Took the time to finally get this done today. Who do I call? The member HealthServices of course!!! Went over to his shop and took care of business. Took all but an hour but boy was it worth it. It's been said before but I am going to say it again. Don't believe that lifetime oil crap from BMW. When we drained the diff, the oil was in great condition for it having more than 90k miles on the clock. But still took no chances and got the fluid replaced with some REDLINE 75W90 gear oil. Then came the surprise, when we drained the SMG tranny maybe about a quart or so came out but no more. The fluid was pitch black and VERY watery even at that. It had ZERO viscosity in my opinion. We didn't think much of it though as I was expecting it to be dirty. We filled the tranny with REDLINE D4 ATF per recommendation from the website. And guess what, we pumped in 2-2.25 quarts. WTF?? where did all the fluid go? There was nothing leaking from the tranny! Well, this is purely speculative but as with all types of oil, it breaks down and loses viscosity over time. Also, some begin to condensate and begins to get "watered-down" and begins to evaporates when tranny is sufficiently hot.

Long story short, first MAD props to HealthServices! The tranny shifts so much smoother and grabs the next gear better. I can almost feel all the gears are floating in the fresh, high performance fluid. I will update the post when I drive it in traffic tomorrow to work and see if I can feel the difference there when the tranny is under heavy load.

Moral of the story, get your fluids changed, often as your budget permits. My whole swap cost me $85 with new REDLINE oil and new plugs with new seals. I guarantee you will have many more miles to smile about.

 

Glad it worked out for you, I agree, when Healthservices did my tranny and diff change my car felt much better. Highly recommend both the service and the work of Healthservices. LOL, maybe I will see you on the freeway in the morning.

 

I had my engine oil changed at the dealer this morning, and asked about changing my SMG oil/fluid.

My SA called his best tech who said that every time they drained an SMG and refilled, it never worked right again.

I'm really torn about whether or not to do this to my car. I'm at 101,500 miles now.

 

I've heard that too. But you gotta think, if your SMG is working ok now with dirty, 100k miles old oil, why would it not work with fresh/high-performance oil that EXCEEDS manufacturer's specs? I just went with logic and gut feeling on this one but still pretty confident that it wasn't going to cause issues. As with everything else, each motor, tranny and diff are NOT alike so experiences will vary. So, to each his own. LOL. But you will be in AWE if you do decide to it and watch the stuff that comes outta the tranny.

A quick anecdote. I had a 2JZ '88 Supra Turbo a while back that started to grind and rattle going from 1 to 2nd. Took the car to the dealer, they said I needed new synchros (new set of synchros = new tranny). Took it to a local mechanic who raced his cars, he told me to try a tranny flush with some racing gear oil. And voila! no more grinding and rattling. Started to shift like nothing happened with crisp feel. The culprit he said was the severe break down in viscosity in the conventional oil, specially with high miles.

Oh and as promised, an update to driving to work this morning. Definitely smoother shifts, quicker engage/disengage to/from clutch. The car seemed to drive a bit quieter too. :-) I LOVE THIS CAR!