Changing auto transmition fluid in sealed for life gearbox
Discussion
I changed the gearbox oil on my 7 series over the weekend for the second time as the car now has 135k on the clock Last time I did it was at 85K when I dropped the oil pan, changed the filter and cleaned the magnets of swarf.
This time I just changed the oil, a simple procedure of undoing the drain plug, leaving it to drain for a couple of hours and then running the engine for 5 seconds which gets a bit more out of the torque converter. (People will say not to do this, but I have never had a problem and a respected auto box specialist also does it….)
Filling is easy, through the filler tube on the bottom of the pan, using some 1ltr containers of oil with a flexi spout.
Drove it to work today and the gear changes are sooooo much smother. If you are contemplating doing this or getting it done I can recommend it…. The oil was £9.90 per liter so it’s not that expensive to do, just make sure you use the right oil!
I know they are supposed to be sealed for life but I am hoping to run this car up to 200K and as its worth very little, a gearbox failure would write the car off… I was looking at it as preventative maintenance!
While I was on I changed the diff oil as well… which was clean as a whistle when it came out….
This time I just changed the oil, a simple procedure of undoing the drain plug, leaving it to drain for a couple of hours and then running the engine for 5 seconds which gets a bit more out of the torque converter. (People will say not to do this, but I have never had a problem and a respected auto box specialist also does it….)
Filling is easy, through the filler tube on the bottom of the pan, using some 1ltr containers of oil with a flexi spout.
Drove it to work today and the gear changes are sooooo much smother. If you are contemplating doing this or getting it done I can recommend it…. The oil was £9.90 per liter so it’s not that expensive to do, just make sure you use the right oil!
I know they are supposed to be sealed for life but I am hoping to run this car up to 200K and as its worth very little, a gearbox failure would write the car off… I was looking at it as preventative maintenance!
While I was on I changed the diff oil as well… which was clean as a whistle when it came out….
I thought you had to make sure the gearbox oil was at a set temp before draining (30 deg C), to get a decent amount out?
DIY guide here
http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=65...
DIY guide here
http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=65...
dave_s13 said:
I thought you had to make sure the gearbox oil was at a set temp before draining (30 deg C), to get a decent amount out?
DIY guide here
http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=65...
Errmm..........Do you have to be a member to access that site?DIY guide here
http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=65...
buzzer said:
I changed the gearbox oil on my 7 series over the weekend for the second time as the car now has 135k on the clock Last time I did it was at 85K when I dropped the oil pan, changed the filter and cleaned the magnets of swarf.
This time I just changed the oil, a simple procedure of undoing the drain plug, leaving it to drain for a couple of hours and then running the engine for 5 seconds which gets a bit more out of the torque converter. (People will say not to do this, but I have never had a problem and a respected auto box specialist also does it….)
Filling is easy, through the filler tube on the bottom of the pan, using some 1ltr containers of oil with a flexi spout.
Drove it to work today and the gear changes are sooooo much smother. If you are contemplating doing this or getting it done I can recommend it…. The oil was £9.90 per liter so it’s not that expensive to do, just make sure you use the right oil!
I know they are supposed to be sealed for life but I am hoping to run this car up to 200K and as its worth very little, a gearbox failure would write the car off… I was looking at it as preventative maintenance!
While I was on I changed the diff oil as well… which was clean as a whistle when it came out….
My specialist (and many others) all recommend changing the oil/filter in supposedly "sealed for life boxes" and I have had it done on all my BMW auto's.This time I just changed the oil, a simple procedure of undoing the drain plug, leaving it to drain for a couple of hours and then running the engine for 5 seconds which gets a bit more out of the torque converter. (People will say not to do this, but I have never had a problem and a respected auto box specialist also does it….)
Filling is easy, through the filler tube on the bottom of the pan, using some 1ltr containers of oil with a flexi spout.
Drove it to work today and the gear changes are sooooo much smother. If you are contemplating doing this or getting it done I can recommend it…. The oil was £9.90 per liter so it’s not that expensive to do, just make sure you use the right oil!
I know they are supposed to be sealed for life but I am hoping to run this car up to 200K and as its worth very little, a gearbox failure would write the car off… I was looking at it as preventative maintenance!
While I was on I changed the diff oil as well… which was clean as a whistle when it came out….
As an aside if you have an E38 7 series, check how old the gearbox software is. BMW released a number of updates for this which improve long term gearbox operation/wear.
