Transmission ServiceBMW 330i 2006 E90 233K miles
In this post I will be talking about the service I did to the Transmission Mechatronics of my BMW 330i 2006 E90. I will give as much detail as I can and I will show as many pictures as I can. As many details as I can. This job is very time consuming, but not impossible to do at your house.
Watch the video below for tools and tips. I write about my personal experience in this blog.
How it all started:
It all started about 2 months ago, when my wife drove the car off in the morning and I noticed an excessive amount of oil in the ground. Now my car leaks oil from the Motor oil pan, I've known this for a while, and I haven't fixed it. But I also knew that the amount of oil in the ground that day was excessive. Later that week... I took my car to get an oil change and I asked the technician to check to see where the oil was coming and he confirmed my suspicions, the oil was actually Transmission fluid.As a result I started learning as much as I could could about the transmission service, and this is what I learned....
What exactly is wrong with the transmission:
The Transmission fluid is coming out from around the Transmission Oil Pan(made of plastic). The seal gasket is no longer good, and because it has little transmission fluid, the transmission started hesitating and jumping. The transmission will give you codes if something is wrong, my car didn't give me any codes...
First road block:
You first must know which transmission you have. There are 2, they use different transmission fluid. My transmission is a ZF6HP19 with Shell Fluid (same as Pentosin ATF1). I believe most cars use this. |
| My transmission had a stamp number, pictured here, where you can see the 6HP19 number, to verify that is what you have. |
Automatic Transmission applications:
328i, 328xi 6A6L45R (6 speed) GM GM6 (metal transmission cover)
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325i, 325xi, 330i 6A6HP19Z (6 speed) ZF 6HP19 (Plastic transmission cover)
330xi, 335i, 335xi
If you are not sure which one you have, the transmission will have a stamp on the transmission, near the Fill Plug. it will have the manufacturer stamp (GM6 or 6HP19) my transmission above says 6HP19, in picture below.
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| This stamp is on the side of the fill plug, on top of the cable that is used to change the gear |
Manual transmission application
Model Transmission Manufacturer ID325i, 328i GS6-17BG Getrag type 1
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325i, 328xi, 330xi GS6X-37BZ ZF Type H
330i GS6-37BZ
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335i, 335xi GS6-53DZ ZF type G
GS6X-53DZ
Automatic Transmission Fluids:
Type BMW Part no. Manufacturer part no.6A6L45R 83 22 0 397 114 Dexron VI
GA6HP19Z 83 22 0 142 516 Shell M-1375.4
Pentosin ATF1 is a direct replacement to Shell M-1375.4
Manual transmission fluids
Transmission Year range Fluid TypeGetrag GS6-17BG All MTF-LT-3
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ZF GS6-37BZ To 03/2007 MTF-LT2
From 03/2007 MTF-LT3
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ZF GS6-53BZ To 03/2007 MTF-LT2
From 03/2007 MTF-LT3
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MTF-LT2 (Lifetime fluid) BMW part no. 83 22 0 309 031
MTF-LT3 (Lifetime fluid) BMW part no. 83 22 7 533 818
Process:
Lift the car off the ground, the car "must be level", to fill the trans fluid, if only the front wheels are off the ground this will not work. Lift the front and the back.Remove the cover under the car. The Engine oil plastic shroud and the plastic transmission should under the car.
You will need an 8MM Allen wrench and a hammer to hit it a few times, to loosen the Fill plug. YES I said a hammer to hit it. The drain plug will be very tight and it will need a little persuasion to loosen, I also added penetrating oil. Put the Allen wrench on the fill plug and hit it with a hammer a few times, to loosen. DON'T STRIP THE FILL PLUG, take your time. I held the Allen wrench tight on the Fill plug and hit it as hard as I could (righty tighty, lefty loosy) I hit the end of the Allen wrench, I also used an extension on the Allen wrench, but it didn't do anything. What worked was hard taps on the wrench, I hit it about about 40 times. before it got loose. Again Don't strip the Fill plug, use a new Allen and TAKE YOUR TIME.
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| Fill plug removed |
Undo the transmission drain plug with a 10MM Allen wrench, and let the transmission fluid drain, note that under normal circumstances, 7 liters of transmission fluid should be inside and only about 5 or 6 will drain. The rest of the fluid will stay inside the transmission, this is normal.
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| Drain Plug removed |
SIDE NOTE: the total drained fluid in my car was about 4 liters, this was because the fluid had been leaking on my car. You may have 5 to 6 liters drain. The total fluid capacity is 7 liters.
After the old transmission fluid is drained, put the plug back in and undo all of the screws around the transmission pan, and remove. It will expose the mecatronics. You will need to remove a metal peace connected to the exhaust pipes to get access to all the screws.
FYI: The transmission Pan also houses the Filter, it's integrated into the pan.
To remove the mecatronics system you will need to remove these screws. 10 in total. The picture below also shows the order to tighten them when you put them back. This is in the video I will provide below, keep reading...
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| Tighten these screws to 10 Newton meters. |
When you take the mecatronics out it will look like this:
FYI, Mecatronics is heavy, use a jack after you remove all the screws to make it easier for you to handle. Picture above. I left 2 screws on it and then put the jack under it. Then removed the last 2 screws to lower it.
TIP: The transmission Cable moves a small plastic make sure you don't brake it taking out the mecatronics and or putting it back on. In the Video they talk about this too...
