[h4ck7er]

Q onda aqui les dejo otro documento para los q quieren mucho su e46 y aunque la caja sea libre de mantenimiento no les truene como en veces pasa.!! leanlo

thread echo por Torquewrench
de http://www.bimmerfest.com

Another weekend, another maintenance adventure. Had this Friday off and I decided to tackle some projects on the E46 2001 BMW 330i. Did an engine oil and engine oil filter change, engine air filter change, cabin air filter change, and fuel filter change, but the main event of the day was automatic transmission maintenance. I did a lot of homework before I felt comfortable tackling this service, but I’ll save you the trouble and just give you the good stuff.

To give an overview of the transmission service, you’re doing three things:

1. Changing out as much of the automatic transmission fluid as possible
2. Replacing the automatic transmission filter located inside the transmission
3. Cleaning the transmission pan and magnets of metal and sludge

That’s it!

A little background:
Prior to 1994-1995, BMW recommended transmission maintenance on both automatic and manual transmissions every 60,000 miles. This involved changing the MTF or ATF; and on the automatic: dropping the pan, changing the internal filter and cleaning the magnets inside the transmission that collect metal debris. In 1994-1995, BMW started offering free maintenance to keep up with the Benz’s (and Luxus’, Infiniti’s and Acura’s), and at the same time stopped recommending the 60,000 mile transmission service on all but the M cars. Coincidence? I think not. BMW began to refer to the transmission fluid as “lifetime fill”. Recently, BMW re-introduced optional transmission maintenance at 100,000 miles, which I take as them backing off from their position on lifetime fluids.

I understand two causes of slippage and failure in automatic transmissions. The first is accelerated wear of clutch mating surfaces caused by metal particles suspended in the fluid. The second is the fluid itself wearing out and transmitting hydraulic forces less effectively. Over time, shear forces on the fluid’s long-chain hydrocarbons break into shorter molecules that transmit shear forces less effectively. As a result of this cracking, worn out ATF contributes to slippage. Put together a murky, silted mix of metal particles and worn out ATF and it’s only a matter of time until you end up with a slipping or non-functional transmission.

Manuals are a little simpler, but suffer the same fate. Metal in the fluid will grind away at the gears, introducing slop. The synchros use fluid viscosity just like an automatic transmission to spin up the gears to matching speeds. Broken down fluids won’t work as effectively at spinning up gears and as a result, you won’t able to shift as quickly or smoothly.

Bottom line, if you plan on keeping your car longer than 100,000 miles, then it makes sense to maintain the transmission. Most people recommend doing the service at 60,000 miles, I was at 55,000 and decided to go for it.

Let’s do it!
Let me say before I even start that you will be under the car and on your back a LOT for this job. A creeper will make this job much, much easier. I picked up a 36-in. Torin Big Red creeper at Advance Auto for $20 on sale. Definitely the best purchase I ever made.

Drove the car onto the four 2x10’s that allow my jack to fit under the car. Emergency brake and chocks for the rear wheels. Jacked the front of the car at the central jacking point, placed jack stands under front jack pads and lowered carefully. Jacked the rear under the differential, jack stands under the rear jack pads.
Remember, whenever you’re working under the car, have someone nearby, and try your best to rock the car off the jack stands BEFORE you get under it to make sure it’s stable. Life is precious should be long, and nothing of this sort is worth injuring yourself over.
I had driven about a half-hour before I started, but before I got to the transmission I changed the oil and the fuel filter, so the transmission pan was warm to the touch, not hot. This is important because to fill the transmission accurately the transmission must be between 30-50C, or 85-120F. Skin temperature is around 85F and 120F is too hot to maintain steady contact without pain, so as long as the fluid and pan are warm, you’re in the correct range.

Opened the FILL plug of the transmission pan. It is a horizontal, large diameter plug towards the rear of the car that takes an 8mm Allen wrench. I couldn’t get my breaker bar into the confined space. Maybe I could have if I’d had a ½-in. drive 8mm hex driver, but I didn’t, so I was using a ½-in. to 3/8-in. drive adapter, which made the whole thing longer, causing it not to fit. Next, I tried beating on the Allen wrench with a rubber mallet. Maybe a deadblow hammer would have worked, but the rubber mallet didn’t. Next I fit a 6-inch long 3/8-in. drive socket extension on the end of the 8mm Allen wrench (well it sorta fit!) and beat on that with the mallet, and the bolt moved. Before it came off I put a 5 qt. painters measuring container under the plug, and out came about 3 qts. of nasty dark grey fluid, filled with metal particles.
Next, I opened the drain plug, which is on the bottom of the pan towards the front of the car. It takes a 6mm Allen driver and in this case I used the 18-in. breaker bar which made it much easier. Another 1-1.5 qts came out.

