Shop advised AGAINST transmission fluid change

Doing course of maint on the 2007 x3, 68k miles. Got new brakes Monday, new battery Wend, new tires tomorrow and transfer case and diff fluids changed Tuesday.

I asked the shop manager about a tranny fluid change and he advised against it. He said he advises against it as he doesn't like the idea of the new fluid flushing out varnish, and various other bits that will just rattle in the tranny after the change. I want new fluid, filter and gasket, the whole thing.

Is this guy full of it? What does it take for him to take my money? He sure wanted my money for programming my new battery. Should I take any concern in this or just go elsewhere?

I've heard of other shops advising against tranny fluid changes before, I have a hunch that it may be a liability thing or it may have something to do with bmw's "lifetime fluid" bs.

Find someone who will do it or go for it yourself, it's not hard to do.

I would definitely have it changed. Even going to the dealer if you need to may be worth it for this repair.

I picked up a 2004 x3 few weeks back. Before picking it up, I asked the service tech about the tranny fluid change and he advised not to as well. In my other post, a member confirmed what the service tech said; the tranny is bound to fail after oil change, for the same reasons your service tech has mentioned. I was told that there are no concerns in changing other fluids.

Perhaps there would be some reason for concern about changing the fluid at 168k miles, but really not at 68k. You don't want to do a power flush, that may actually do something bad in the way of "dislodging" something. If you think about the process of doing a drain & refill, you are removing the fluid from the pan where the majority of the fluid drains out every time you stop the engine. Just make sure you stick to the fluid recommendations. (Another whole can of worms.)

I have replaced the transmission fluid in my 05 X3 twice without issue. It now has 110k miles on it & I plan on a 30k mile interval. By the way, the first time I replaced the fluid at 60k miles, it was dark and opaque. At 90k, the fluid was stll pretty much pristine. I strongly suspect the first 10k miles of the transmission's life is when the vast majority of the component wear occurs as they break in.

I just put in an order for the transmission filter and pan gasket (CAD 140.00), will grab 8lt of dexron VI fluid and go to the indy shop once I receive the package.

The 2007 X3 owner's manual, suggests a fluid+filter+gasket change every 160.000km (100K miles).

Lifetime = BS, sooner than what BMW recommends is good but more $$$.

Originally Posted by timarnold

Perhaps there would be some reason for concern about changing the fluid at 168k miles, but really not at 68k. You don't want to do a power flush, that may actually do something bad in the way of "dislodging" something. If you think about the process of doing a drain & refill, you are removing the fluid from the pan where the majority of the fluid drains out every time you stop the engine. Just make sure you stick to the fluid recommendations. (Another whole can of worms.)

I have replaced the transmission fluid in my 05 X3 twice without issue. It now has 110k miles on it & I plan on a 30k mile interval. By the way, the first time I replaced the fluid at 60k miles, it was dark and opaque. At 90k, the fluid was stll pretty much pristine. I strongly suspect the first 10k miles of the transmission's life is when the vast majority of the component wear occurs as they break in.

This is dead on simple logic. If it damaged your tranny then every time you stopped your X3 you would be jeopardizing the vehicle.

A power flush could cause problems, but a simple drain and exchange..that is a lazy man parroting bad information just because he has heard it enough times.

I had mine done at Inspection II around 66k miles without complaint from the indy shop. A simple drain and refill (actually, only about half since the other half resides in the torque converter). I want to get another one done later this year.

My 09 is at 92k and I have changed the tranny fluid twice already (50k and 75k). I will do another one again before 100k. This time on BMW...I paid for the 100k maintenance plan and they do recommend a change in the manual at 100k.

I plan on maintaining the 25k mile change interval going forward.

I had a shop owner say that if I am going to do it have the computer reset as it will only then calibrate to the new viscosity of the fluids. Is he full of *rap?

Originally Posted by BigShark

I had a shop owner say that if I am going to do it have the computer reset as it will only then calibrate to the new viscosity of the fluids. Is he full of *rap?

I am not aware of a transmission reset procedure when changing fluid as you only get about half out...

His statement is true however with the transfer case, which is one fluid that should be changed quite regularly. He might have just confused the two.