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BMW 5-Series (G30) Forum Mechanical Maintenance - Break-in, Oil, Fluids, Servicing Wrenching on the new toy!

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      02-02-2023, 10:06 PM   #1
imflyn
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Wrenching on the new toy!

I bought a new to me 2019 M550i a couple weeks ago and I'd like to say that this community has already provided some great info. So I've gotten to know the new girl a little better... Fresh oil on the diffs and transfer case. Switched over to Pennzoil Euro l 5w-30, and put on new plugs and coils. This car is a beast! First BMW I've owned but not the first v8. Great to be enjoying the low down torque again! Looking forward to a new adventure!
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      02-03-2023, 09:09 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by imflyn View Post
I bought a new to me 2019 M550i a couple weeks ago and I'd like to say that this community has already provided some great info. So I've gotten to know the new girl a little better... Fresh oil on the diffs and transfer case. Switched over to Pennzoil Euro l 5w-30, and put on new plugs and coils. This car is a beast! First BMW I've owned but not the first v8. Great to be enjoying the low down torque again! Looking forward to a new adventure!
How much of a pita was the diff and xfer case fluid change out?
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      02-04-2023, 12:36 PM   #3
imflyn
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I drove the car on race ramps and used jack stands to support the rear and level the car. I have a basic manual oil transfer pump and a a mighty vac brake bleader for adding/ removing fluids.

The rear diff is very easy. 1 out of 10 on difficulty.

The transfer case, according to the service manual should have a drain plug... mine did not. Support the rear of the transmission and the cross member is very easy to remove. I had to use a small flexible hose on the mighty vac to get down into the transfer case. Filling the rear diff and transfer case is very easy. Add until fluid comes out the hole. I'd say 3/10 on difficulty.

For some reason BMW was actually nice enough to put a drain plug on the front diff. So after you remove the two plastics air dams, the aluminum skid plate/ cross member, the driver side wheel, and small plastic fender well you're in! The front diff is filled by volume (.6L). Well, I didn't have a way to do that, so I weighed my new bottle of oil, guestimated how much the plastic bottle weighed, subtracted that and added 60% of the weight of my 1L bottle using a tube about 2 feet long from the bottle down into the diff. Again 3/10 on difficulty, but longer process. Oh yeah, two of the long bolts that hold the skid plate on were really getting corroded in there. Glad I removed them before they really seized up. I ran a tap through the two holes to clean them out and used a wire brush to clean up all those dozen bolts or so really well. In hind sight I probably should have reassembled the skid plate/ cross member with some anti-seize. Maybe next time... I'm sure there will be a next time, LOL.

Could BMW had made these things more serviceable? Sure, but honestly nothing about the process was hard, just a bit time consuming. To do the whole service for all three diffs, engine oil, air filters, and spark plugs, it took me about 8 hours minus a lunch break. Now that I've done it all once on this vehicle, I'd say I could do it all again in about 6.
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      02-07-2023, 11:25 PM   #4
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I’m fairly sure that you need to use something like ISTA to set the transfer case for a complete fluid change. I can’t remember the details but ISTA instructs the transfer case to do something internally in order to service and remove all the fluid. I’m on my iPhone app to look it up but there’s a service manual posted here somewhere that provides the instructions.
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