I had mine checked when I got my E38 and it was still on its original build software. Updating it improved things noticeably. A reputable specialist should be able to do it.
sparkythecat said:
dave_s13 said:
I thought you had to make sure the gearbox oil was at a set temp before draining (30 deg C), to get a decent amount out?
DIY guide here
http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=65...
Errmm..........Do you have to be a member to access that site?DIY guide here
http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=65...
dave_s13 said:
sparkythecat said:
dave_s13 said:
I thought you had to make sure the gearbox oil was at a set temp before draining (30 deg C), to get a decent amount out?
DIY guide here
http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=65...
Errmm..........Do you have to be a member to access that site?DIY guide here
http://www.bmwland.co.uk/talker/viewtopic.php?t=65...
Copied and pasted so will be full of typos and weird stuff......sign up on BMWland, it's a pretty useful place really.
Ryan1984 off of BMWLand said:
I hope this can be made a sticky as i have put a lot of work in to this DIY to help others, this is a very important service part on your e39 that should be done, and below will tell you how to do it.
Right here we go people, I know there were a few guys on here that want to do this but are not sure on the info or what or how to do.
The info I am about to give use at your own risk and I will not be held responsible if you kill your car lol.
Right so below I will talk you though what you have to do and what you need to service your auto box and rear diff.
[color=red]Gear box service[/color]
First thing to do is to find out what gearbox you have (auto) so you know what bits you need to order and what fluid you need, it is so important to use the right fluid or you box wont last long!!
There are 4 types of auto box on our e39's:
[u]Gearbox type 1 - 5HP30 A5S560Z[/u]
[u]Gearbox type 2 - 5HP24 A5S440Z[/u]
[u]Gearbox type 3 - 5HP19 A5S325Z[/u]
[u]Gearbox type 4 - 5HP18 A5S310Z[/u]
Now to make sure you know what auto box you have you will have to get under the car, even if you have you chassis number they cant tell you what box you have?, have a look at the pics then get under your car and see what pic matches your auto box, all so if you look at the back of the gear box (where the drive shaft is) you will see a metal tab on there telling you what gear box you have.
Now I will be talking you though the 5hp19 box type 3 as this was my box, but the others will be the same.
Now once your under the car look on the sump of your auto box, there should be a sticker, now I could not see mine, after getting under the car with some rag and WD40 and cleaned the sump I could see the sticker, on this sticker it will give you a code, this code will tell you what fluid to use.
On my box my code was: 83229407807 this is Esso ATF LT 71141 fluid you can use as this is the same stuff bmw use, to order this it comes in a 20ltr drum, it sounds a lot but even though your car only holds 8.9 litres I did a flush as well. You can order this from http://www.oil-store.co.uk/?path=catalog&top=1...
If you have a different code go to http://www.oil-store.co.uk and send Karen an e-mail, he has a chart from bmw he can check from, give him your code and he will tell you what fluid bmw use for that box.
Now you know what fluid your box will use that�s 1 bit done, now you need to order the bits you will need to do the job, once you know what box you have out of the 4 you need to order:
Gearbox sump gasket x1
Gearbox sump drain plug x1
Gearbox fill plug x1
Gearbox filter x1
Gearbox fluid (order from http://www.oil-store.co.uk)
Go to your BMW dealer and give in your reg number, chassis number, and gear box type and order your bits, they take about 2 days for bit to come in.
Now this is up to you on how you do this, to fill your box the fluid has to be at a certain temp, you can just stick a thermometer in the fill plug to get a aprox reading, I bought the car soft software, this is a better way.
I used car soft v2 that I got off eBay ' BMW DIAGNOSTIC CAR SCANNER OBD 1&2 FOR CARSOFT 6.5 ' you will need to buy an usb-rs232 Serial Adapter if your laptop doesn't have an rs232 Serial Port. Most Reliable are the ones with Prolific PL-2303 Chip & FTDI Chip, this is the one I used:
http://www.usbnow.co.uk/Adapters_&_Connectors-...
Right now you should have your gearbox oil, your parts and your software, now you can start the job.
1. The first thing to do is get your car in the air but level, this is important as you need to check and fill your box level!!
