MTL evaluation: Dealer vs RP vs Amsoil

Tried all three lubes lately, all driven 1000 miles in pure stop and go traffic, rarely even shifting into 4th gear. Car is a 2000 540i with ZF/Getrag s6s tranny, no CDV modification, 78K miles.

Dealer supplied MTL: very notchy shifting in all gears, especially hard going from 1st to 2nd. All gear shifting required effort to engage. Very mechanical, hard feeling shifting.

Royal purple Synchromax: seems that the lube needed about a mile to warm up before 1st to 2nd shifting greatly improved vs OEM lube. All other shifting, 2nd thru 4 was very smooth, shifter just slid into gear. A great improvement over dealer supplied lube.

Amsoil Synthetic Synchromesh Transmission Fluid (MTFQT-EA): Morning shifting from 1st to second required about half the effort compared to RP. After about 2 miles shifting from 1st to 2nd as almost as easy as shifting from 2nd to 3rd to 4th.

Shift feel was very different between RP and Amsoil. RP shifting from 2nd up was very easy, felt like it just went into gear - no positive engagement feedback. With Amsoil, shifting feels like the stick just wants to be sucked into gear, you can feel it easily going into gear with a positive engagement feel, like it wanted to go into gear, very smooth ball and socket feel.

So for my 540i use, Amsoil is the fluid of choice. Getrag manuals are known for there 1st to 2nd shifting effort, but with Amsoil this effort is reduced by about 50% during the first mile and about 70% after driving > 2 miles. I like to get smoothness and feedback from the gearbox. I'm sure climate affects lube characteristics, so for mild CA weather Amsoil would be a good choice. Hell even RP was better than what the dealer sold me ($51/Lt, BMW NA bottle).

Thanks for the feedback. I run RedLine MTL, as I've had in a previous Bimmer. I just ease it into 2nd when cold.

The Getrag has always had a stiff 1-2 shift, even the 4-speeds.

Don't forget the diff lube.

I rarely chime in on this stuff but after this week I feel like I need to put in my $.02. Just upgraded this year from a 530i to 540i6. Car shifted fine (a tad sticky from 1-2) but I figured with 89K I should change tranny fluid. After reading everything I could find I made the moronic decision to refill with Redline MTF. I immediately went from a sticky 1-2 to losing the gear entirely. Other gears were notchy and I had to baby each shift. That was after it warmed up. When cold (~40 deg F) I could barely get the car out of my driveway. After driving for one week it didn't improve at all. I know it is commonly used in our trannys but I honestly don't know why. Even Redline does not recommend its use for our application.
After a closer look the Getrag 6 speed calls for ATF. Since the dealer quoted me $72 for 2 quarts of the super secret BMW fill, I switched to the other commonly recommended fluid, RP Synchromax. It was an instant cure. I don't know if it was due to the quality of the Synchromax or simply switching to the right type of fluid, but the difference was immediate and huge.
Redline clearly makes high quality fluids but the MTL is a waste of money for the E39 manual trannys. Stick to what Redline recommends (D4 ATF I believe) or some other suitable fluid.

Thanks for the feedback.