[bmwlover]

Bmw says that these oils are lifetime but we know that nothing is lifetime. Place your opinions here based on your practice.

My practice: 0-95000km e71 4.4 worked good, did not notice anything.
0-105000km f16 35i, a little late to siwtch gear. 16000rpm. Before 105000km it was changing on 1500rpp.

[Node]

Never changed any of those. Never had any problems. One E60 535d I bought 14 years ago at about 80000km. Now it's at more than 210000km. NOT A SLIGHTEST problem ever (at least regarding gearbox and differential). I think one of seals was changed on it (either rear of gearbox or front of differential). Oil was just filled up to proper level using proper fluid.

Moreover proper fluid change for such gearbox with proper fluid will cost nearly 600€ (using wholesale price for fluid), even more at final customer prices.

[masa52]

changing in every car I had
proper oil is not expensive if you know which one

[beemered]

ISTA will tell you there is VTG oil wear at some point.
So time to replace.

[Node]

Just for the record I was talking about gearbox and differential only.

[masa52]

all oils wear or get old that's true!!!
your choice change or not change
simply like that

[Node]

all oils wear or get old that's true!!!
your choice change or not change
simply like that

That's lamer talk. Define "oil wear" and "get old" chemically. Then we can discuss in what amount or time frame "that's true".

I do not expect fluids to work for 1000 years. But then I don't expect a car to run for that long either. But modern highly refined mineral and synthetic fluids went quite long way from old oils. Additives also prevent degradation.

And just as an example ZF-LIFEGUARDFLUID 8 has max 90% of base oil (based on SDS). Remaining part is additives.

[loki954]

they don't lie it is life time and with the new transmission/transfer case you will get new life time oil

it is just marketing, when you buy new car there is no expense to change that oil so you will get car with less expenses. If you see on 50 000 you will have to change transmission oil for XXXXX$$$ and if you see that there is nothing like that on the other car . Guess what car you will get.  the 150 000 will get without change. Then the company don't care if will bake

[brutten87]

What I tent to see, is that there isn't much of a problem if you go lifetime. Some people swear with 100.000km and change the oil in the gearbox etc. I do not think you are gonne extend the life time off your clutches etc in the gearbox. New oil is MAYBE a bit more agressief then the old oil. So your clutches etc MAYBE going to even wear more after doing a oil change...

There is no proof as far as I know.

The new gearbox on the front driven BMW's, the DTC gearbox, they get a interval after programming the car with one off the latest software. We see it alot that there is no indication or error for oil change but after programming it to the latest software, it says that the oil needs to be changed. It is after like 150.000km. The customer gets a notification that the gearbox oil needs to be changed. If you do not do it within 3000km, BMW tells you that you have to change the clutch aswell.

Do what makes you feel best with, I guess.
I do not like spending money on my car for nothing so, if I have no notification, I woudn't do it...

[larshutten]

We can all find our own arguments for why do and don’t. Because if we throw away wear and aging of oil why not skip engine or brake fluid service? (Trash taking in 1… )

Why do we tent to shorten the engine oil interval instead of the advised 25-30k by bmw? Right that’s because issues will show on later mileage of the car.

Also wear of the oil isn’t our biggest enemy and also temperate limits won’t happen also if car is driven “normally”. Aging is in my point of view the reason to this. Because if you look at the sheets of most additives you will notice that their productivity lowers by aging. And when you are checking this out look what happens when temperature limits are reached and the productivity. For example towing high loaded trailer can cause over temp in gearbox.

Since most gearboxes from bmw are produced by ZF I would suggest you to call the local service point in your country and let them explain why even they advise to replace oil and filter every 100k km. And no this not only for aftersales reasons.