Self oil change on 99 528i

[Garik]

has anyone done it??? is it as it says in bmwtips.com???


please... let me know.... thank you

ps... Oil change in trans and engine.

Thank you

[TheMatrixz]

Engine oil change is straight forward, just follow the direction on BMWtips. I haven't crawled under the car to change oil since I got the oil extractor.

Tranny oil change is more involved, if you have an auto transmission, take a look at this site

http://www.geocities.com/thesynic/E36trans.html

The E39's tranny is the same.

[MatWiz]

Engine oil change is straight forward, just follow the direction on BMWtips. I haven't crawled under the car to change oil since I got the oil extractor.

Tranny oil change is more involved, if you have an auto transmission, take a look at this site

http://www.geocities.com/thesynic/E36trans.html

The E39's tranny is the same.
Q: Have you ever changed your transmission fluids? (DIY or at a shop?)

[TheMatrixz]

Q: Have you ever changed your transmission fluids? (DIY or at a shop?)


I have not, but plan to do it as soon as it gets a bit warmer here. I don't feel safe under then car with jackstands at all, so chances are I'll find a shop to do it for me. If you bring yours to a shop, make sure they use the correct fluid and follow the BMW procedure religiously. I have 100k+ on mine so I probaby won't do a power flush, just a normal fluid and filter+gasket change.

[Garik]

well i am planning to do it hopefully this weekend. I will let you know guys if its fun(!?) :D

i am planning to use mobil1 or redline trans oil and for engine the same... is that good choice? filter/cabin filters/gas filter/sparks and wires from dealer?!

[dagoo98]

well i am planning to do it hopefully this weekend. I will let you know guys if its fun(!?) :D

i am planning to use mobil1 or redline trans oil and for engine the same... is that good choice? filter/cabin filters/gas filter/sparks and wires from dealer?!


I think some people had problems with Redline for the trani, do a search. I used royal purple in my gearbox and its done wonders. Not sure if they offer a product for auto transmissions. Many people use Mobil 1 engine oil on this board, BMW recommends 5W-30 synthetic.

[MatWiz]

Any kind of comarison between automatic transmission to a manual transmission's fluids and/or procedure and/or their effect is.... :dunno:

[MatWiz]

I have not, but plan to do it as soon as it gets a bit warmer here. I don't feel safe under then car with jackstands at all, so chances are I'll find a shop to do it for me. If you bring yours to a shop, make sure they use the correct fluid and follow the BMW procedure religiously. I have 100k+ on mine so I probaby won't do a power flush, just a normal fluid and filter+gasket change.
Yours is automatic, right? Would you let me know after you've done that how it went? :angel:

[dagoo98]

Correction, I just changed my oil yesterday and I decided to not use BMW synthetic oil because I wanted to try Mobil 1. I was researching the recommendation from Mobil 1 on what oil to use and actually their Mobil 1 0W-40 is BMW Longlife 01 approved so I used that weight.

[MatWiz]

Correction, I just changed my oil yesterday and I decided to not use BMW synthetic oil because I wanted to try Mobil 1. I was researching the recommendation from Mobil 1 on what oil to use and actually their Mobil 1 0W-40 is BMW Longlife 01 approved so I used that weight.
People use either Mobil 1 synthetic, Castrol Syntec, or BMW synthetic. I used to use Castrol and then switched to BMW because the dealer sales it for $4 each. So its the best deal. I don't think there is any substancial diferences in quality among these three. My car has 115,000 miles on it and I have 0 (zero) milimeters of oil loss between oil changes :thumbup: ... So I think its all good?

[Garik]

well hello again...

first of all i ve removed underneath engine cover....

changing oil in engine... no big deal typical.... (if you have done it before)
changing trany oil... well same; very simple. i ve drained old oil, unbolded the oil pan (too many bolts) removed two bolts that hold trany filter.. removed.. that... ( by the way... its better to have two people to do this job.... to remove the pan and the filter. it looked like i was taking the pan off for the first time and my car has 82k miles, it was glued) when you remove the pan and the filter becareful not to spil the oil....

in the pan find the magnet and pull it out... clean it up... (mine was really dirty) cleaned up the pan... installed new filter, cleaned up old gasket.. installed new... poored down in to the pan two quortz of oil... ( that way i didnt have to pump it through the side....) and carefully we ve placed it back to its place.... screw in all the bolts... added more oil through the side...... closed the filler bolt... started the car.. ran through the gears with car not being moved... hold that brake pedal... shut off the engine... go underneath and add more oil... until... it was needed...

