Mike Miller - Bimmer Mag

Anyone read Mike Miller's Tech column in Bimmer Magazine? Mike has his recommended list of maintaince suggestions for BMW's that other who have followed it swear by it.
I decided that I am going to hang on to my 'D' for the long haul so with almost 50K on the odometer decided to have the diff, tranny and brake fluids all changed.

Have to give a shout out to the folks at Redline Performance in Pompano Beach, Renny and the guys were really into the 'D' and had tons of questions about it. Unfortunately I was out of town and my wife took it over for the service. She said I would have loved speaking to them.

If you needed confirmation of the need to change the transmission and differential fluids, you could have sent a sample off for analysis. The results would have removed any doubt.

Thought I would trust someone who has been reparing BMW's for 40 years, not to mention how difficult it would be to get a sample from the differeential and transmission.

You should follow ZF's recommendation for ATF changes and it's not 100k miles but it isn't 20k miles either.

Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl

You should follow ZF's recommendation for ATF changes and it's not 100k miles but it isn't 20k miles either.

What is it?

Originally Posted by Snipe656

What is it?

"Lifetime" per both BMW and the ZF parts manual. The fluid ZF uses is even called "LifeGuard". But 50k seems like a reasonable threshold to be extra cautious, but at $40/liter for the fluid you're looking at over $400 just for the ATF. If I were doing that while still under warranty I wouldn't deviate from the OEM fluids...but if you have the standard 50k warranty that's probably not as much of a concern if you substitute something else that's been proven to work.


Graham

My experience with automatic transmissions and fluid has been either to change it out at some routine intervals or not at all. Every car I have had where the fluid was changed out around 100k miles, as typically dictated by a manufacturer, ended up quickly having transmission issues. The ones that I changed out every 30k or so miles at least out lived the others in overall miles. But I am not sure I save myself much because as you point out for the 335d that is around $400 in just fluid and how much life can it possibly be adding. I have done my truck's every 30k or so miles and it costs I think $330 or so to do, which means I have done at least 6 flushes so far which could have probably paid for one transmission rebuild.

Originally Posted by GB

"Lifetime" per both BMW and the ZF parts manual.

BMW no longer calls it lifetime. Your manual (or at least my 2010 manual) says 100K mile replacement. I've been seeing a lot of complaints about miss-information being posted on various forums; it's better to check your facts before hitting <return>.

Look on page 11 of your service and maintenance manual.

Originally Posted by Snipe656

What is it?

IIRC ~80k KM.

Surpirsed no one reads Bimmer Mag and Mike Miller's column?? He recommends a change of diff and tranny around 60K miles ( I did it early due to my travel schedule) and brake fluid every two years. Which, by the way, was what BMW recommended before they provided the free maintenance. Life time is a joke!

I paid a little over $500 for all three changes and had aftermarket performance fluids used. Redline is heavy into SCCA and prepping BMW and Mini's for racing and license certification so I trusted his recoomendation. His sho has been in business for 40 years!

Originally Posted by joeincs

Surpirsed no one reads Bimmer Mag and Mike Miller's column?? He recommends a change of diff and tranny around 60K miles ( I did it early due to my travel schedule) and brake fluid every two years. Which, by the way, was what BMW recommended before they provided the free maintenance. Life time is a joke!

I paid a little over $500 for all three changes and had aftermarket performance fluids used. Redline is heavy into SCCA and prepping BMW and Mini's for racing and license certification so I trusted his recoomendation. His sho has been in business for 40 years!

Brake fluid just recently changed to every 4 yrs instead of every 2. I just had my 2 yr brake fluid change done last week (2010 MY)

Originally Posted by BMWTurboDzl

Brake fluid just recently changed to every 4 yrs instead of every 2. I just had my 2 yr brake fluid change done last week (2010 MY)

4 years for brake fluid? Where is it written?

Originally Posted by Mbretl

4 years for brake fluid? Where is it written?

I'm sure floydarogers will tell you hehe

Originally Posted by GB

I'm sure floydarogers will tell you hehe

Actually, I just got my two-year flush. CBS said it's due, they did it.

Originally Posted by floydarogers

Actually, I just got my two-year flush. CBS said it's due, they did it.

Mines due next month. If they changed it to flushing every four years, I'd gladly reset it, otherwise I'm changing it. We pay out of pocket in Germany so I do the simple syuff myself.