Trans./Diff, oil change with synthetic

Vic Mayer · Vic Mayer's Garage

I want to change the oil in my Trans. & diff. I will be using Amsoil Synthetic Lube. What I need to know is what Type to use ?
20/50 Or 70Wt. The car has 140000 miles on it .I dont. know when previous owner changed oil last . I have had good luck with Amsoil in the past. The car is a 94 325Is

Jared at Pelican Parts · 06-04-2003, 04:58 PM

Where are you located? What s the climate like there? Have you checked your owner's manual as to the conditiond for different grades?

Vic Mayer · Vic Mayer's Garage

Cleveland Ohio But Car is only driven in the summer time only.
No driving schools or races. Just Highway & city travel.

stupenal · 06-04-2003, 06:46 PM

I heard to use Redline MTF if you track your car, and Redline ATF for normal daily driving for the trans.

m50power · 06-05-2003, 04:47 AM

I have a e36 325is with a LSD, and planning to put Amsoil synthetic gear lube sae75w-90 this weekend. The hardest part is to find a allen bit that is short enough to fit back there. But redline is also a good product.

Jared at Pelican Parts · 06-05-2003, 11:19 AM

That sounds about right

stupenal · 06-05-2003, 11:59 AM

Here's the writeup that I'll be using to change my tranny fluid

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/e36/drivetrain/e36_change_manual_transmission_fluid.html

Vic Mayer · Vic Mayer's Garage

Any sugestions on Amsoil grade for manual Trans

lancelot1959 · 09-18-2003, 11:46 PM

Amsoil makes a synthetic transmission fluid that can be used in any transmission.
Get it at www.lubedealer.com/miamilube

stupenal · 09-19-2003, 02:23 AM

since this thread has been updated - might as well update what I did with my car (even tho i posted it before in other threads, might as well post again!!)

I decided to go with what I could get locally - after calling every autozone within my area (around 5 of them) I came to the conclusion that they did not carry redline products nor amsoil and that every one of them was OOS for mobil1. Napa does not carry either (or at least the one near me) and I was pretty dejected, about to buy non synthetic tranny fluid. Then I decided to check mobil1.com or whatever the website is and searched for retailers who carry mobil1 tranny fluid (since redline seemed pretty much impossible to get). Lo and behold - I had totally forgotten about our local ricer shop - PEP BOYS! I called them up, found out there was only 2 quarts left (our cars use 1.25 or something like that) so I grabbed it and left - total was $13.

Since I read that it requires some sort of special tool to do the diff - I just did the tranny fluid. I went to autozone and bought this pump thing for $12 and proceeded to undo the fill plug first. The drain plug was quite a bear to get off - took 20 min of pushing and tugging and finally the breaker bar came out. The fluid that came out wasn't that bad, but it seemed kinda low. After filling it up - here are my impressions:

The car has a smoother feel - not extremely noticable but still there. I used to have a problem getting the car into gear when on slopes - but i have had none of that problem ever since I've changed the fluid.

The procedure isn't difficult - I installed my short shifter while I was at it. It helps a lot to do it on a lift since it does take substantial force to remove the drain plug and it also puts you in an odd position to get leverage if you were using jack stands. The lift also makes the car level - much easier to fill the tranny back with fluid. Thank goodness I work at a car dealership.

I was afraid I would have a ton of metal pieces and black colored fluid coming out of the car - I had no idea when the tranny fluid was last replaced. Thank goodness the fluid was still reddish/purpleish and no noticable chunks came out. I've read that people have experienced tranny failures after changing out the fluid because the chunks of metal get stuck in the tranny and causes damage - i dunno the truth in that.