BMW E90 DIY Automatic Transmission Fluid Change

DIY Disclaimer: I hold no responsibility should anything goes wrong when you decided to follow my guide. It’s strictly meant as a reference for knowledge sharing purposes.
2007 BMW E90 N46B20
Mileage: 80k km
Transmission model: ZF GA 6HP19
1. Park the car on a level ground. Secure the rear wheel from rolling. I use a piece of brick.
2. Jack up front left of the car. I use my Toyota scissor jack. A hydraulic jack would make the job a lot more easier.
3. Place extra support to prevent the jack slip. I use another brick below the raised front left tyre and a jack stand to support the lower arm knuckle end.. I also inserted a piece of solid rubber into the plastic jack stand point to prevent the plastic jack stand point from damage due to the incompatible jack used.



4. Open the bottom shield (item 10) and ..


.. unscrew fill bolt (Item 3)


Get the drain pan ready because old ATF may gush out when the fill bolt is removed, best just loosen it first and leave the bolt in place until step 5 below is completed.
5. Release drain plug (item 4) and the used ATF will be released.

6. Close the drain plug (item 4 above), don’t over tighten because it’s plastic, can break.. and they don’t sell them separately. It comes with a new plastic transmission oil sump.
7. Insert refill hose to feed new ATF. Do not push in too much as you can damage the transmission box’s internal fragile components.
8. Drop the jack so the car is level to the ground again. Refilling ATF must be done with car level to the ground.
9. Pump in ATF until overflow and that’s how they measure the level.

10. Start the engine with aircond running, and run through all the gears R, N, D, DS, M1~M6, 3 seconds for each with handbrake engaged and brake pedal firmly depressed. Then back to ‘P’ and let engine run for 3 minutes to heat up the ATF to 30~35 Celsius.
11. With the engine running, top up the fluid until it overflow. Make sure it’s not exceeding 50C because you will under-fill the fluid due to heat expansion.
12. Jack up the car again to plug the fill bolt and reinstall lower shield.
JOB DONE!!
Some photos to help you better understand the procedure.
~ Getting ready the fill hose.

~ Check out the other end of the clear refill hose, getting ready to be inserted into the fill hole.

~ The tools that helped me open the fill bolt and drain plug.


~ Below is how the "custom” tool being used to open the plastic drain plug. I do not the a hex wrench that’s large enough, has to DIY the opening tool..

~ Work in progress..

~ Fluid used, the red cap is old stock, blue cap is new design. Old bottle design do not have an inner plug while the new design has. 4L is sufficient if transmission sump with embedded strainer is not replaced.

~ Fluid level guide.. http://www.scribd.com/doc/97008578/6hp19-21-Bmw-Fluidlevel

After the job, I found few better ways to perform the job. Please stay tuned!
Thank you for reading and please provide feedback or query if any.
Next job should be valve cover gasket..

Update: Found ZF Procedure in Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRrgmfM8VlQ

Avanza: DIY Power Steering Fluid Replacement

Hand wash pump, stick it into the power steering reservoir and pump. Be careful not to pierce the strainer inside the reservoir. This is not a perfect method because:

1. The insert of the hand pump too hard, can damage the metal strainer netting in the reservoir.

2. The hand pump suction is not powerful enough to siphon out debris in the reservoir. After I siphoned out the fluid, a peek with a torch light revealed that there’s debris inside the reservoir.

The next time I do this, you should see some improvement to my method.  

Check out the fluid color. On the left is from my 1 day old partial drained transmission fluid, taken out due to overfilled. On the right, is the one taken out from my power steering reservoir. Dirty eh?!

Still the power steering fluid appear less dark comparing to the transmission fluid. Planning for a full drain in 20k km time. Stay tuned!

The 3L partial drain of transmission fluid is really hopeless!

Thank you for reading..

Comment appreciated.

Avanza: DIY Removal of Excess / Overfilled ATF

1 day after I replaced the ATF, even with around 2.3L of ATF, I still felt overfilled. So that prompted me to perform this next DIY: To siphon out excess or overfilled ATF.

I connected the hand soap nozzle to a rubber hose as my siphon device. Insert the other end of the rubber hose into the transmission via the transmission fluid dipstick entrance. Use an empty drinking bottle as a catch, keep pumping the ATF out. It takes less than 3 minute to get rid of my following excess ATF. Don’t forget to check the ATF level once in a while during pumping to avoid over siphoning of the fluid leaving insufficient fluid in the transmission..

Check out my state-of-the-art device.. LOL!

The ATF I managed to siphon out.. Check out how dirty the fluid is despite only 1 day after the ATF change. This is because only less than 40% of the oil fluid is drained through transmission oil pan. The bulk of it still stuck in the torque converter. So moral of the story, replace your ATF more often. I am practicing every 40k km but I certainly recommend 20k km if your time and budget permit. In fact every litre of the genuine Toyota D-III ATF sold by the authorised service centre only cost MYR19, so 3L only cost less than MYR60. You can even fill your empty fuel tank with that amount of money. By the way, the balance fresh ATF can be used to replace your power steering fluid in the power steering reservoir. They share the same type of fluid. To siphon your power steering fluid from it’s reservoir, same technique, via the power steering fill / dipstick cap.

Avanza: DIY ATF Replacement

Unscrew the drain bolt under the transmission oil sump/pan, it’s a size 14 bolt.

Don't understand why the ATF drain bolt is not located at the lowest point of the sump, how to fully drain the old fluid on the sump? The only explanation I can think of is IF the bolt were lost, not all fluid "escape" so gearbox may survive.. I had to lift the front right wheel using the jack until maximum the jack can provide.. to tilt the pan to try get as much of the old fluid out. Next time can consider siphon technique, releasing from drain bolt doesn't get rid of old lube as well as siphon technique since the siphon tube can reach the bottom of the pan.

Only about 2L is drained..

I bought the drain bolt washer from the authorised service centre, the metal o-rings are for the rear diff, one each for drain and refill screw. The “paper” type is the same as engine oil drain bolt gasket, meant for transmission drain bolt. Didn’t get to use though because lazy to remove the old gasket. Very tightly stuck onto the ATF pan.

 

For refill, I joined some larger diameter straws, to be exact, 3 of them together using salophen tape to pipe the fresh ATF in.

 

I bought extra ATF but seriously, 3L is more than sufficient.

Check out the DIY funnel.. heh! liquid medicine measurement cup for the kid + silicon sealant nozzle, hot glued together..