Auto fluid, change or leave?
- Thread starter JimBob78
- Start date
worth doing imo
had mine done last year, and wont need doing again for a long time.
had mine done last year, and wont need doing again for a long time.
Always worth doing and usually makes a noticeable difference, BMW say these things are sealed for life but it complete B/S. I'd find either a reputable auto gearbox specialist or BMW specialist nearby to do it. Make sure they're using a good quality oil as some will cut corners here to keep the price down/get the job.
JimBob78 said:
Not really sure to be honest as I'm not well up on the price of parts/fluids or complete kits for the later 6 speed box. What I do remember is the filter is integrated in the sump on these so to do a proper job you need a kit that comes with a new sump/filter combo as well as the oil/gaskets etc and that makes it a lot pricier than the earlier 5 speed with its separate £10-20 filter.
I'd find out exactly what they are doing and what oil they are using and price up the parts/kits etc (bearing in mind they'll no doubt be getting a trade price) the job itself's about an hours labour, so you work out from that what they're changing for the doing.
Be very carefully with auto fluid changes as there are a lot of cowboys out there that cut corners to be cheap to land the job. They do this by using cheap oils and not changing the filter or saying they've cleaned it instead! Seriously would you be happy if you took your car for an oil change and the mechanic said "not changed the oil filter as I couldn't get one on the day/they're expensive so I just cleaned it!" One things for sure, some wont even touch the filter and even if they do they never get them anything like as clean as a new filter, no matter what they do to it.
The other thing to be wary of is that they follow the correct fill procedure. Not following the procedure correctly and under filling etc can kill autoboxes.
If I was you I would phone around a few bonafide, experienced and reputable BMW specialists as well as some autobox specialists to see what they actually do, what they actually use etc. You want someone with a good rep who's not some small time in case it goes wrong so you,ve got decent comeback/legal address etc as replacing an autobox ain't cheap!
R60BBA said:
Bear in mind a manual consists of drain, 2 new plugs and around 1.1l of oil
An auto box requires a new filter/sump depending on the box, various seals and o rings, plus around 8-10l of transmission fluid, as well as a very precise fill procedure where you need the fluid to heat up to a specific temperature to check levels.
Last I checked the fluid itself to correct spec is something like £8 a litre? Might even be more.
mjennings23 said:
HyperGrade said:
Thanks for the info all. Apparently the kit from bmw is 190 although you can getbone off eBay for less. So looks like I'm paying 2 hours labour on top inc vat. The local gearbox specialist wants 285 so i think around 300 is probably reasonable knowing it's genuine parts and being done by a bmw specialist. Just hope it al goes smoothly!
Cheers
Cheers
Quick update
Fluid was changed today, so far so good, noticble improvement to shifts, not noticed any improvement to performance like some have but apparently this and the shifts will continue to improve over time. Didn't reset the parameters as apparently can cause shift issues.
So would suggest if you're nearing 100k it's worth doing.
Cheers
Fluid was changed today, so far so good, noticble improvement to shifts, not noticed any improvement to performance like some have but apparently this and the shifts will continue to improve over time. Didn't reset the parameters as apparently can cause shift issues.
So would suggest if you're nearing 100k it's worth doing.
Cheers
