If you believe BMW that it's lifetime fill, then you'r cars lifetime is no more than 155k miles. The paradigm has shifted and increasing unsprung weight benefits the handling.įill-for-life already exists for passenger cars, which typically have a life expectancy of 200,000-250,000km.Īs far as I'm concerned, this is catching "them" red-handed! Fill-for-life my arse! Who's life are we talking about here? If you want to drive your car longer than 124k ~ 155k miles, you'd better change that transmission oil. What advances in technology doubled the oil change interval time-wise?Īh, grasshopper, the E92 has forged aluminum suspension parts, and the F30 has stamped steel. Since 2007, suddenly, the LL01 is good for 2 years, instead of 1. He took my money and what do you know, I saw the tech wheel out the exchange machine and hook it up to my car. This year a different SA said nothing is lifetime, but if you don't own the car, why not go along, what do you care? If you own the car, flush the coolant, um, that's what a coolant exchange machine is for. Yeah last year the SA told me he didn't want my money on a coolant flush as the coolant is LIFETIME. For those of us who love their product, this is tragic, but fortunately, they can be kept fresh through rigorous maintenance.
Our E90's are capable of the same longevity, I truly believe.īMW has succumbed to the modern way-their cars are disposable and are marketed toward a lowest common denominator who wants nothing to do with vehicle maintenance. If you want things to last, and your BMW to last just like the sweet, amazing, high mileage E24s, E28's and E30's, you MUST stick to regular fluid changes. There is no way BMW could convince me that a "Lifetime Fill" fluid is appropriate to a motor vehicle. It's so important that those of us who want to keep our cars for hundreds of thousands of miles understand the folly of BMW's philosophy toward maintenance and fluids. I had a plastic beaker to dump fluids into so I could measure the volume removed. I also used it to draw the old fluid out of the diff using a smaller piece of tubing attached onto the larger intake hose on the pump. I used my $3.99 transfer pump from Harbor Freight to put the fluids in both the gearbox and diff. You can feel the precision in the gearbox and how it was engineered to operate with light effort and quick throws. Shift feel has improved 75% from the factory fill and I am actually enjoying the car more. I have about 1000 miles on the fluids now and I have to report that it is without question an essential maintenance item for our cars, despite BMW recommendations. The rear diff was changed using Redline 75W90, the same stuff I use in my 2002. Hi folks, I recently changed the gearbox fluid in my '08 328i using Redline D4 ATF.