Mr.PC

Does anyone yet have experience of Steptronic failing? The Tech Guy at the Roundel (magazine of BMW Car Club of America, for those that don't know) seems convinced you'll need a rebuild at around 100,000 miles. I'm interested in learning of transmissions that failed out of warranty - so I can consider putting pennies in a penny jar now (car has 6,600 miles). Also, Tech Guy says you should change transmission (and dif.) fluid at 30,000 miles -- "lifetime fill" only came into being when BMW started giving you "free" maintenance.

jet190rs

The normal life expectancy for any automatic transmission is about 100k miles.

Maybe newer advancements in transmissions have prolonged their lives, but 100k has been typical for the last few decades...

windnsea00

BMW has now said change the fluid @ 100k miles instead of never. It wouldn't be a bad idea to change every ~40k miles or so if you plan on keeping the car for a good deal of time. You just need to buy the filter kit which has the filter and pan gasket and then the correct fluid. You don't have to go all out and flush the tranny, dropping the pan would be beneficial enough getting ~70% of the old/dirty fluid out.

ImolaRedM

The "Lifetime" issue has been around for a while. U-Joints and transmissions and it's BS. ZF can say what they want but you should change out the fluid. The auto transmissions have never lasted as long as a good manual. It's possible to get 200k miles out of it but you'll need to take care. My E34 was my only BMW I optioned with an auto (other than the X5, no manual option) and when I got rid of the car it had over 160,000 miles on it with the original transmission.

engtechst

I did over 250,000 miles on my 528 steptronic, no problems and she is still going strong,( I gave the car to a friend when I got my E60 530 auto) I changed the Oil in the box every 100,000. The dealer did not want to due to the life time fill, but I read an article by an auto box specialist who recomended it.

TexaZ3

Before lifetime fills transmission oil was changed every 30-40K miles, so its a good idea to change it at that time. Good and not abused auto tranny should go for 100-150K without any problems.

cerbera

I also put well over 250k miles on my E39 528i steptronic, still as good as new when I moved it on.

The wear on the 'box is going to be a function of the use of the car; lots of motorway miles without gear changes, the box will just go on and on....lots of changes, especially under high acceleration in low gear, and you will get a lot more wear.

denuyl

had to change mine on a e34 diesel (lots of torque) after 70k, no problems sofar on my e39 528 (75k till now) and I would go bonkers if it would trouble me on my new e61 (1500 miles sofar)