Recommended manual gearbox fluid for 2003 M54 Z4

NaweedMustafa

Member
 Eindhoven NL
Hi all, I have my yearly service due in a while. the car has around 262,000km's on the clock, but scouring through the service history, i didnt see anything about a gearbox oil change. Thought it would be good to just get it done at the garage as a preventive measure. a mechanic closer to me said its lifetime oil so never needs to be changed however, heading to 300,000 km's im a bit skeptic about the whole lifetime claim. lifetime of the warranty i would assume?

It's a 2003 3.0i, should be the ZF transmission if im not mistaken.
 
BMW "Lifetime" seems to mean the lifetime of the cars warrantee and not the lifetime of the car. I think I have seen people quoting a gear oil change from every 50k - 100k depending on what you put into the google machine. I had mine done at 100k and won't be getting it done again for a long while.

If you do a search on here you should find plenty of threads on here about the Gear oil people have used. For the most part the majority of people seem to go for the Castrol 75w80 gear oil as long as it is to spec MTF-LT-2 im not sure it really matters what you put in there. Im pretty sure this is the same oil you can use for your Diff unless you have an LSD then you need slightly different oil.


https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=96232

EDIT: Just for fun a couple of links from the google machine
EDIT 2: Most of the info is RE Auto boxes as they are a little more sensitive than a manual but I suspect ZF will still say regular oil changes.

https://rightfootdown.com/cars/zf-calls-bs-on-lifetime-transmission-fluid/
https://bimmerist.com/lifetime-transmission-oil-to-change-or-not-to-change/

There is a rabbit hole you can stumble down if you so wish.
 
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