Finally, I cracked all 22 pan bolts using a T-25 Torx driver on the end of the breaker bar. They’re only torqued to 6 N-m so the bar was probably overkill, but it didn’t hurt anything. I left four in place, one at each corner, and remove the rest. There is still another 1.5 qts of fluid left in the pan, so I recommend removing two from the front corners first. This will allow you to pour the remaining fluid into a waiting container. ZF says the transmission holds 9.2 qts including the torque converter and 6.5 qts not including the TC. Since you’re not removing the TC (nor should you bother), 6.5 qts is all you’re going to get. I wish I’d had a larger diameter catch container than the paint container. I spilled a good bit of fluid on the ground and even some in my hair (My wife smelled the stuff on me later, saw it in my hair, and asked me if I’d seen the episode of In Living Color chronicleing the invention of the Jerry Curl).

Some folks have disconnected the lines that run from the transmission to the transmission fluid cooler at the front of the car, put the output into a bucket and connected the input to a gravity feed container of fresh fluid. In this way you can exchange all of the fluid, but the lines looked mighty inaccessible to me, so I opted to just drain as much as I could. This might be one of those things that’s much easier with a lift (what isn’t?).

With the pan off, I set it aside and removed the AT filter. Two flathead Allen bolts secure it, but you only need to remove the one towards the front of the car to remove it. Make sure the pink sealing ring comes with it. Have a container ready because it contains holds a good bit of fluid. Get the new filter and install it, making sure to seat the sealing ring properly. If the filter is horizontal, good chance it’s seated properly.

Now it’s time to clean the pan. There are 8 rare earth magnets in the pan that collect metal bits. Mine were covered in fine grey sludge, which is a very good thing. Every bit of sludge on these magnets was not grinding away at the rest of the transmission. You should use lint free cloth to clean all of these parts so as not to introduce foreign particles into the transmission. I used paper towels and brake cleaner and I expect to be smitten by the transmission gods with a lightning bolt any minute now. With the magnets clean of sludge, the pan nice and shiny, and the gasket surface free of any residue, I coated the whole thing with a thin layer of fresh ATF and brought it back to the car.

Back under the car I had three or four bolts facing the wrong way in the pan to keep the new gasket in place. Getting the first couple bolts in while holding the pan above my head was probably the hardest part of this job. A couple of times I touched the gasket with grimy hands and had to undo the whole thing, clean the gasket, and start all over again. I finally got it, and tightened up all 22 bolts in a rough star pattern to 6 N-m. Maybe you can do a perfect star pattern, but not being able to see all of the bolts at once and the fact that the pan is somewhat squarish meant close enough was good for me. Next, torque the drain plug to 35 N-m.

Once the pan was on it was time to pump in some fresh fluid. To do this you need some sort of fluid pump. Mine looks like a giant liquid soap pump. I attached it to empty windshield washer liquid container and filled it with 3 qts of Valvoline Mercon V ATF. The original fluid in this transmission is Esso ATF LT71141, a synthetic blend that BMW sells in 20L barrels for $28/L (yes, you read right, $560 bucks a barrel). If you bring your own container, some dealerships will sell you smaller quantities. 7 L at $28/L is still $192, so if you insist on sticking with the OEM fluid, VW, Audi, and Porsche use the same ZF transmissions that use the same fluid and you can get it for $16/L from their dealerships and a couple of web sources (see p/n and links at the end). VW also sells a Pentosin substitute that can be had for $8-9/L. Valvoline has certified Mercon V as compatible with Esso LT 71141, as has Castrol with their Multi-Vehicle Synthetic ATF. Plenty of folks have also used the Redline D4 ATF product, and some have also tried Amsoil’s synthetic ATF with success. If you’re still under warranty I’d stick with the OEM fluid (VW stuff is fine, it’s the same thing). If anything were to happen I think you’re position would be better if they couldn’t blame it all on different fluid. Being out of warranty, I felt comfortable using the Mercon V. It doesn’t hurt that it goes for $4/qt, 1/7 the price of the BMW juice and ¼ the price from VW. I purchased 7 qts. and used about 6-1/2, together with the filter ($23.25) and the gasket ($13.75), both from Pelican Parts, the total cost of materials for the service came to $66.26.

At this point I was able to pump in about 3 qts. I inserted the fill plug finger tight and started the car, shifting through the gears slowly ten times to get the new fluid in all the nooks and crannies. Placed the gear selector in neutral, shut off the car, and pumped additional fluid through the fill plug until overflow. Have your catch container ready! Reinserted the fill plug finger tight.