This is how I done mine, I drove the rear of the car on some ramps, then look under the front of your car, on the engines sub frame you will see a big rubber jacking point, use this to raise the front of the car, once you have jacked the car level get a set of axle stands out and place them under the engines sub frame, once this is done your car should look like this:
2. Now Bmw say before you drain the gearbox fluid it has to be at 30c as this warms up the fluid and also more fluid is in the sump, so connect up your car soft to your lap top, and look up ' live data EGS ' this will give you live data of your gear box, this is how I connected mine up:
Start your car and let it warm up, in your live data of EGS you will see your gearbox temp; this was mine when I first started her:
Let the box warm up for a good 10 mins and once at aprox 30c it will look like this:
3. Now you can drain your fluid, get under the car with some rag, drums or tins to catch the fluid, now please do this bit first, check you can undo your filler plug first, just crack it lose, you cant miss the plug:
Once you have cracked it, crack the drain plug:
now this stuff stinks and is not nice lol AND KEEP YOUR HANDS WELL AWAY FROM THE PAINT WORK!!!, undo the drain plug and let it drain in to the tins, once done you should have some oil:
Now as you can see this stuff is meant to be a gold colour lol, what come out is not, so it was deffo time to be changed.
4. Now you want to remove your sump, but at this stage don�t damage your gasket as your gona use you old gasket and filter for the first change. Get under the car and start to undo all the little star bolts, I cant rember what size they are but they are quite small and there is a good 20+ of these so it will take a while lol, undo all of the but leave 2 in either end, now I called a mate to give a hand for this, he held the sump while I removed the last 2 bolts, now you can lower the sump, watch your self as there still will be fluid in there. Once removed your box should look like this:
5. Now as you can see the crap in my sump
, this was not just dirty oil but crap was on the bottom and the magnets were well craped up:
Remove the magnets from the sump, just pull them off and put them to one side, get a clean cloth and start to clean down the sump, do not use anything to clean the sump with, just use clean rag!, clean each magnet as well and place them back:
6. Now bolt back the sump with still using the old gasket and filter and torque up the drain plug (35nm)
7. Now I bought a hand pump to pump in the fluid, this worked fantastic, I rigged up a new wind screen washer pump and run it at 7.2v to pump the fluid in but after 10 mins the motor went so I bought this hand pump, it worked fantastic:
Now start to pump the fluid in to the box, you don�t want to over fill ok, pump a good 3 can fills in to the box, then start to inch a bit in at a time, if you just keep on doing full pumps when you remove the pipe it will go every where, so edge a tad in and pull the pipe out, if it does not dribble out put a tad more in etc.
So fill your gun with fluid, just place the tube in the tank and lift the handle:
Now pump in to box:
Once the fluid start to dribble out the hole:
Place the fill plug in the filler hole.
8. Now since its not a good idear to run your box low on fluid I done a 2nd fill, start your engine up for 10 secs and turn off.
Now get back under the car and remove your filler plug, you should notice your fluid level has dropped, fill again until it over fills:
And place the plug back in.
9. Start up your engine and connect up your lap top, now I got a mate to help, he done the laptop work and the work in side the car and I done the dirty work, as I don�t want my laptop or car covered in crap, once your gear box has warmed up to 30c keep the engine running and remove the filler plug, with the engine running and the air con on and your mate working it though the gears ( foot hard on brake!!! ) start to fill the fluid until it dribbles out ( DO NOT WORK IT THOUGH THE GEARS WHEN YOU ARE UNDER THE CAR!! ), once it starts to dribble out place the plug back in.
10. So with a mate in your car let it tick over and let the box warm up to 40 - 50 c, I done mine at 44c I think, once at 40 - 50 c
Once its at that heat your box should be full of oil, now the oil should not drip out but should stream out etc, so under the car again at 44c undo the filler plug, as I got to the end of the thread it just start to stream out from the plug once removed for 0.2 sec lol, so now you have the right amount of fluid in your car at the right temp.
11. Torque up your old drain and fill plugs, my drain was 35nm and my fill was 30nm
12. Now I put the car on normal ground and went for a 10 mile trip to let the new oil flush round the system, I have to admit I did not think the box could be any better as there was nothing wrong with it to start with but what a difference, its so much smoother, changes are quicker, does not do any of this changing up when you don�t want it to ( mine did not do this any way ) but in general, its was well worth the hassle.
13. Now get your car back home, get the car in the air again but level and with the gear box at 30c check the gearbox fluid level, as soon as I removed my filler plug it still dribbled out so the amount in there was fine.
