[ChristosD]

random but seeing that we can monitor the transmission oil temps what are the operating temps of the gearbox?

[Seba77W]

I emailed ZF after dealer didn't even give me a price quote and said BMW doesn't recommend replacing the transmission fluid and that it's a life time fill, maybe at 100k miles or so. And this is the reply I got:

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by Seba77W

I emailed ZF after dealer didn't even give me a price quote and said BMW doesn't recommend replacing the transmission fluid and that it's a life time fill, maybe at 100k miles or so. And this is the reply I got:

This is nothing new and it has been mentioned numerous times on the forums.

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by Ivan Ivanov

It is not very clear, there is already a general opinion - whether it is necessary to change the oil in the automatic transmission or not (as official dealers say)?
I'll even put the question in another - is it dangerous?
I do not know how you are, but in Russia on the services there is an opinion that if the oil in the automatic transmission has not been replaced by a run of 100,000 km then it is already dangerous to replace it (it's unclear why).

P.S. Car, if it matters - 320D (rear-wheel drive), the mileage is already 150.000km

100,000km is only 60k miles which is right in the middle of ZF's "servere service" fluid refresh interval. In the US ZF recommends a 100k mile(166k km) change interval for normal driving.

In the US repair shops would recommend not to change the fluid IF the original fluid was still in it and the unit had over 100k MILES. The fear was twofold: #1 New fluid would dislodge varnish which would then clog a passage way and cause shift problems. #2 The old fluid had clutch material floating around in it and taking that away would cause shift problems.


Neither are really an issue with today's mechtronics and sealed units. There just isn't a lot of oxidation and oil analysis seems to support that.

[Seba77W]

Originally Posted by F32Fleet

This is nothing new and it has been mentioned numerous times on the forums.

Ok well let me just delete my post since it's so unuseful... Seriously? This is an informational forum the more information the better. I for one have never seen an official statement on these forums from ZF regarding fluid change interval, so if I can help the next guy find it that much quicker I think it's worth it. And pretty much every topic on bimmerpost has been talked about numerous times so who cares?

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by Seba77W

Ok well let me just delete my post since it's so unuseful... Seriously? This is an informational forum the more information the better. I for one have never seen an official statement on these forums from ZF regarding fluid change interval, so if I can help the next guy find it that much quicker I think it's worth it. And pretty much every topic on bimmerpost has been talked about numerous times so who cares?

I'm not purposely trying to be an ass. I'm just saying that there are numerous posts for this sort of thing.

[Seba77W]

Originally Posted by F32Fleet

I'm not purposely trying to be an ass. I'm just saying that there are numerous posts for this sort of thing.

Well then just ignore the post if it's no good to you. Others might feel different.