Now the tricky part! Started the car in neutral and left it running. You have to crawl under the car and top off the fluid with it running, then screw in the fill plug and torque it to spec. I stayed clear of the exhaust, no burns, but I will admit I was a little tense and wanted to be out from under the car ASAP. Getting the fill plug in was a b*tch. My fingers were covered in oil, I was sweating, nervous, and you can’t see where the allen wrench has to go. Just as there was no way to get the breaker bar in to loosen the fill plug, there was no way to get a torque wrench in there either. Once I finally got it in there I just whacked the 8mm allen wrench solidly with the mallet a couple of times and called it a day. If you’re able to get a torque wrench in there, the spec is 30 N-m.

I wish I had cleaned the exhaust and pan with a degreaser. The fluid on my arms got on there and I can smell it every time the car has been running for a while. I’ll clean it next time I have the car up, but do yourself a favor and clean everything up while you have access to the underside of the car.

Well, that’s it! I was doing everything for the first time and the transmission took me 4 hours start to finish. It’s been three days and I think it feels smoother, but it felt pretty darn smooth beforehand, so that might just be wishful thinking. I will say confidently that the shifts do happen faster, but again, they weren’t slow before either. Changing 6.5 qts. out of 9.2 gives a 71% change, 6.5/9.2 = 71% . Changing another 6.5 qts. puts the new to old fluid ratio at 91%, [(9.2-6.5)*71%+6.5]/9.2 = 91%. I might do a drain and fill again in 30,000 miles without dropping the pan just to get some fresh fluid in there.

My Car: 2001 330i ZSP
Transmission: ZF 5HP19 (BMW A5S 325Z), green plaque on transmission

Lessons Learned:
I wouldn’t do this without a creeper.
Jack the car as high as possible.
Use a larger catch-pan than I did to avoid spills
Have kitty litter ready in case you spill some ATF (I sure did)
For the fluid pump, if you can find a squat bottle with the proper threads this will make the job easier since room under the car is limited.
A ½-in. drive 8mm hex driver would have helped with the fill plug
Degrease the exhaust, cat, and AT pan while you have the car on stands

What You’ll Need

Tools I used:
Safety glasses
Monkey suit
4 24-in. long 2x10’s
2 wheel chocks
Floor jack, Craftsman bargain basement model
4 jack stands
3/8-in. and ¼-in. drive metric socket set
T-25 3/8-in. drive Torx socket driver
8mm 3/8-in. drive hex socket driver (1/2-in. drive recommended)
6mm 3/8-in. drive hex socket driver (1/2-in. drive recommended)
18-in. ½-in. drive breaker bar
In-Lb torque wrench
Ft-Lb torque wrench
5 qt. painters measuring container
Manual fluid pump
Empty washer fluid container
Creeper
5 gallon bucket with lid (for used fluid)

Supplies:
Paper towels (lint-free cloth is better)
Solvent (I used brake cleaner)
Scotch-brite pad (for cleaning gasket surface)

Materials/Parts:
7 qts Valvoline Mercon V ATF $3.98 each
AT Pan Gasket (BMW p/n: 24-10-1-423-380) $13.75
AT Filter (BMW p/n: 24-34-1-423-376) $23.25

Useful Links

ZF Transmission Guide

Transmission Fundamentals: Explanation of How the ZF and GM ATs Function

Alternate ATFs (in order of my preference):

1. Valvoline Mercon V (Valvoline Compatibility Letter, what I used)

2. Redline D4 ATF
3. Amsoil ATF
4. Castrol Multi-Vehicle ATF (Castrol Compatibility Letter)
5. Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF (some Subaru users reported slipping, but these weren’t ZF ATs so who knows)

Sources for Esso LT 71141 ATF (BMW p/n: 83-22-9-407-807)
Peter Schmid
JIE
World Impex
Any VW, Audi, or Porsche dealer (VW p/n: G-052-162-A2)

Other DIYs:
VW ATF Drain & Fill (same AT)
Pelican Parts BMW E36 AT drain & fill
Another 2001 330i owner’s drain & fill experience:
BMW owners weigh in on Redline D4 ATF vs. OEM
Amsoil ATF Replacement Guide

Misc. BMW AT Links
Unofficial statistics on BMW automatic transmissions and Lifetime ATF
E38 ZF 5HP24 ATF Service DIY (good pictures)
TechDrive Vol. 3 No. 2, Independent BMW Service Mag, recommends using only BMW OEM fluids (blah!)
Mixing Esso and Castrol?
Diagnosing Transmission Whine (usually low fluid level)

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