14. Now again you have to start back from section 1. do to the same job you just done, the only difference this time is your gona drain the fluid out to replace it with new stuff again, replace the filter, gasket, plugs and clean sump.
So once you have got back up to section 4 your can remove your sump again and it should look a lot better, this was mine after a 10 mile trip:
as said the sump looks so much better, just look at the pic when the sump was first removed to these pics, clean the sump again and magnets etc and place new gasket on:
15. Now remove your old filter, it�s just held in by 2 screws, and then a good tug:
And remove your old gasket from the gearbox
16. The new rubber seal on the filter smear with a small bit of your gearbox oil ONLY!!!! And fix the new filter to your gear box:
These are the new and old filter:
17. Now bolt your sump back up and torque up your new drain plug 35nm.
18. looking back up above you need to fill again, so fill your box up with fluid until it dribbles out:
place your old fill plug back in and start car for 10 secs then turn engine off to suck though the new fluid.
19. Again get back under car, remove the fill plug and fill again until it over fillers and place back old plug again.
20. Get your mate to warm the car up, once your gear box is at 30c:
with engine running, air con on, and your mate working though gears fill with oil until it over flows, and place old plug back in, again let it warm up to 44c with your mate working it though the gears (AGAIN DONT WORK UNDER CAR WHEN HE IS WORKING THOUGH THE GEARS!!!), get back under the car and check the level by removing the filler plug, if it dribbles out you are done!
21. Take the car for a good 10 mile trip again and recheck the fluid level at 30c. And torque up the drain plug at 35nm.
[color=red]Rear Diff service[/color]
Now while your at it, its a good idear to service your diff at the same time, now again you need to know what fluid you need and what bits you need etc.
Now if you have a slip diff you will need: Castrol SAF-XJ 75w-140 fully synthetic final drive lubricant
And for a non slip diff you will need: Castrol SAF-XO 75w-90 Synthetic Final Drive Lubricant
Now your diff hold 1.1 litres, so I got 2ltr
You will all so want to order the drain and fill plugs from BMW.
1. Again under your car round the diff area, I noticed I had a very slight leak, I found out what this was and you will find out in a tick:
2. Again you want to remove your filler plug, helps push out old oil by letting air in and to make sure it�s not stuck.
3. Remove your filler plug and then your drain plug and let it drain:
4. Now you might want to check this as this caused mine to leak a touch, once removed the drain plug I noticed it was not sitting flush?, once removed I noticed I had the drain plug removed with the washer, but round the rim of the drain hole on the diff there was still half of a washer!!!!! Have a look!!!
So that was the slight leak fixed.
5. Now once drained leave the plugs out, and get your new fluid:
6. Now with you new fluid just squirt a little bit in and let it dribble out the drain hole, this will just push out a tad of the old fluid.
7. Now place your new drain plug back in the diff with the washer and torque it up 60nm
8. Fill your diff up until it dribbles out and quickly place the new filler plug and washer in and torque that up 60nm again.
9. Take your car for a spin and again check the fluid level by the filler plug
Stand back give your car a good wash and wax and job done
Again all the above do at your own risk but if you use this to help you, you will be fine
Now all of this was not cheap at all, i did by some extras fan belt, air con belt, service bits for engine, fuel line, etc but it put a big hole in my wallet, i did aprox �300-�350 just in bits, but thats to service the auto box, rear diff , engine , and some extra bits, buying the engine oil, diff oil and gear box oil alone came to aprox �200 !!!! , so make sure you have some � lol
Ryan.
Right here we go people, I know there were a few guys on here that want to do this but are not sure on the info or what or how to do.
The info I am about to give use at your own risk and I will not be held responsible if you kill your car lol.
Right so below I will talk you though what you have to do and what you need to service your auto box and rear diff.
[color=red]Gear box service[/color]
First thing to do is to find out what gearbox you have (auto) so you know what bits you need to order and what fluid you need, it is so important to use the right fluid or you box wont last long!!
There are 4 types of auto box on our e39's:
[u]Gearbox type 1 - 5HP30 A5S560Z[/u]
[u]Gearbox type 2 - 5HP24 A5S440Z[/u]
[u]Gearbox type 3 - 5HP19 A5S325Z[/u]
[u]Gearbox type 4 - 5HP18 A5S310Z[/u]
Now to make sure you know what auto box you have you will have to get under the car, even if you have you chassis number they cant tell you what box you have?, have a look at the pics then get under your car and see what pic matches your auto box, all so if you look at the back of the gear box (where the drive shaft is) you will see a metal tab on there telling you what gear box you have.
