Hey guys! The chatter on my 540 with its lightweight flywheel hasn't gotten any better so I need some new tranny fluid.

In one of my other threads, someone who seemed to know what they were talking about suggested that I get Royal Purple MaxGear for my tranny even though it's designed for differentials and purely manual transmission stuff.

They said that synchromax is reccomended for 98 and older BMWs and MaxGear for newer. Also, since MaxGear is more viscous, it'll help reduce chatter while syncromax wouldn't really.

Does this seem right to you guys? I don't want to put crap into my tranny and have it blow up on me!! Please let me know!

-G

Uh, that might well have been me quoting information from the RP website.

Check this link :http://www.royalpurple.com/techa/tranxref.html

If you check you'll find that they recommend, for 98 and up BMWs, MaxGear for transmissions with no labels and SynchroMax for transmissions with yellow labels. I'm certain that the website used to suggest MaxGear for all 98 and newer BMWs. Then it said SynchroMax. Finally they say SynchorMAx or MaxGear, depending on the tranny.

Well, being one to follow my own advice, I put MaxGear 75W90 in my 530/5. I can't say I was impressed. As a matter of fact I was so underwhelmed that I drained it two weeks later. Shifting was good at first, but after a while I realized that it wasn't meshing all that well. Not grinding, but slow.

I was sort of PO'd at RP, so I decided to try Redline MTL after reading an article on their website. They claim that the fluid needs to be slippery to lubricate the gears, but have a high enough friction to let the syncronizers lock up. I can say that so far I have been pleased. The shifting is much faster.

Another alternative would be Redline MT90, which is essentially 90W MTL. That should lessen the chatter and still let the synchros lock up nicely.

Anyway, that's what I've found so far.