Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyW
Here is the text portion of my Blackstone report when I changed the DCT fluid and filters (remember there are two) at 93K.
"We would agree with you that a lifetime oil may not exist -- except for maybe if the oil just sits and doesn't experience much/any use. We've tested a few dozen samples from similar BMW dual clutch transmissions, and the average oil change interval is about 52,000 miles. You ran this fluid much longer than that, with hard track use, yet the wear metals are all below average levels. If that's not a good sign of healthy wear, we don't know what is. No coolant, water, or insolubles were found in this sample and the
viscosity was correct. Perfect report!"
And this is after 2 years of tracking the car (about 10 track days). If yours is a DD, I think 100K is a reasonable milestone to change it, but you could probably push it to 150K given what I've read and what is in my own report.
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I'm kicking myself for not doing an Oil Analysis on my DCT fluid before replacing my clutches. I was experiencing slippage of the clutches, but more impactful was the "overheating" transmission warnings the car would throw usually just from city driving. Instead of screwing with the replacing fluid and filters first to see if that would fix it I went straight to the deep end and just replaced the clutches, fluid, filters etc. (It was right before Thanksgiving and I didn't want to deal with a car with issues around the holidays)
There was some visible scorching on some of the clutch faces and some amount of metal filings stuck to a few parts as well. It's hard to say whether a fluid change would have fixed my problems now, but regardless, this is the route I took.
The shop used OE Pentosin fluid and reset the adaptations. After breaking the new clutches in for about 1000 miles, it shifts much smoother and reacts better than I can remember. I still plan to update the TCU with the newest 'is transmission flash in the future for even better performance but I'm happy for now.