Now I will be talking you though the 5hp19 box type 3 as this was my box, but the others will be the same.
Now once your under the car look on the sump of your auto box, there should be a sticker, now I could not see mine, after getting under the car with some rag and WD40 and cleaned the sump I could see the sticker, on this sticker it will give you a code, this code will tell you what fluid to use.
On my box my code was: 83229407807 this is Esso ATF LT 71141 fluid you can use as this is the same stuff bmw use, to order this it comes in a 20ltr drum, it sounds a lot but even though your car only holds 8.9 litres I did a flush as well. You can order this from http://www.oil-store.co.uk/?path=catalog&top=1...
If you have a different code go to http://www.oil-store.co.uk and send Karen an e-mail, he has a chart from bmw he can check from, give him your code and he will tell you what fluid bmw use for that box.
Now you know what fluid your box will use that�s 1 bit done, now you need to order the bits you will need to do the job, once you know what box you have out of the 4 you need to order:
Gearbox sump gasket x1
Gearbox sump drain plug x1
Gearbox fill plug x1
Gearbox filter x1
Gearbox fluid (order from http://www.oil-store.co.uk)
Go to your BMW dealer and give in your reg number, chassis number, and gear box type and order your bits, they take about 2 days for bit to come in.
Now this is up to you on how you do this, to fill your box the fluid has to be at a certain temp, you can just stick a thermometer in the fill plug to get a aprox reading, I bought the car soft software, this is a better way.
I used car soft v2 that I got off eBay ' BMW DIAGNOSTIC CAR SCANNER OBD 1&2 FOR CARSOFT 6.5 ' you will need to buy an usb-rs232 Serial Adapter if your laptop doesn't have an rs232 Serial Port. Most Reliable are the ones with Prolific PL-2303 Chip & FTDI Chip, this is the one I used:
http://www.usbnow.co.uk/Adapters_&_Connectors-...
Right now you should have your gearbox oil, your parts and your software, now you can start the job.
1. The first thing to do is get your car in the air but level, this is important as you need to check and fill your box level!!
This is how I done mine, I drove the rear of the car on some ramps, then look under the front of your car, on the engines sub frame you will see a big rubber jacking point, use this to raise the front of the car, once you have jacked the car level get a set of axle stands out and place them under the engines sub frame, once this is done your car should look like this:
2. Now Bmw say before you drain the gearbox fluid it has to be at 30c as this warms up the fluid and also more fluid is in the sump, so connect up your car soft to your lap top, and look up ' live data EGS ' this will give you live data of your gear box, this is how I connected mine up:
Start your car and let it warm up, in your live data of EGS you will see your gearbox temp; this was mine when I first started her:
Let the box warm up for a good 10 mins and once at aprox 30c it will look like this:
3. Now you can drain your fluid, get under the car with some rag, drums or tins to catch the fluid, now please do this bit first, check you can undo your filler plug first, just crack it lose, you cant miss the plug:
Once you have cracked it, crack the drain plug:
now this stuff stinks and is not nice lol AND KEEP YOUR HANDS WELL AWAY FROM THE PAINT WORK!!!, undo the drain plug and let it drain in to the tins, once done you should have some oil:
Now as you can see this stuff is meant to be a gold colour lol, what come out is not, so it was deffo time to be changed.
4. Now you want to remove your sump, but at this stage don�t damage your gasket as your gona use you old gasket and filter for the first change. Get under the car and start to undo all the little star bolts, I cant rember what size they are but they are quite small and there is a good 20+ of these so it will take a while lol, undo all of the but leave 2 in either end, now I called a mate to give a hand for this, he held the sump while I removed the last 2 bolts, now you can lower the sump, watch your self as there still will be fluid in there. Once removed your box should look like this:
5. Now as you can see the crap in my sump
, this was not just dirty oil but crap was on the bottom and the magnets were well craped up:Remove the magnets from the sump, just pull them off and put them to one side, get a clean cloth and start to clean down the sump, do not use anything to clean the sump with, just use clean rag!, clean each magnet as well and place them back:
6. Now bolt back the sump with still using the old gasket and filter and torque up the drain plug (35nm)
7. Now I bought a hand pump to pump in the fluid, this worked fantastic, I rigged up a new wind screen washer pump and run it at 7.2v to pump the fluid in but after 10 mins the motor went so I bought this hand pump, it worked fantastic:
Now start to pump the fluid in to the box, you don�t want to over fill ok, pump a good 3 can fills in to the box, then start to inch a bit in at a time, if you just keep on doing full pumps when you remove the pipe it will go every where, so edge a tad in and pull the pipe out, if it does not dribble out put a tad more in etc.
