[Unspec]

Originally Posted by Smytty

Had this thread pinned for a while; going to tackle this sometime in March just trying to visualize the repair. This is done entirely without the wheels spinning? Can I keep the car on Jack stands while running through the ISTA procedure or will the wheels have to be on the ground?

The wheels will not move during the below procedure?

Step 4. Foot on brake, release parking brake, shift car into reverse, release brake. Wait 10 seconds. Brake, shift into drive, move shifter to the left and go into M1. Release brake, wait 10 seconds. Shift into M2, wait 10 seconds. Brake, shift into park, engage parking brake.

BMW was not clear on the wheels part, but when I contacted ZF, they said the wheels should NOT spin. So, yes, keep car on jack stands, and then just keep your foot on the brake pedal any time you're in gear.

Thank you for bringing Step 4 to my attention, I had neglected to update that step to reflect the ZF information. You should NEVER release your foot off the brake.

[Smytty]

Originally Posted by Unspec

BMW was not clear on the wheels part, but when I contacted ZF, they said the wheels should NOT spin. So, yes, keep car on jack stands, and then just keep your foot on the brake pedal any time you're in gear.

Thank you for bringing Step 4 to my attention, I had neglected to update that step to reflect the ZF information. You should NEVER release your foot off the brake.

Thank you for the clarification. Also Thanks for the write up will be tackling this in the coming weeks. I’ve only done trans fluid in my late Great E60 6MT. Just drain and fill.

Diff fluid on a RWD 550 is just drain and fill correct?

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by Smytty

Thank you for the clarification. Also Thanks for the write up will be tackling this in the coming weeks. I’ve only done trans fluid in my late Great E60 6MT. Just drain and fill.

Diff fluid on a RWD 550 is just drain and fill correct?

Yep nothing fancy. There's no drain plug IIRC so you need to figure out how to suck out the fluid. I used thin poly tubing to mine out.

[ChiltiCoatl89]

I deeply respect the attention to detail in making this for all of us to use! I want to do this myself, I have the tools for it, I know my 5er will greatly benefit from a drain and fill.

[ezaircon4jc]

One big reason I don't do this is the need to keep the car level. I'm also not young enough anymore to do all this work lying on my back.

[ChiltiCoatl89]

Originally Posted by ezaircon4jc

One big reason I don't do this is the need to keep the car level. I'm also not young enough anymore to do all this work lying on my back.

Buy a lift!

[ezaircon4jc]

Originally Posted by ChiltiCoatl89

Buy a lift!

Won't fit in my garage...

[BuiltnBoostedZ]

Good write up. Bout to do this after I swap coil packs, spark plugs, water pump, and front brakes. Sitting at 53k miles.

[turbo97se]

This is a great write up .. I actually only saw this AFTER I did mine ... a couple of small details I did that perhaps might help others.

1. When draining the transmission fluid, I jacked up the front of the car as high as I could since the drain plug is towards the rear of the pan. You get more out that way and there actually is more space under the car with the front end tilted up
2. When I removed the pan bolts, I loosed all of them but did not remove all of them completely. Kept 1 or 2 in the front and 1 in the back and tilted the pan around to drain as much of the remaining fluid through the drain hole. That left very little in the pan. I saw Youtube videos of people making a big mess .. I managed to do this with minimal mess.
3. When filling I removed the front left jack stand and left the right front one in place and jacked up the right rear as high as it would go. I managed to fill about 3.75 liters with the car in this position and put the old drain plug back in temporarily.
4. Then I had to start the car and run through all the gears (not moving the car of course) then managed to fill to 4.75 liters total.

I have done this before a few years ago on another 535i but forgot some of the steps so did some refreshers on YouTube. Wish I had used the pressure filler approach. Using the hand pump really sucked cos the tube that sucks up the fluid kept dropping off and the plunger kept sticking too. I actually made a similar pressure filler for brake fluid .. don't know why I didn't think of it for this. Next time ...

[Unspec]

Originally Posted by turbo97se

This is a great write up .. I actually only saw this AFTER I did mine ... a couple of small details I did that perhaps might help others.

1. When draining the transmission fluid, I jacked up the front of the car as high as I could since the drain plug is towards the rear of the pan. You get more out that way and there actually is more space under the car with the front end tilted up
2. When I removed the pan bolts, I loosed all of them but did not remove all of them completely. Kept 1 or 2 in the front and 1 in the back and tilted the pan around to drain as much of the remaining fluid through the drain hole. That left very little in the pan. I saw Youtube videos of people making a big mess .. I managed to do this with minimal mess.
3. When filling I removed the front left jack stand and left the right front one in place and jacked up the right rear as high as it would go. I managed to fill about 3.75 liters with the car in this position and put the old drain plug back in temporarily.
4. Then I had to start the car and run through all the gears (not moving the car of course) then managed to fill to 4.75 liters total.

I have done this before a few years ago on another 535i but forgot some of the steps so did some refreshers on YouTube. Wish I had used the pressure filler approach. Using the hand pump really sucked cos the tube that sucks up the fluid kept dropping off and the plunger kept sticking too. I actually made a similar pressure filler for brake fluid .. don't know why I didn't think of it for this. Next time ...

Yea the pressure filler is what makes this service 10x easier. I tried at first with the hand pump and what is effectively a REALLY big syringe and it just made it a huge faff and mess. With the pressure filler, you just dump 4 bottles (to start) into the filler and then go browse youtube for a bit while it does its thing you you wait to hear the dribbling sound.

If you go hand pump method or syringe method, it realistically becomes a 2 man job unless you're a masochist (and it's far easier just to pay someone to whip you instead).

The ONLY downside to the pressure filler is that if you fill it with more fluid than you need, that fluid is "wasted". That said, you shouldn't be mixing the trans fluid with other fluids, and so just capping off the pressure filler and leaving it for the next service is what I did (had about half a bottle left in the filler). I made mine for like 20 bucks IIRC so it's not like I'm "wasting" an expensive filler.