Trans Fluid TEXACO ETL 7045e alternative?

[PostChris909]

I have a 10/99 528i w/automatic steptronic transmission. The titled obviously deems the cars production date as year 2000. A lot of bmw enthusiast use strictly OEM, which I completely understand. I'm not a very strong beliver that OEM fluids are the only fluids. With that being said has anyone else found anything better or just as good as an alternative for Texaco etp 7045e (

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[vinyldude]

I have a 10/99 528i w/automatic steptronic transmission. The titled obviously deems the cars production date as year 2000. A lot of bmw enthusiast use strictly OEM, which I completely understand. I'm not a very strong beliver that OEM fluids are the only fluids. With that being said has anyone else found anything better or just as good as an alternative for Texaco etp 7045e (

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

There are lots of previous threads on this topic if you do a search. And there's probably not a single good answer. A lot depends on how price conscious you are.

The OEM fluid / Texamatic 7045e is a non-synthetic Dexron III fluid. You could go with fluids like Fuchs Titan ATF4400, which try to imitate this original fluid but are pretty pricey. Non-synthetic Dex/Merc ATFs like Valvoline Dex/Merc, Castrol Transmax Dex/Merc, or Mobil ATF D/M are cheap and could still be fairly close to the original.
Some folk have gone with synthetic Dexron VI fluids, which are supposed be an upgrade but shifting characteristics may not be quite the same. And then there are some synthetic Dex/Merc fluids out there like Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF, which again could be an upgrade at least from longevity perspective.

I recently chose Mobil ATF D/M for my X3 transmission thinking I will be changing the fluid frequently anyway so it being non-synthetic does not matter.

[PostChris909]

There are lots of previous threads on this topic if you do a search. And there's probably not a single good answer. A lot depends on how price conscious you are.

The OEM fluid / Texamatic 7045e is a non-synthetic Dexron III fluid. You could go with fluids like Fuchs Titan ATF4400, which try to imitate this original fluid but are pretty pricey. Non-synthetic Dex/Merc ATFs like Valvoline Dex/Merc, Castrol Transmax Dex/Merc, or Mobil ATF D/M are cheap and could still be fairly close to the original.
Some folk have gone with synthetic Dexron VI fluids, which are supposed be an upgrade but shifting characteristics may not be quite the same. And then there are some synthetic Dex/Merc fluids out there like Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF, which again could be an upgrade at least from longevity perspective.

I recently chose Mobil ATF D/M for my X3 transmission thinking I will be changing the fluid frequently anyway so it being non-synthetic does not matter.

Yeah after doing a few days of research it seems ATF for these cars is clearly a never ending disscussion. A lot of people have said they went with dexron vi for their GM 5L40e trannys, but to my understanding the dexron vi is about 20-30% thinner than dexron III? I bought the dexron 4 but have been second guessing it all freakin day. I have yet to swap the fluid because I'm afraid the fluid will be to thin and cause slippage because of the difference in viscosity between gears. Its funny cause the bottles say "for use in General Motors vehicles" well, this is a GM tranny soo...? Price isn't much of an issue to me, but one thing I do not like is to be trolled by BMW to pay way out the a** for something that I could find elsewhere thats cheaper and better if not the same performance

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[vinyldude]

Yeah after doing a few days of research it seems ATF for these cars is clearly a never ending disscussion. A lot of people have said they went with dexron vi for their GM 5L40e trannys, but to my understanding the dexron vi is about 20-30% thinner than dexron III? I bought the dexron 4 but have been second guessing it all freakin day. I have yet to swap the fluid because I'm afraid the fluid will be to thin and cause slippage because of the difference in viscosity between gears. Its funny cause the bottles say "for use in General Motors vehicles" well, this is a GM tranny soo...? Price isn't much of an issue to me, but one thing I do not like is to be trolled by BMW to pay way out the a** for something that I could find elsewhere thats cheaper and better if not the same performance

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Just my opinion of course, but if you use some Dex/Merc fluid instead of Dexron-VI, the likelihood of it behaving the same as the factory fluid is higher for the reasons that you mentioned.

[geargrinder]

I"m no Dexron expert but have just been going through the same decision in my head for a domestic vehicle in our stable, looking for some kind of 'cheapest high quality / tradeoff' product.

Basically Dexron III'H' was the final Dex-III spec and apparently 'best' due to updated additive packages/specs etc. Not all the generic Dex III stuff out there meets that spec, but much does.

From what I can find, most oil co's will list 3 products that could be used for a Dex III vehicle:
- A low end basic conventional 'Dex/Merc' product that either meets 'generic' III, or, IIIH specifically
- A 'high mileage' product that might be either conventional or syn, that meets IIIH but has buncha extra additives
- A full-syn 'import/multivehicle' product that listed as good for cars that require a IIIH and is often (but not always) primarily listed as a VI ... and in those cases, yeah I bet its a little thinner.

From poking around, the above goes for Castrol, Pennz, Valvo, Mobil... all have product line-ups like that.

For my beater I'm leaning towards one of the high-mileage products, but 'whatever is on-sale' will probably be a big influencer, and not be too fussed about whether its conventional or syn unless the price is relatively same.
But if it was for a Bimmer then I'd be more particular, maybe shoot for a fullsyn product, but, seems like the science suggests a lot of the conventional base stocks, when paired with modern additives, are really almost no down-grade as long as you change it once in a while.