[gtthree]

Hi Guys

With my car at 80k miles I deceided to have my diff oil changed as preventative maintenance as I plan to keep my car for a few more years.

I had the work carried out by TGM Sport of Fleet, Hampshire. Tom is really knowledgeable chap and carried out the work for me. I would not hesitate to recommend him for work on any car. He runs a race team and carries work for a number other race teams.

I should say BMW states the diff oil is lifetime fill and as such have not installed a drain plug on the diff. To that end Tom had to suck the diff oil out before refilling

For those of you who are considering having this routine piece of maintenance carried out you will need:

Bmw diff fill plug (screw plug) part number B33.11.7.525.064 cost roughly £5
A good quality 75w-90 oil. I chose Castrol 21687 Syntrax Longlife cost roughly £15 a litre and its fully synthetic.

The capacity of the diff is 0.9 of litre (530d F10, non Xdrive) so a 1 litre bottle will be perfect.
The fill plug has a built in rubber seal so there is no need for a crush washer.

With the car on level surface once the oil has been removed you just add the fresh oil until it begins to flow back out of the fill hole. Once this occurs insert and tighten up your screw plug and the job is done. A short test drive later and the job was complete.

Whilst I was there I enquired about my front brakes, which will be renewed in the next month or so once I’ve order the parts from Germany. Tom spotted I’d new brakes on the rear and he told me has the computer equipment to release electronic rear parking brakes and to reset the idrive service count down. I wish I’d know before I had them replaced at the BMW dealership.

G.