No Thanks! I beleive in Santa, The Easter Bunny, and BMW's "lifetime fill"
OK, sounds easy (It is!)
This DIY is a guide, and you MUST take responsibility for yourself if you screw something up. I, nor will anyone else do this for you!
Well, I guess you chose option 2 in the poll. You will need the following for the fluid change:
1- 2 quarts of your preferred differential fluid (3 if you also flush the diff) I prefer Amsoil 75-90 after trying many other manufacturers.
2- ramps, or a car lift
3- jack stands
4- 14 mm hex socket and wrench (or sometime less common 17mm)
5- pump for gear oil
6- rags
7- a big piece of cardboard to lay on and catch the grease that WILL miss the oil catch pan
8- oil catch pan
9- 2 new crush washers, part # 07119963355
10- car jack
11- 45 minutes of your time
Drive the car around for a while in order to get the fluid good and warm. This will let the fluid run out of the differential much easier if it is warm.
Drive the car up onto the ramps, put into park, and turn off the engine. Jack the rear of the car up, and place on the jack stands securely. Even though it's been said lifting the car from the differential is not the proper way to do so, it works for me. If there is a better way feel free to let us know.
Try to get the car a level as possible. This is optimum for the fluid to drain, and refill level.
Here's the drain plug.
Here's the fill plug.
Place the cardboard on the ground under the oil catch pan, and under the differential. Remove the drain plug. If you have recently coverted from BMW's "lifetime fill" belief the bolts will be a little hard to break loose. If this is the case try some WD-40 or Penetrating oil, and a breaker bar.
This RedLine Blue draining. IMHO
Pop the out fill plug when the old fluid has finished draining. Use the pump and about a quart of the NEW oil to flush the diff if you choose.
Replace the drain plug with a NEW crush washer. Fill the diff with oil until it overflows though the fill fitting. This is where having the car level is really important. The fluid should just reach the edge of the filler hole.
Replace the fill plug with a NEW crush washer. I torque the plugs to hand tight. Similar to the oil drain plug on the engine. The Bently manual says 52 ft-lb is the technically correct torque
Now get the car on the ground, and go for a drive around the block.
Back the car up onto the ramps to check for leaks.
If you didn't find any, Awesome! Now go have beer with you gearhead buds.
FIN
Thats an awesome write-up thanks alot.
Another great writeup Jackat559. Is it just the pictures or are those drain and fill plugs Torx bolts? I know you can use a hex socket on a Torx bit, and I'm not at home so I can't double check with my Bentley.
Thanks for the writeup. I have two quarts of Royal Purple ready to go, just need to find the time to do it. I was wondering if I could use the ramps and jacks together to get the whole car up in the air. I have a manual, but I guess with it in gear, E-Brake and wheel chocks at the back it should not be rolling off the ramps.
Thanks for the write-up.
AW|Byzanz
Pardon me for being kinda ignorant here but does the differential do in a car?
What differences, if any, did you notice after flushing out the differential?
Current:
2016 BMW 535i xDrive
2017 Volvo XC60
2000 BMW 540i
Past:
2012 Audi A4 S-Line
2011 BMW X5 50i
2010 Mercedes ML350
2002 Lexus IS300
1998 Audi A6 Quattro
1988 Honda Prelude
Great write up, I would recommend pulling the fill plug first just to make sure you can. It would suck to drain it and then find out you can't fill it up again...
2000 M5
2012 X5 35d
BTW, your undercarriage is SPOTLESS
I had mine done at the dealer last month
2007 E60 530i - Current2002 E39 530i - RIP
BMW CCA MEMBER 397411
The web and a search engine is a wonderful tool. Try it.... you will like it
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential2.htm
Great write-up!
Do you know if there is a difference between the (2) Amsoil severe gear oils 75w-90??
I have the other....
http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/svg.aspx
SEVERE GEAR® Synthetic Extreme Pressure (EP) Lubricant 75W-90 (SVG)
Formulated for the severe operating conditions of today’s pick-up trucks, SUVs, heavy equipment and other hard working vehicles.
See Pricing Information or Place an Order
Package sizes include:
Looking for an E39 belly pan , passenger front inner fender liner …
LOL it says Lube on the bottle.....
Great writeup man! Hopefully that will give people the extra BALL needed to do the job.
Another FP5241 Creation
Parting out M54 Engine. Intake and all. Cats avail as well. PM ME!
Holy cow man! the Under belly of your car is cleaner than most people's car LOL. But thanks for write up.
No kidding on the undercarriage. Great write-up and pics!
2008 Lexus LS460
2016 Lexus NX200t
PUREVIP
Island Elites - West Coast Elites
Team Airrex
ClubLexusHawaii
2002 540iA Sport (SOLD)
1998 M3/4 (SOLD)
Thanks! I'm not sure of the exact differences between the two products. The severe gear oil seems to have been developed for harsh conditions. Amsoil tech may have to answer this to be more precise. All in all I love their products.
I like to keep the car clean a possible, for many reasons. It's easy just to wipe things down, as general maintenace things are done. This way it's easy to spot if things are starting to go wrong. For example while changing the power steering fuild I noticed fluid just below the supercharger. Due to everything being relativly clean it was easy to trace the leak to an oil return line.
Also when the car goes in for work the anal retentivness is noticed. It's funny to watch people look at the car then see it has 150,000 miles. I had it serviced under warranty by accident about 2 years ago when the sercice guy miss read the odmeter, and though it said 13,500 instead of 135,000. A clean car saved me some duckets that day!
Thanks!
I love Amsoil too!
Jared "JYost" hooked me up, and got me the preferred customer status.
The Amsoil application lists the Severe Gear fluid (the one I pictured) for my car, hence, that is why I bought it.
I asked the Amoil dealer (Jared) about it, and he said the other gear oil you used is great too, maybe even over-kill.
So, it's all good!
My car was serviced at the dealer up until it was at 60k miles, which was when the cabin filters were replaced last.
I just replaced them at 80k miles, and I literally dug out dirt out of the filter compartment. Plus, I pulled out leaves too...
I guess my car is not quite as squeeky clean as yours.
Thanks!
Jason
Looking for an E39 belly pan , passenger front inner fender liner …
Reading the bottle discriptions they seem very close to each other. Just one is more heavy duty.
wow that is one clean underbody
The DIY man does it again!
I just put new BMW fluid in mine. Since I had a few bottles in my tool box.
I love your car Jackcat...it's so sleeper.
'02 E39 530i/5sp Topaz Blue/Black Interior - MegaSquirt3x - Garrett GTX3582R turbo - E85 fuel - Apex FL-5 - 265/295 tires - Custom Porsche Brembo BBK - 600whp @ 22 PSI
'15 E84 X1 35i M Sport Alpine White/Coral Red Interior - H&R Sports & Bilstein B6 - Velgen VMB5 - 265/305 tires - ETS FMIC - MPI Charge pipe & DME Flash - 3.5" down pipe
Well I did both the diff & manual trans. fluid today. All went really well because of the great info on this site. One thing that no one ever mentioned is how bad the old fluid smells. WOW the garage still stinks. I used RP fluid for everything. next comes new plugs.
I thought this would have been dumped in the DIY sticky for future referance.
Awesome BRO!! Will have to do soon!
Great DIY. However, I posted my DIY for Man Trans and Rear Diff Fluids some 3 years ago in May 2006.
- No need to jack up the car: I use woodramps...(see pics).
- No need to buy the oil pump (it is messy). I use clear vinyl tubing and gravity fill (see pics):
http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/379239
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