2006 V70 Transmission fluid drain and fill with vacuum extra

[jimmy57]

BMW's long drain intervals seemed to coincide with them paying for maintenance through 50K miles and even longer on many of the CPO used cars. I'm so sure those events are totally unrelated........
The combustion residue carried in oil HAS TO GET OUT or the rubber seals suffer. There may be new materials used that do tolerate the residue but those were not in the engines first getting these long drain intervals as they all are pouring oil at multiple places.

The trans case side fill on BMW's makes the drain n fill a messy and complicated process.
I wonder if Fumoto makes a valve to replace that fill plug?

[jh_on_the_cape]

Just an update. I had the car pointing slightly downhill and the vacuum extractor pulled out exactly 4 quarts of ATF. I replaced it with Valvoline Maxlife ATF ($$ at almost $8/qt) which is listed as Toyota T-IV using a funnel with a tube that fit nicely into the dipstick hole.

The car shifts noticeable smoother now. I will recheck the fluid level later and top off if necessary.

Thank you very much for the responses. Even the guy at NAPA said he does the same thing every 3rd oil change on his truck.

[jimmy57]

I bought Valvoline MaxLife synthetic with T-IV listed for $4.27 at Wal-Mart here yesterday.

[vtl]

I was changing oil today and decided also to drain transmission and refill with Valvoline. Just refill, no adaptation, since I'm lazy. For last two ATF changes I used Idemitsu Type-TLS and it worked better than Mobil 3309 (in both my P2s), so why not to drop ATF thickness further I've asked myself?

There's some positive difference, the shifts are a bit smoother, especially in slow down sequence. On the other hand, transmission shifts not that bad in winter, need to wait for stop and go in summer, when it really makes crazy

So far 1 gallon bottle is very convenient, this is exactly how much old fluid drained. Will probably do drain and fill every oil change (7500 miles).

[oragex]

I also put a gallon of Valvoline, the rest being recent Toyota IV stuff. I even think it was a bit overfilled, the level was a bit above the hot max line with the transmission warmed up.
It worked well during fall days, but now in very cold (Canadian) mornings approaching 0F, I've experienced a strange behavior. For the first 2-3 minutes after a cold start, the car would not move (transmission in D and engine revving up). Probably there was not enough fluid inside the torque converter, which makes me think that the Valvoline stuff contracts its volume much more than the Type IV or Mobil 3039 oils. Other than that, I also felt the Valvoline helped the 2-3 up-shifting be more smooth

[vtl]

Do you warm it up? Let engine drop to idle revs, then step on brake, put transmission in D and keep it for a few minutes.

I think it's not a ATF volume, it's rather a sticky solenoid or other kind of line pressure problem.

[abscate]

BMW's long drain intervals seemed to coincide with them paying for maintenance through 50K miles and even longer on many of the CPO used cars. I'm so sure those events are totally unrelated........
The combustion residue carried in oil HAS TO GET OUT or the rubber seals suffer. There may be new materials used that do tolerate the residue but those were not in the engines first getting these long drain intervals as they all are pouring oil at multiple places.

The trans case side fill on BMW's makes the drain n fill a messy and complicated process.
I wonder if Fumoto makes a valve to replace that fill plug?

I know you were all on the edge of your seats but I pulled off two drain amd fills on the B!W slusher earlier this year. This car had been specifically designed to make it impossible for the DIY to service. I had to rig an IV bag of ATF to fill it slowly while idling as it won't take fluid quickly.

Shifts have been much smoother since. I sneer at the BMW dealer on the way to work.

[E Showell]

I've avoided the Gibson Method on my cars because there's no good place to add the cocktail onions to the transmission.

[oragex]

Do you warm it up? Let engine drop to idle revs, then step on brake, put transmission in D and keep it for a few minutes.

I think it's not a ATF volume, it's rather a sticky solenoid or other kind of line pressure problem.

This is a low overdue reply

It was not about warming up the engine, simply the Valvoline stuff has such a characteristic that the volume of fluid was really changing with it's temperature. All transmission fluids have a volume change with temperature, but Valvoline was way off the mark. When it was cold in winter mornings, the volume was so low the torque converter would simply not move.

I've since replace it with the Toyota Type IV and the issue went away.

[abscate]

I've avoided the Gibson Method on my cars because there's no good place to add the cocktail onions to the transmission.

The monkeys will eat the onions , anyway, or do you play your guitar waiting with the GIBSON method?