335d - Transmission Fluid, Filter

I made the appointment today to have the transmission fluid/filter changed. I'm at 45kmi but want to have this done while the car is still in warranty in case of any "unintended consequences."

Anybody have BMW do this yet? What did you pay?

My d began life as a loaner car, so I figure its first 5k miles were "severe service"

I believe this is an excellent idea. Most "heavy duty" recommendations for this transmission advise a fluid change at this mileage. My experience backs this up with other makers' automatics.

The only other thing to do might be to send the fluid for analysis. Just the color may not be enough to really know how healthy (or not) it is. The results may guide you for future fluid change intervals.

PL

I'd be curious to know what they charge you.

Up until recently I had religiously changed fluid/filter on my trucks transmission every 30k miles. The downside though is after 235k miles I have spent almost enough on these fluid swaps to pay for a rebuilt transmission, clearly a trans is cheaper for the truck than a bmw. My friends old service truck is a clone of mine except a 4x4 and used for truck needs its entire life, had 360k miles on it and never a transmission issue and he never purposely had the transmission flushed. I am sure 1-3 flushes still happened in its life for misc reasons. Makes me wonder if I wasted my time and money.

My experience with past automatics though is either change the fluid/filter every 35-50k miles or just never at all. Everyone that I put off until 100k seemed to have issues 10-20k after that. The ones I ignored seemed to last upwards of 200k. The ones I changed often lasted 250-300k and usually worked when sold the vehicle in that mileage range.

Thanks guys for the info. Good idea to have the fluid pulled for analysis. I'm going to do that.

Thanks. Please post back results

So, how much did the trans fluid/filter change cost? I do my dodge truck myself and it costs about$7 per quart and about 6.5 quarts. Filter is about $15 or so. RTV is another $7So, i spend about $71+tax. I would imagine fluid cost to be simliar but who knows on the filter without doing some research. I'm guessing some panels have to be removed from the bottom of chassis to get access. I do the fluid about every 35 to 40k miles.

Seems to me a remember us having another thread on how BMW says the fluid never needing a change. Plenty of opinions on both sides i recall. I vote for the changes

Hey BB,

It wasn't cheap....$415 tranny fluid swap. The "filter" was another $800 (which I passed on). Aparently the filter is integrated into the bottom of the tranmission pan - at least that's what my SA said. Next time I'll have an indy do it but the car had to go in for some warranty work, also. 46k miles.

Did they give you a price breakdown that would show how much of that $415 was just the fluid itself?

I don't think they broke out "labor" vs fluid, but I'll have a look at the receipt.

Reason I wonder on that is I know for a transmission flush on my truck it is somewhere in the $200-300 range and because the fluid is pretty expensive. I do not think that includes a filter, so similar thing to what you did. Then I'd of course expect a higher labor rate at a BMW dealer than a Ford then imagine the fluid for the BMW is a good bit more per bottle.

Originally Posted by zach0726

Thanks guys for the info. Good idea to have the fluid pulled for analysis. I'm going to do that.

I'd be interested in comparing your UOA with mine to help expand the knowledge base:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...8&postcount=18

Please post cost and any driving improvement.

Thanks

P

So the SA aparently dropped the ball on requesting the tech get a fluid analysis - so there is no fluid to analyze.

The alignment was $190. My car usually says pretty well aligned but last month I backed into a parking curb going about 2mph (the curb was placed a lot closer to the parking lot that I thought) and the rears came noticeably out of alignment. Post alignment, the car tracks nearly dead-straight on Texas' flat highways. For my car, the alignment was well worth it, espescially wtih new Michelin PSS's that went on last week.

BTW, I am still a huge fan of the PSSs. And if you have the same size tires all-around, Michelin rates them for 30k miles. My last set of PSS's lasted 20k miles and Discount Tire gave me 1/3 off the new set.

Hourly rate at BMW here in Puerto Rico is $150 and hour yikes best go to a friend and do it yourslef also!!

Originally Posted by zach0726

The "filter" was another $800 (which I passed on). Aparently the filter is integrated into the bottom of the tranmission pan - at least that's what my SA said.

I wonder if in the after market, you could give up your trans pan for a core charge to get the new filter for cheaper. It would make complete sense. That is if in fact the filter really is integral to the pan as an assy. I'm gonna make a trip over to realOEM for to see .....

Ask if the filter really needs changing. I had a mechanic that just changed the fluid on my Mercedes and it worked fine that way. He felt with his experience that it was unnecessary to change the filter early.

PL

24-11-75-71-227, $247.70 @getbmwparts.com, inclusive of pan and yes no core charge so can't trade pan out.
Here is the link from realoem,
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...10&hg=24&fg=15

Typically the plug has a magnet within it or there is a magnet somewhere on the pan to attract wear particles. If the magnet has very very fine sludge on it which is typical, the filter will have this in it too. The $247 might be a worth while investment seeing as a new trans was coming in at $4800 on the tischer site. Retail was quite a bit higher which is what you would pay at the dealer. If you look at one level up from the realoem link, it shows a transmission fluid change kit. It is only fluid but the picture shows the filter floating above the pan. Makes me think there may be a way if one can find the vendor part number that BMW uses to build the assy. I bet a transmission shop can get them. By the way our 335D transmission is shared with the X5D (no surprize) and the 7 series with 4.4L engine. The fluid change kit shows 20 litres of fluid. That sounds like enough for including the torque converter being emptied. I change at around 35k without messing with torque converter. My thought is doing it often effectively gives the whole system (including converter) a change out every 70k miles. By the way for those that choose to do it themselves, if you use RTV allow ample cure time. Big brother advised RTV needs 12 hrs cure time before adding the fluid back in. I see a gasket in the exploded view so RTV might not be used. Many delete the gasket and use RTV for a better seal. Don't use too much if you do RTV. It squeezes inboard and outboard of gasket. You don't want a chunk of RTV to get into the fluid and lodge someplace in the transmission. Thin coating on pan's lip is plenty.

