The ATF actually holds up under day-to-day driving. ZF had a sever use interval (i.e. racing, sustained high speeds, towing) of around 55k miles or 8 yrs. I bought the kit from FCP Euro.
"Lifetime fluids" was a marketing ploy, not a maintenance philosophy.
Well whatever their reason, I don't believe its lifetime. ZF recommends fluid change for XF8HP variants, so that's good enough for me. I don't think I want a 'flush' where some machine is pumping fluid through the system - a change is good enough for me and a liter or two left in the torque converter will be mixed in with new fluid.
We have to realize the BMW and ZF make their money by initially selling you their product, and then by selling you repair parts such as valve bodies and solenoids. An automatic transmission goes through hell, especially in stop and go traffic. That's why I recommend that the fluid and the filter be changed every 40k-50k miles. Now, this does not replace all of the transmission fluid as several quarts remain in the torque converter and in the transmission "plumbing." I recommend that at 100k miles the transmission fluid needs to be exchanged (not flushed) via the fluid cooling hoses. In an exchange the fluid pump in the transmission is used to pump out old fluid and pump in new fluid. A proper shop will have a fluid exchange machine.
No, they don't. Get off that conspiracy train. Only someone who does not understand business at that scale can say something like this.
This user has been popping in from time to time to lay some whoppers and then leave without responding when he's asked about them.
The BMW version of benjy, methinks...
That’s really funny!
I’m right there with you. We had an ATF fluid exchange done on our E53 X5 4.4 around 75k and it returned to it’s normal, velvety shifting self again. That car drove as well as it did new when we sold it around 100k. I like the Mike Miller ‘Old School BMW Maintenance’ method and have tried to follow it best I can (along with some wisdom learned here), seems to be working ok for our stable.
Flush requires running in engine for 15 min or so. So unless there is some siphon point I can use to extract sample the flush is a non starter. Are these pre treatments/flushes worthless? They smelled a lot like gasoline. Super pungent when it came out of the car. I would rather get a good read on the UOA than use the flush of that’s the case.
I had never added a flush before so it was a bit of a lark. I’ll pass on it next time. I wonder what it adds to or how it otherwise alters a UOA?
Have you taken your out of warranty to a BMW dealer for repairs? Once my warranty is up I go to a well respected indie shop thaqt specializes in bimmers. Oh, I've owned and wrenched on bimmers since 1974.
I am out of warranty but I haven’t had a need for any work at the moment. I do some of my own wrenching as I enjoy it but also support our local BMW/Porsche independent. They are very good and have worked on my older BMWs and Mercedes diesel.