So fill your gun with fluid, just place the tube in the tank and lift the handle:
Now pump in to box:
Once the fluid start to dribble out the hole:
Place the fill plug in the filler hole.
8. Now since its not a good idear to run your box low on fluid I done a 2nd fill, start your engine up for 10 secs and turn off.
Now get back under the car and remove your filler plug, you should notice your fluid level has dropped, fill again until it over fills:
And place the plug back in.
9. Start up your engine and connect up your lap top, now I got a mate to help, he done the laptop work and the work in side the car and I done the dirty work, as I don�t want my laptop or car covered in crap, once your gear box has warmed up to 30c keep the engine running and remove the filler plug, with the engine running and the air con on and your mate working it though the gears ( foot hard on brake!!! ) start to fill the fluid until it dribbles out ( DO NOT WORK IT THOUGH THE GEARS WHEN YOU ARE UNDER THE CAR!! ), once it starts to dribble out place the plug back in.
10. So with a mate in your car let it tick over and let the box warm up to 40 - 50 c, I done mine at 44c I think, once at 40 - 50 c
Once its at that heat your box should be full of oil, now the oil should not drip out but should stream out etc, so under the car again at 44c undo the filler plug, as I got to the end of the thread it just start to stream out from the plug once removed for 0.2 sec lol, so now you have the right amount of fluid in your car at the right temp.
11. Torque up your old drain and fill plugs, my drain was 35nm and my fill was 30nm
12. Now I put the car on normal ground and went for a 10 mile trip to let the new oil flush round the system, I have to admit I did not think the box could be any better as there was nothing wrong with it to start with but what a difference, its so much smoother, changes are quicker, does not do any of this changing up when you don�t want it to ( mine did not do this any way ) but in general, its was well worth the hassle.
13. Now get your car back home, get the car in the air again but level and with the gear box at 30c check the gearbox fluid level, as soon as I removed my filler plug it still dribbled out so the amount in there was fine.
14. Now again you have to start back from section 1. do to the same job you just done, the only difference this time is your gona drain the fluid out to replace it with new stuff again, replace the filter, gasket, plugs and clean sump.
So once you have got back up to section 4 your can remove your sump again and it should look a lot better, this was mine after a 10 mile trip:
as said the sump looks so much better, just look at the pic when the sump was first removed to these pics, clean the sump again and magnets etc and place new gasket on:
15. Now remove your old filter, it�s just held in by 2 screws, and then a good tug:
And remove your old gasket from the gearbox
16. The new rubber seal on the filter smear with a small bit of your gearbox oil ONLY!!!! And fix the new filter to your gear box:
These are the new and old filter:
17. Now bolt your sump back up and torque up your new drain plug 35nm.
18. looking back up above you need to fill again, so fill your box up with fluid until it dribbles out:
place your old fill plug back in and start car for 10 secs then turn engine off to suck though the new fluid.
19. Again get back under car, remove the fill plug and fill again until it over fillers and place back old plug again.
20. Get your mate to warm the car up, once your gear box is at 30c:
with engine running, air con on, and your mate working though gears fill with oil until it over flows, and place old plug back in, again let it warm up to 44c with your mate working it though the gears (AGAIN DONT WORK UNDER CAR WHEN HE IS WORKING THOUGH THE GEARS!!!), get back under the car and check the level by removing the filler plug, if it dribbles out you are done!
21. Take the car for a good 10 mile trip again and recheck the fluid level at 30c. And torque up the drain plug at 35nm.
[color=red]Rear Diff service[/color]
Now while your at it, its a good idear to service your diff at the same time, now again you need to know what fluid you need and what bits you need etc.
Now if you have a slip diff you will need: Castrol SAF-XJ 75w-140 fully synthetic final drive lubricant
And for a non slip diff you will need: Castrol SAF-XO 75w-90 Synthetic Final Drive Lubricant
Now your diff hold 1.1 litres, so I got 2ltr
You will all so want to order the drain and fill plugs from BMW.
