Quote:
Originally Posted by ComasF15
I second the longer interval on your oil change. Transmission oil is called lifetime, I'd take that to mean 100k miles. How you drive matters, however, if it a lot of short trips then the additive package get used up faster. If you spend 30 mins or more on the freeway at operating temperature then most of the contamination is heated off.
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I highly recommend you check out my post about so called "lifetime fluid (
https://f15.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1680599 )". ZF not only makes your transmission, but also the fluid in it. Lifetime fluid does not exist, it is nothing more then a car manufactures marketing construct playing of the subjective term "lifetime", to them "lifetime" is just long enough for the warranty period to expire before failure. For a transmission to fail at 115K like mine did, it is actually experiencing premature wear and breakdown of its comments long before that due to lack of proper maintenance.
Actual manufactures of transmission like ZF never intended the oil to be lifetime. In the other thread there are links to actual documentation and a video where ZF Calls out BMW's BS. I included the PDF from ZF themselves below. Change at 50K for heavy driving (If you own a M or tow), 75K for normal.
Maybe its just me, but it seems sad such amazingly engineered vehicles to be tossed away simply because the oil wasn't changed.
TLDR Version: Change your transmission oil every 50-75k or pay 10+ grand to replace later when it fail. To all those who dont care because you wont own past 100K, you are still actively contributing to the notorious BMW reputation of everything going to hell once the warranty is up, costing you money as you will get less for your BMW when you trade it in, so yes it still effects you.