My 2002, E46, 325i has "special lifetime fluid" in the manual transmission and differential. I have 100K miles and planned to change these fluids, but now am not sure if I should. Any advice?
go for it, its highly recommended. lifetime fluid means, lifetime is until the part breaks. thats what the tech editor for bimmer magazine always says. change it and feel better about your car.
Mike Miller recommends all those fluids be changed every 30k. Email him at Tech Talk and ask him to send you his "old school"maintenance guidelines document.
I'm with you there My e46 only has 40k miles but I'm going to change both diffs and the xfer case fluids. I did email Mike Miller and he recommended this. I will also use the Redline fluids he recommends. Now to locate the proper crush washers for the xfer case...
it's not a bad idea to do it with a breakin oil change at 1200 miles it is an M service mandate. couldn't hurt a standard bimmer either.... difference is.... you'll have to pay for it (I put Redline MTL in the gearbox and gear oil in the diff. on my 330i at 800 miles)
I have a 2002 325ci manual gearbox. I just changed both my fluids to Royal Purple, not a huge difference, but i feel alot better so a huge difference their. Personally i don't believe in anything "Lifetime", everything has a lifespan.
So did the shifting effort or feel show any improvement when you changed to RP? I am assuming you used Syncromax in the transmission? Matt
It did with Redline I noticed my 530 5spd shifted much smoother when I changed the 'lifetime' fluid out for Redline MTL. I've heard people had problems in the cold, especially 2nd but the Redline has always been smooth for me (I switched before I did a winter on the old fluid.) YMMV!
I am hoping the Royal Purple Syncromax offers the same improvement you noticed on your 5er with Redline. One of these days I will get around to changing the oil in the trans...it is sitting on the shelf waiting for my thousands of other projects to be completed. Matt
