Turtle n Peeps wrote:
No big deal. My BMW has lifetime ATF in the tranny. :E
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the ZF transmissions used in BMW's have a high incidence of failure. My Jaguar convertible also has the same ZF. There is no dipstick tube to add tranny fluid through.
ZF's really need the automatic transmission fluid changed every 60K miles or so. They require special fluids and the filters and pan gaskets are hard to find locally.
A special engine scanner tells the technician when the transmission is the proper temperature for topping off the fluids. It's added to a plug in the top/side of the transmission with a pump until it overflows. A laser thermometer can also be used on the tranny pan.
It's not something that an amateur cannot do, but they're bad to breakoff the pan bolts.
