Transmission fluid they drain the fluid and refill they get about 5 qts - $206

Transmission service they drop the pan get the fluid (7qts total) change out filter/gasket. $506

i'm thinking of doing the fluid change since my car has 36k miles on it and i told them to call me to let me know if the fluid is in bad shape....if so then do the service....what do you guys think?? is the trans fluid change okay for now...and then the next time i get the Trans Serviced i'll do the Service!


i know bmw has lifetime fluid...but i'm anal about these things...and 4 yr and 36k miles i'm ready for a trans fluid change....

I have a place unfortunately in San Clemente, CA, I picked up my gasket & filter for about 40 then I bought, a 2.5 gallon container of Amsoil ATF, then I took it to a tranny shop over here, then took off the pan and opened up the valve bodies, drained about 6 qts. There are a total of 9 quarts in the engine, had the same done for my 330i, the best, would be to find a shop that can do a flush, where the fluid is completely changed, but it shouldn't cost you as much as they are quoting you. I had my diff and tranny changed for $60 the oil was about 80 or so and the filter 40, so, 180 for your 500 dollar service, if you want the flush, you will need more like 12 qts. I would say you can go about 100k with your original fluid. Amsoil is Great, my tranny is smoother for it, the esso is factory

"Lifetime" equals 100k
I have lifetime spark plugs, tranny fluid, fuel filter, coolant, and diff. My cars have 132k and 157k on original auto trannys, but they want to become manuals...lol

Drain and fill for $200 damm, get the grease!!!!

http://www.bavauto.com/shop.asp?HC1=0&htarget=asgridyearmodel.asp&Hecode=yahoo&hdept_id=318&HCY=2001&HCM=330i

Any chance you'd consider doing it yourself? There's a couple of good writeups for it that could save you about $450 if you're willing to give up a few hours.

If not I'd just get the fluid changed.

Not sure how only fluid change will help? There is a lot of crap in the filter and on the magnets. Also some stuff remains on the bottom of the pan. This will be not removed if you change the ATF only. You end up "keeping" the bad stuff inside your tranny. Change the filter and clean the magnets and pan (take it off)
My 0.02

car only has 36k miles on it...i called them to do the trans service instead and they had already done the fluid change....so i'll wait and take it back....in 20k miles and do a full trans service on it.

I'm a newbie, just to get my 2000 528i. When I looked at it I spent ages looking for the tranny dip stick! I have a Land Cruiser I push hard off-road and I change the tranny oil evry 10,000 miles so to hear of lifetime tranny fluid makes me wonder just what BMW mean by lifetime. So just what do they mean by that? Does it mean don't fix it till it breaks? Does it mean 300,000 miles?

Mike Stevens
2000 528i coming tommorow