1. Again under your car round the diff area, I noticed I had a very slight leak, I found out what this was and you will find out in a tick:
2. Again you want to remove your filler plug, helps push out old oil by letting air in and to make sure it�s not stuck.
3. Remove your filler plug and then your drain plug and let it drain:
4. Now you might want to check this as this caused mine to leak a touch, once removed the drain plug I noticed it was not sitting flush?, once removed I noticed I had the drain plug removed with the washer, but round the rim of the drain hole on the diff there was still half of a washer!!!!! Have a look!!!
So that was the slight leak fixed.
5. Now once drained leave the plugs out, and get your new fluid:
6. Now with you new fluid just squirt a little bit in and let it dribble out the drain hole, this will just push out a tad of the old fluid.
7. Now place your new drain plug back in the diff with the washer and torque it up 60nm
8. Fill your diff up until it dribbles out and quickly place the new filler plug and washer in and torque that up 60nm again.
9. Take your car for a spin and again check the fluid level by the filler plug
Stand back give your car a good wash and wax and job done
Again all the above do at your own risk but if you use this to help you, you will be fine
Now all of this was not cheap at all, i did by some extras fan belt, air con belt, service bits for engine, fuel line, etc but it put a big hole in my wallet, i did aprox �300-�350 just in bits, but thats to service the auto box, rear diff , engine , and some extra bits, buying the engine oil, diff oil and gear box oil alone came to aprox �200 !!!! , so make sure you have some � lol
Ryan.
Edited by dave_s13 on Monday 18th May 22:22
Hi
I have posted this a few times on various threads over th eyears, but can confirm that I had a transmission specialist do my old E39 540 about 18 months ago. The transmission specialist I used (Dartford Transmissions) used a specialist piece of pump equipment which pumps out all the oil, even most of what is in the converter and then flush the system as well. I have been told that if you drain only then you probably only get out 60% or so of the old oil but still worth it I guess. The whole job including oil was around £130 or so all in. Worth remembering perhaps if you dont fancy doing the job yourself! (and arguably getting it done better due to the equipment they use).
Great guide though!
I have posted this a few times on various threads over th eyears, but can confirm that I had a transmission specialist do my old E39 540 about 18 months ago. The transmission specialist I used (Dartford Transmissions) used a specialist piece of pump equipment which pumps out all the oil, even most of what is in the converter and then flush the system as well. I have been told that if you drain only then you probably only get out 60% or so of the old oil but still worth it I guess. The whole job including oil was around £130 or so all in. Worth remembering perhaps if you dont fancy doing the job yourself! (and arguably getting it done better due to the equipment they use).
Great guide though!
christer said:
Hi
I have posted this a few times on various threads over th eyears, but can confirm that I had a transmission specialist do my old E39 540 about 18 months ago. The transmission specialist I used (Dartford Transmissions) used a specialist piece of pump equipment which pumps out all the oil, even most of what is in the converter and then flush the system as well. I have been told that if you drain only then you probably only get out 60% or so of the old oil but still worth it I guess. The whole job including oil was around £130 or so all in. Worth remembering perhaps if you dont fancy doing the job yourself! (and arguably getting it done better due to the equipment they use).
Great guide though!
£130 sounds incredibly cheap to me, thanks for that guide though - it looks easy enough if you have the space I have posted this a few times on various threads over th eyears, but can confirm that I had a transmission specialist do my old E39 540 about 18 months ago. The transmission specialist I used (Dartford Transmissions) used a specialist piece of pump equipment which pumps out all the oil, even most of what is in the converter and then flush the system as well. I have been told that if you drain only then you probably only get out 60% or so of the old oil but still worth it I guess. The whole job including oil was around £130 or so all in. Worth remembering perhaps if you dont fancy doing the job yourself! (and arguably getting it done better due to the equipment they use).
Great guide though!
Hi Digger
Well, the majority of the cost was the oil, I think they do not charge more than an hour labour because you undo some bits and let it stand. Then you use the pressure equipment and then flush and refill. They are specialists in this, so although the car needs to be there for some hours due to temps etc., they dont actually spend very much time working if you see what I mean.....
Well, the majority of the cost was the oil, I think they do not charge more than an hour labour because you undo some bits and let it stand. Then you use the pressure equipment and then flush and refill. They are specialists in this, so although the car needs to be there for some hours due to temps etc., they dont actually spend very much time working if you see what I mean.....
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