2002 530, what fluid is this

Car came back after service dripping a fluid that is light green in color. Is it power steering? I think too thick for brake or coolant.

Originally Posted by 356robo

Car came back after service dripping a fluid that is light green in color. Is it power steering? I think too thick for brake or coolant.

power steering is red/brown, oil is brown. taste it, if it is sweet it is coolant! Do not ingest it, just give it a taste.

Be carefull--you have a coolant leak somewhere--you can damage these engines in short order if they over heat

Thanks all. Check further and not drive the car til i figure it out.

I'll provide you a link to pictures of cooling system failure points, so that you can know WHERE to look - and - you - for your part - should provide a picture of YOUR link, so that others stand on your shoulders in the future. Deal?

Here's the link:
- Pictorial look at typical E39 cooling system failure modes (1)

Had my car flat beded to dealer. Turns out the fluid on the floor was tranny fluid. Tech claims bad gasket. Redid the work and cleaned up the mess. During this adventure, I spoke with ZF techs and Steve at Bose in San Diego, an authorized ZF service center. Great shop!!!! They said the dealer BS about not changing fluid til 100,000 miles is BS. Change it every 50K. My 2002 had about 40K when I bought it a couple of weeks ago. Made the rookie mistake of taking it to a dealer to baseline all the fluids and belt. It will not go back there.

Hi,

How much they charge for tranny fluid change? If they are ZF tech, I want to drop my car to replace fulid also.

Originally Posted by 356robo

Had my car flat beded to dealer. Turns out the fluid on the floor was tranny fluid. Tech claims bad gasket. Redid the work and cleaned up the mess. During this adventure, I spoke with ZF techs and Steve at Bose in San Diego, an authorized ZF service center. Great shop!!!! They said the dealer BS about not changing fluid til 100,000 miles is BS. Change it every 50K. My 2002 had about 40K when I bought it a couple of weeks ago. Made the rookie mistake of taking it to a dealer to baseline all the fluids and belt. It will not go back there.

Bose knows their stuff--don't know how you happened by those people--but they are the ones who know about these trannies

The diagnosis that the tranny is leaking kinda puzzles me based on a "light green" fluid. Think the suggestion about the cooling system should at least lead you to check it out.