Where's the dipstick?!?

But does BMWs servicing policies account for the owner wishing to get at the very lest 100k miles out of their car, perhaps many more?

Hypothetical question, I guess.

I just think that nowadays they (car manufacturers, not necessarily just BMW) are playing the numbers, and merely thinking about liability. Which is, no doubt, just peachy for the owner who's gonna keep their car for something within bounds of warranty periods.

What a lot of car drivers don't realise is that innovations like service indicators, variable service intervals, on board diagnostics etc are all developed and proven in the haulage market.

At which case it's likely too late.

That's not to say that an ATF change as part of the service schedule, would have made any difference. But does rather lead to the debate over whether it's worth it from a preventative / pre-emptive perspective, to include ATF changes, if you want to get largish distances out of autoboxes.

Well, you see as large a percentage of old BMWs on the road as any other make, I'd say - possibly more than with large Fords and Vauxhalls, etc, which often get scrapped fairly early on due to high running costs.

In the US, there appear to be loads of BMWs with inter-stellar mileages. I presume the average annual mileage is higher there. In the UK, my brother's E28 is coming up to 250,000 with no major component changed.

The way to do it would be to have the fluid analysed. But I assume the makers have already done this. It really makes no sense to have major components failing early due to lack of scheduled maintenance - word soon gets around.

Oh, I'm not disputing that.

I guess what I'm wondering is, the discouragement of treating autoboxes as servicable items, is a reasonably recent thing - and I can't help but think this is a numbers game by car manufacturers - I wasn't meaning to single out BMW any more than any other car manufacturer.

Sure, I get their point, to a certain degree - ATF has advanced in recent years, and manufacturing, ECU control and design improvements have likely improved the servicibility of autboxes.

But for the owner who wants to get high miles, the car manufacturers' discouragement from doing anything to maintain the autobox seems a little inconsiderate.

I can buy that some of the older thinking and rationale maybe somewhat overcautious, now. And that service intervals can be influenced significantly by the above mentioned developments.

I just think they've (car manufacturers in general) have stretched that service interval, and warranty liabilities (where autoboxes are concerned) into that "disposable" bracket.

I'm not criticising one particular marque on their servicibility - more a general question about the discouragement of doing anything to service autoboxes on modern cars, and whether this is largely because of modern developments and improvements, they've managed to push this service life into what equates as disposable (say, for example, 100k miles).

Is your brother's E28 an auto? And are / were ATF changes and checks considered non-servicable for that model?

Quite.

I just think they've got to the point where they can consider it an irrelevance, now, because the service life may get to the 100k+ miles point - which for the majority of people, is probably quite high miles.

You're bald then ;0) Pete

I've just had the GM180 on my SD1 re-built at about 120,000 miles. And it had fluid changes on the dot. My last BMW had over 130,000 on its ZF 5 speed, and seemed fine when I sold it.

Since they have friction plates in their clutches, they are bound to wear out at some time. Many, of course, don't wear out before they fail - Ford and Renault are notorious for this.

You could say the same about greasing all the various steering swivels, etc. At one time they had to be greased regularly - some every 1000 miles.

IME yes. Ford Granada with C3 gearbox 170Kmiles still ok when scrapped. Rover 827 Honda auto gearbox 165K gearbox still perfect( Body scrap!!). Both cars used for occasional caravan towing.

Regards Capitol

Well I've currently got 154k miles on a 98 car, with an AW50-42 LE (so 4 speed), and it seems fine at the moment. I've had 2 ATF changes (not flushes, merely what they could get out, and refill) once at 85k miles, and

Indeed - so I gather ;-)

Well I'm hoping on as many miles as is tenable - at 154k and counting, and around 25k a year, I'd like it to last as many miles as it can before going bang, or being unreliable.

That said, I realise my expectations are far from typical.

The message from "@ mail.com" contains these words:

Nah, he's just overtall for his hair.

This isn't an intrinsic problem with the box though. More a bug in the firmware. The same box on the V6 has no problems at all. OTOH, a different bug causes one or more of the 3 cats to burn out. Swings and roundabouts ;-)

Pete.

Bmw didn't ever get involved with tractor units. They just used the tractor-alike seven series for their testbeds!!! (And the mugs who paid 25k in 1983 for them).

No - full head of hair. I'll edit that one out. ;-)

Highly unlikely. Onboard driver info panel will even tell you the oil viscosity and particle amounts.

Yep, Mercedes Actros's do analyse it. You can get a readout of the particle count etc on the info panel.

I think some M-B cars do too (engine oil) for their service indicator. Still won't stop many wanting to change the oil every 3000 miles...