DIY Request: Change 6MT, differential lubricant

[Citizen Z]

I'm coming up on a year and 17000 miles on my 1er, lots of long trips on the beast, and am looking at replacing the 6MT and differential oils before I begin a 10,000 mile road trip in June. The only problem is I can't find any sort of guide on doing the fluid changes for the 1er. I know Berk and other tuners have changed the fluids. Could anybody post up a DIY for these critical maintenance tasks?

[Mad Dragon]

There's no reason to change them.

[Citizen Z]

Originally Posted by Mad Dragon

There's no reason to change them.

Most helpful. And I disagree. There just isn't a reason to change them yet; once I hit 30,000 miles I want to be a little more aggressive with my maintenance than BMW requires.

[LemansE82]

I have yet tackle the tranny, so I won't comment.
On the diff, there's just a filler plug, and no drain.
You'll have to some sort of extracter to get out the old oil.
Filling is easy, just fill level the car for excess oil to spill out, then
plug it up. Your done.

I will be doing that immediately, when I have the chance.
I have 1k miles so far, I just want to get what ever metal shaving that's
there.

[JimD]

Auto parts stores sell simple suction pumps for a few dollars. It will be hard to get everything out this way but you can put in new fluids much easier than trying to pour thick oil with limited clearance. If you want to do it the best way, you could get two pumps and use one to extract the old fluid and one to put the new fluid in. I think I paid about $5 for one when I did this in my truck (where a change is in the service interval at about 10K miles).

Jim

[JTdrivin1]

if you want to get the metal shavings out, you'll have to pop off the diff cover, as suctioning probably won't work....

[esses]

I asked my dealer to do this and they said they weren't allowed to. None of the local shops I have called (even ones with company 135s) have ever done one. I thought about doing it myself, but not at all convinced a pump is sufficient for a break-in lube change. Keep us updated!

[Citizen Z]

Originally Posted by JTdrivin1

if you want to get the metal shavings out, you'll have to pop off the diff cover, as suctioning probably won't work....

What kind of sealant does the diff cover use?

[bimmerboy]

I think the differential bolt probably has a magnet which collects all metal shavings, I doubt you have to pop off the whole diff cover....

[cpt97m3]

Originally Posted by bimmerboy

I think the differential bolt probably has a magnet which collects all metal shavings, I doubt you have to pop off the whole diff cover....

Many do, but the 1 series doesn't have a drain bolt where it would work. The fill bolt is too high to to much good even if it was magnetized. Of course you could probably just use a magnet on the end of a flexible shaft and see if that works. That's probably what I will try. Hopefully there is no shavings to be found a new 1 series.

[dwvcfii]

Originally Posted by Mad Dragon

There's no reason to change them.

Um, yea. Right.

What differential oil looks like after less than 40K miles in service:

http://www.dvatp.com/bmw/maintenance/e36/2009/04/18/

What happens to your steering rack if you don't flush the power steering fluid:

http://www.dvatp.com/bmw/maintenance/e36/2004/08/26/
http://www.dvatp.com/bmw/maintenance/e36/2004/09/08/

What happens if you don't change your transmission fluid and filter on a regular basis:

http://www.dvatp.com/bmw/maintenance/e36/2005/02/10/

With due respect, stop drinking the BMW kool-aid.

[SlickShift]

Any luck finding a DIY for either?