I just watched a Grenadier service video and the mechanic said all fluids can be changed by the owner but he does not recommend changing the transmission fluid or filter pan, he said have the dealer do that at the 84k mile service. He said it can really jack up the transmission for some reason that he didn't get into.
Hey
@Kevin Mokracek, I just watched that
video as well!
Great brief from Warner Ineos (powerhouse dealer in North America) and recommended watching, especially on the differential "dipstick" tid bit. Much of this info is being collated by
@Rok_Dr from his own and other sources which is excellent and can be found on the forums.
The essential theme to what Todd was speaking to is well known with automatic transmissions. In that, as the transmission's clutch packs and associated mating surfaces wear, the fluid retains much of that foreign object debris (FOD) in suspension and that acts as a friction modifier to allow the transmission to not slip when shifting or transferring torque. Typically this is more of a concern for high mileage vehicles which have never had the automatic serviced and then when the fluid is changed, the transmission performs poorly. The better approach is to service appropriately and avoid the roulette of never changing the fluid, until it's too late. Can also be an issue with some flushing services that evacuate too much of the fluid from the internals. There's certainly additional nuance that I'm not covering, but in essence we should be servicing the transmission with intention.
This thread is to discuss the applicable transmission pans and the procedures for drain & fill, as it most certainly can be done and ZF (supplier of our lovely 8-speed 8HP series transmission) recommend much shorter service intervals. The servicing isn't mind boggling, just requires attention to detail (pan, filter, fluid, tools) and conditions (mainly transmission temperature window for proper filling), and thankfully we have a temperature read out in our onboard "Offroad - Temperatures" menu right on the dash! So no diagnostic tooling required for the broad temp range required to fill the transmission properly.
Drain and fill video here (among many other BMW DIY service videos for the B58 engine):
FCPEuro ZF 8HP Transmission Fluid Change
NOTE: I recommend that folks certainly go to the dealer or qualified shop to have any maintenance that's out of capabilities or comfortability performed there. That said I've had 'qualified' places not perform work correctly, including dealers (Ineos dealers included) and had to rectify their work after careful post inspection. As well, warranties may be affected by DIY maintenance particularly not having proper records or using improper parts/fluids/etc. so at one's own risk there.
Many are also interested in swapping to an aluminum pan from the OE plastic for impact, servicing, and thermal reasons. And there are many vehicles which use variants of this transmission which have aluminum, deep finned pans that are factory/OEM/genuine parts from ZF, BMW and possibly some other OE catalogues. The critical part here is that
@scottg has identified that we have a different oil pickup configuration.
So the general hope of this thread is to identify the right parts and any procedural learnings to be able to service this transmission by DIYer's who want to do it and/or perform an OE like upgrade at the same time.
