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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Florida Panhandle/ Ohio
    Posts
    7,318
    My Cars
    14 JGC/13 E88 128i

    X3 2006 Transmission and Transfer Case Drain and Refill

    I have a friend that owns an X3 which I help maintain even with the BMW extended warranty and maintenance plan. We all know that BMW will not change the transfer case fluid or the transmission ATF unless the owner pays for it. I am able to use a lift and drain can so this was something that will cost a few dollars short term but help the X last a long time.
    Unfortunately the mileage was 60K which is fine for the transmission change and but a little long for the transfer case.

    OK I will get right into it. Up on the rack the fill and drain plugs both take a 16 mm box ended wrench or socket (fits only on the drain plug no room on the fill plug). The plugs are on the back side facing the aft end of the X on the left side when looking forward. Typical procedure is to always open the fill plug first so that you can get new fluid in place before you crack the drain plug.
    Plugs out the transfer case holds around .6L of BMW secret sauce, just go to Bav Auto or other vendors on our forum and get the BMW spec fluid for this. No one else makes this by the way so expect to pay around 54-60 bucks for this.
    I filled the fill plug until it started to weap out and that took slightly more than .5L and I mean just a touch more. I had expected .6 but maybe some residual remained. The fluid was dark brown like coffee and I think was close to its useful life. I know BMW states this is all lifetime but who's lifetime are we talking about? Forget that advice and change it every 30K miles if you follow Mike Miller from the Roundel mag and Bimmer Mag expert wrench. I will do this again when the X hits 90K miles which is 30K miles from now.

    Pretty easy and simple to do.
    I would have taken pictures but this stuff is slippery and I can't clean my hands take a picturea and work so sorry no pictures.

    The transmission is just as easy but takes time. I bought a filter kit from Pelican Parts that included new gasket, new bolts for the pan with locktite applied and new Elring filter.

    OK same procedure as the transfer case. The drain plug is on the bottom of the pan and uses a Torx which I forgot to write down but I think it is either 8 or 9 mm Torx. The fill plug is on the back passenger side just above the pan and takes a 17 mm box end wrench. Once I broke the fill plug loose I measure how much came out of the fill plug engine off. It took about 3/4 of a L. I next removed the drain pan plug and drained another 4 L plus out to total close to 5.5L. Now this is Lifeguard5 which is also lifetime fill. This has no real strong smell and since I have done this often seemed to still have life left in it. Color again looks like coffee and you can see if you put some on a white pan some suspended solids most likely minute clutch pack and steel. Size is like a fine powder. I think the entire transmission which is a ZF holds either 9-10 L.

    The pan was next to come off and get a speed wrench out since there are oh about 17 of these to remove. Once removed you will still have some ATF in the pan and also it will drip because you have some dripping out of the filter. Once the pan as removed I cleaned the inside with rags and made sure absolutely no lint or any foreign material was in the pan. I cleaned the one magnet as well and it was spotless. Material in the pan was as reported in suspension of the ATF, a gray powder that wiped out easily. Again I suspect clutch material and some fine ground steels.

    Next came removing the oil filter. You will take a bath of about 1/4L if you are not careful pulling this out. The pick up is in the front of the transmission and is held in place by the friction of the O rings held between the transmission filter and transmission. I pulled straight down since examining the new filter showed that no other hardware held the filter in place. As expected about a 1/4L of ATF was still in the filter. Also both O rings stayed in the transmission. Remove those and reinstall. The O rings are not your type O rings but appear to be some pinkish colored plastic which are maybe 1/4" wide and two of them hold the filter in place. Getting the old O rings out is about the hardest part of the job as they are held in there after 60K miles pretty good. Any tool that has a 90 degree angle and is not too big like less than 1/2" wide will work. I pressed the new filter in place and pushed up until I could push no more. The pan holds the transmission in place in the rear so no worries.
    The gasket was good so I reused it. I used a very slight application of a quality gasket sealer to insure a good seal. Once the pan is installed and the bolts are partly installed I torqued them to around 8 ft pounds of 96 in pounds. I don't have an X manual but every ZF transmission I have worked on all seem to require a torque of about 6-9 ft pounds.

    Now I used the hand pumps that you find in the parts stores to pump in to the fill plug new ATF. I researched this and you can buy Lifeguard5 from BMW or you can use either Esso LT 71141 or Pentosin ATF1 as suitable replacements. I know Turkeybaster states that the new mercon is supposed to be compatible for this transmission but I was not willing to take that chance. Use what makes you feel comfortable. Yes this stuff costs around 24 bucks a L and required 6 L to fill. It will not take all 6 but you don't want to fill 5 L and be short. I pumped in close to 5 L before it started to spill out the fill plug. Now put the plug in and start the engine. The ATF must be between 80-120F for the reading to be correct. Mine was 87F and will warm as you allow the engine to run. I added more until it dripped out, replaced the fill plug and torqued to around 26 ft pounds. I say around because the fill plug is close to the exhaust and when refilling the plastic tubing must be kept off the exhuast pipe. I Also I didn't think that torque critical because when breaking that 17 mm bolt loose it takes way more than 26 ft pounds. Also I never replaced the O ring for the fill plug or drain plug but will next time because they were still serviceable. I did replace all the pan bolts with pre applied locktite.

    Truthfully I cannot notice any difference in shifting but I know that when the X hits 110K miles I will drain and refill again.

    Thats it. Sorry no pictures but hard to do that and not get ATF all over the camera and probably drop it...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    norwalk ct
    Posts
    1,089
    My Cars
    2000 M COUPE
    In BMWs translation, life time means 100,000 miles. And yes I think it should be changed earlier, as with engine oil.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Florida Panhandle/ Ohio
    Posts
    7,318
    My Cars
    14 JGC/13 E88 128i
    Exactly

    I tend to believe ZF for those transmissions that they make like this particular X. They state to change it at 50K miles or 80K kms. Thus the reason for the change.
    This isn't just this transmission it is all the transmissions they build for BMW now to include the 5spds on.
    They used to state never change the fluid most likely because they were afraid that this might cause errors and cause the trans to fail because of using the wrong fluid.

    If you follow BMW than you also use 15-18K mile oil changes which in moderate climates might be OK but not for me. Oil is cheap, transmissions and engines are not especially since there is a good deal of labor to change them.

    100K miles is way too long in my opinion but each to their own. I follow what the manufacture states.

    I should have posted this too:
    TF0870 83 22 0 397 244 (1 Liter) That is the stuff for the transfer case and the part number...

    It just isn't that hard to do, hardly more work than an oil change...
    Last edited by fun2drive; 04-09-2011 at 08:00 PM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Houston Texas
    Posts
    25
    My Cars
    2005 BMW X3 3.0i
    Did you have to reset adaptations after doing the transfer case fluid?
    I'm using maxlife ATF for my 05 x3 3.0

    Sent from my moto g(6) play using Tapatalk

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