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| Plastic on the right side of this picture |
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| the different color motor looking things are actually solenoid motors. Sometimes these can fail, the car will give you a code for each one, so you know which to replace. |
Which parts need to be serviced: all of these :)
Description and Cause of problems:
Round one is connector Mechatronics "Electronic connector": it has O-rings that can leak oil out
The rectangular one: it tends to get squeezed and it it doesn't send trans fluid to transmission properly.
4 small tubes. They are the ones that need to be replaced when you are slowing down to almost a stop and your car suddenly surges forward.
All are made of plastic, and you are suppose to replace them every 80K miles. They are NOT life time parts. If you are over 100K or 200K in your car, you should replace them, before your transmission completely fails. My car has 230K miles and it's the first time I've replaced them. Because I didn't know... If you do this yourself it's not that expensive, if you take it to a shop, be prepared to pay $500 to $600 dollars for service. The transmission fluid alone is over $100 dollars...
All can be found independently, but if you buy a kit it's much easier. KIT: oil pan, screws, and parts. ZF (the company) makes a kit. FCPEuro.com, has a kit, it's MUCH easier to just buy the KIT. Because I knew exactly what I needed, I got the kit from Amazon and it was cheaper than FTC Euro. But it's you call... You decide... The Amazon parts I got worked great.
Link to FCP Euro: https://www.fcpeuro.com/
The Fluid is Pentosin ATF1 (replacement for Shell Trans fluid), you can also get it at FCP Europ, or your local Advanced Auto Parts.
If you have this label ( picture below ), use Pentosin ATF 1, BMW part number: 83220142516
As a replacement for the Shell M-1375.4 transmission fluid
I got my Pentosin from Advanced auto parts, a local store and I got exactly 7 Liters: (1) 5 liter container and 2 (1 liter), I ended up using exactly 7 liters in my car.
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| This was the sticker on my car BMW 330i 2006 E90, a label on the transmission cover label, the new cover I got didn't have this label. |
To pump fluid back into transmission:
Use a Pittsburgh pump, don't use a small hand pump. I got under the car to pump the Trans Fluid, kept pumping and oil did not go out of the 5 litter container, I had to go to Harbor Freight to get a new pump, wasted an hour...  |
| Don't use this one... |
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| Use this one |
Fitment:
I did have a fitment issue with the cover/oil filter. It was not a deal breaker, but expect to spend a little extra time to line everything up.  |
If you look closely, the whole is off to the side, if you try to start the screw you will strip it.
If it feels like the screw(s) is not going in smooth, STOP and push the plastic oil cover towards the side it needs to be, to FLEX it, to the correct area and then the screw should go in smooth. TAKE YOUR TIME. All the screws should be started by hand and if it doesn't feel like it's going in smooth STOP, figure out what is going on, loosen the screws you already put on if you have to, to get the Plastic Pan aligned properly, all screws should go in smooth. You don't want to mess this up, TAKE YOUR TIME, AND WORK SLOWLY.
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How difficult is it?
I have never done this and it took me about 3 days in total to do the entire process. Why??? Because I didn't have the tool and when I did I wanted to take my time to make sure I didn't strip or break something accidentally. Somebody that knows what they are doing, could probably do this in a couple of hours...If you are only doing the oil change it's easy, if you are replacing all the serviceable parts. I took my time and started all the screws by hand, etc... If you are handy I recommend you try this. It's not impossible, just time consuming, because I didn't have a lift, and working under the car makes it much more difficult.
This is a messy job, have plenty of cardboard and hand towels... Again this job is messy...
Good video to watch:
ShoplifeTV: I've watched these guys for a while, they work on a lot of BMW cars, and this time, a video about transmission came very handy. I recommend, it. I am not affiliated to them but I recommend their channel. I believe they are in the Los Angeles area, recently they were going to move to a new place... Check them out for more info...This particular video has everything you need to do the transmission fluid change.
YouTube Channel: ShoplifeTV consider subscribing, these guys are great! Some of the pictures in this post come from their video. I would like to thank them for doing a very helpful video, with out their video, I wouldn't had the courage to tackle this job. I believe their names are Selena and Jason. Again thank you guys!
Tools:
You will need a torque wrench, if you don't have one get one. You will need it for this job. I got mine at Harbor Freight, it was not expensive. Torque Specs are in the video, for all screws... I also recomend a torkx tool set, and allen wrench set. They talk about the specific specs in the video.
Tip:
When you are ready to remove the mecatronics, put a clean bag on the mecatronics to stop all of the fluid from making a mess... The bag will stick to the oil and stay in place. Otherwise the oil will leak all over you when you start to remove the 10 screws.  |
| bag attached to bottom of mecatronics... Bag will stick to the metal because of the Fluid. |
Oil Pan Screw tightening order:
FYI: Tranmission Fluid is very flammable, so don't use a torch to loosen the Fill plug!
Side Note: When I first start the car after filling up the Transmission fluid, I went thru all the gears PRND, I got a message of "CAN'T GO INTO PARK", but after shifting the gear about 4 times, message went away. Then everything was okay, no problems. Just in case it happens to you too, know to expect that. But it's normal.
Conclusion:
It took me a while to do the service, but it was worth it. Way cheaper to do it yourself. If you are mechanically inclined I recommend you do it. I was scared to do it, but I took a stab at it and everything went great. Good luck to you, if you decide to do this service and until next time...
Questions or comments below...
I hope this was helpful to you!
I post a ton of BMW 330I E90 related content, I have a lot of other posts, check them out, link below to the main page.
Comment below if you have any questions...
Thank again and until next time
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