillows attached to it's bumper. The trans was also very slow to respond to throttle/engine input off the line.

Evan

 

How did you do the power steering flush?.

 

Turned the wheel back and forth (lock to lock) and then pumped it out with one of those $5 Harbor Freight hand pumps. Filled it up with fresh fluid, turned the wheel back and forth again to make sure the system was full and mixed. Completed this two times.

Evan

 

Thanks, I have heard of people removing the hydraulic lines and letting the steering pump itself pump out old fluid which seemed like a lot of messy messing around.

 

I hear ya, it is always hard to pump something and be content with the clenliness as there is likely a layer of nasty sediment covering the bottom. If funds/time allows it seems like a good idea to do a double flush.

 

ZF procedure.

 

Thanks that looks easy enough.

 

A quick question.. Does your car have 1. active steering 2. active roll stabilization/dynamic drive?

The steering pump is different in this case.. does it elvolve the oil change in your (member's) opinion?

Thanks!