Originally Posted by BB_cuda

24-11-75-71-227, $247.70 @getbmwparts.com, inclusive of pan and yes no core charge so can't trade pan out.
Here is the link from realoem,
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...10&hg=24&fg=15

Typically the plug has a magnet within it or there is a magnet somewhere on the pan to attract wear particles. If the magnet has very very fine sludge on it which is typical, the filter will have this in it too. The $247 might be a worth while investment seeing as a new trans was coming in at $4800 on the tischer site. Retail was quite a bit higher which is what you would pay at the dealer. If you look at one level up from the realoem link, it shows a transmission fluid change kit. It is only fluid but the picture shows the filter floating above the pan. Makes me think there may be a way if one can find the vendor part number that BMW uses to build the assy. I bet a transmission shop can get them. By the way our 335D transmission is shared with the X5D (no surprize) and the 7 series with 4.4L engine. The fluid change kit shows 20 litres of fluid. That sounds like enough for including the torque converter being emptied. I change at around 35k without messing with torque converter. My thought is doing it often effectively gives the whole system (including converter) a change out every 70k miles. By the way for those that choose to do it themselves, if you use RTV allow ample cure time. Big brother advised RTV needs 12 hrs cure time before adding the fluid back in. I see a gasket in the exploded view so RTV might not be used. Many delete the gasket and use RTV for a better seal. Don't use too much if you do RTV. It squeezes inboard and outboard of gasket. You don't want a chunk of RTV to get into the fluid and lodge someplace in the transmission. Thin coating on pan's lip is plenty.

How much does the fluid end up costing? I tried looking on that site but did not notice it. Looks like it is $270 or so for that pan/filter once you get the gasket.

I am a firm believer in doing the fluid around every 30-35k on a car I plan on keeping for a large amount of miles. I have been swaying on this in recent years though, the cost to do the changes at a shop is so expensive that does not take too many of those to just paid for a transmission later on down the road. Definitely a gamble like most things.

These guys are highly recommended on other forums, but their price for the kit is a "call and ask": http://www.thectsc.com/index.php?p=p...=186&parent=50

plastic trans pan. that is bull sh&t. Aluminum pan would disipate heat so much better. Our engine pans are aluminum. Sure hope it is a matter of time before aftermarket improves this. My truck has stamped steel pan and I have been contemplating switching to aluminum on the next trans fluid service. Its cost is close to the same $247 but it has a huge capacity and is aluminum with cooling fins vs PLASTIC!!

Okay, i know i keep harping on this but i found an intersting thread with some land rover guys. Turns out they have ZF trans too. Further with a plastic plan. Anyway , here is the thread and someone mentions about a metal replacement pan to make it "chevy" like.

http://www.landroversonly.com/forums...-filter-56507/

When i google on plastic transmission pan, i found a couple hits on where it talks about BMW leaking transmission fluid due to the plastic warping as well as having a different thermal expansion coefficient than the parent metal it is bolted to.

Erikson Industries
http://www.erikssonindustries.com/
800-388-4418

They are located in Saybrook, CT. They are an authorized ZF parts distributor.
Sorry not all the p/n are included in this message so call them with your questions.
They have a kit to convert over to steel pan which includes a new gasket, the proper filter, 21 shorter screws. It costs $300. For the next time around, the replacement filter is $50. He also carries the OEM replacement plastic pan with integral filter for $102. He makes the point that it will take several fluid changes to come out even. I ran a spreadsheet and it will take 5 changes. That is either 150k or 175k miles depending on if you pull the trigger at 30k or 35k miles. The kit part number is 1068 103 820. A case of fluid (12 litres) costs $240 or $20 per litre. A change without worrying with the torque converter uses 6 liters. Any Houston guys want to talk about a group buy? I'm not due yet as I have 22k miles.

Here is the kicker. It is the exact same parts as on the Range Rover thread that I previously found. Both use ZF transmissions (specifically 6HP26).

BB, I thought we have the 6HP28? Or is the pan the same for the 26 and 28?

Originally Posted by 62Lincoln

BB, I thought we have the 6HP28? Or is the pan the same for the 26 and 28?

Actually, the link you provided in post above says the kit is good for 26, 28 and 32. I am now working an angle on whether an E53 X5 with 4.4 L engine has a metal pan that will be equivelant to the aftermarket pan i have found. If true, a salvage yard find would make the break even point happen on first fluid change.

...Alittle bit later. I went back to realoem. Firstly, my VIN calls for the 6HP26. Secondly, the 2004 (2/2004 production) E53 X5 does indeed have the same transmission and uses a metal pan.

Originally Posted by pedser

Please post cost and any driving improvement.

Thanks

P

I'd be interested to hear if you guys have experieced this: Prior to changing the trans fluid, my first shift of the day (from 1st to 2nd, I think - but maybe 2nd to 3rd) was very firm. After that the shifts were all very smooth & consistent. Post trans fluid change the first shift of the day is no longer firm. Its the same as all the others.