put all the covers back on and thats it..

same time i ve changed the plugs... too easy.. my is 6i so i had to remove one of the cabine filter boxes for easy access to the inside spark plug.

btw... the oil i used in trany was regular automatic transmition fluid (ATF) dealer told me that my transmition is the older one (the R1?!) and it takes just regular one.

hopefully it will be alright... now the car shifts much smoother then it was before.... and the oil that came out from that trany.... well showed its tough life (very very black...) btw my car was shifting hard sometimes... but not anymore.

hopefully this helps... i have some pics that i ve made with my phone... they are not the best but if someone will need them.. i can share them...

next project is to change oil in the differential... is that true that i can use the same oil as i used in trany?

Thanks... and hope this will save somebody some $$$ it did for me....

[Ågent99]

Excellent work! Glad we could help you out here.

[MatWiz]

btw... the oil i used in trany was regular automatic transmition fluid (ATF) dealer told me that my transmition is the older one (the R1?!) and it takes just regular one.

hopefully it will be alright... now the car shifts much smoother then it was before.... and the oil that came out from that trany.... well showed its tough life (very very black...) btw my car was shifting hard sometimes... but not anymore.

Nice job. Could you tell us what kind of transmition you have on your car? Manual? Automatic? With Steptronic? Without Steptronic?

The 5 dealers in my area told me not to change that 'lifetime' fluid.

[alpinewhite325i]

I'm not familar with the auto trans, but I'm pretty sure the differential has different gear oil.

You'd better look into that one.

[Garik]

I have automatic trans... 4speed...
the dealer checked it with vin# and gave me the info.

btw... been driving the car for some time now.... and it still rolling smoothly...

ps... problem before was that when i would floor the car the check engine light would come up (but this was sparatically) and saying that (transmition silinoid is at fault?! i think the code was p0740) in the same time that moment would be a rough shift.

havent done nothing with dif yet... still deciding what to do...

[frydaddy]

It's pretty simple. The filter is easily accessible. You need a monster 36mm socket to remove the plastic housing top, and I think a 16mm for the drain plug. An O-ring for the filter housing and a drain plug washer come with each filter. For some reason they don't include the tiny O-rings that go on the tube through the center of the filter cartridge. Make sure you have a large drain pan since you are dealing with 7 quarts of hot oil. BMW spacifies Castrol Syntec for my car, but any quality sythetic should be fine. I get minor stuff like oil and filters from the dealer, but also buy some things from Internet sites such as drivewire.com.

P.S. You can get BMW (Castrol) synthetic oil for $4.00 a quart (catalog price) from the dealer. That's a good deal and cheaper than most auto parts stores!

[chgolatin2]

Wow, $4 buck for syn oil, thats incredible deal. Way better than any parts stores and I usually pay around $5 to 6 for Mobil 1.

[Bearcat]

My first chanage was the BMW oil, after that I used Mobil 1. Mobil 1 felt smoother. :thumbup:

[Ågent99]

http://www.mytoolstore.com/astro/asthan11.html#7815

This is my fav for changing oil...I haven't crawled under a car to change oil in 5-6 years now! :)

[540 M-Sport]

P.S. You can get BMW (Castrol) synthetic oil for $4.00 a quart (catalog price) from the dealer. That's a good deal and cheaper than most auto parts stores!

Seems to be no longer the case....all my local dealers have bumped up the price recently:

BMW Bellevue $5.80

BMW Northwest $5.95

BMW Seattle $4.80

[Ågent99]

Seems to be no longer the case....all my local dealers have bumped up the price recently:

BMW Bellevue $5.80

BMW Northwest $5.95

BMW Seattle $4.80
BMW CCA discount can help....

[540 M-Sport]

BMW CCA discount can help....

10%....I'm probably going to switch to Castrol 0w-30 which meets BMW long life specs, and being a bit thinner at start-up, better for the engine. I can likely find it on sale for $3.99 quart, so cheaper than the factory stuff, even with the 10% club discount.

http://www.castrol.com/castrol/genericarticle.do?categoryId=82915470&contentId=6006933