M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
DISCUSSION => General Topics => Topic started by: oldtimer on May 01, 2007, 09:59:14 PM
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Since I was getting bitten up by this coolant temp gauge I thought I would revert to another item on my to do list on my baseline maintenance to give me a break I thought I would change the transmission fluid. I use the amsoil on my 1984 318i check the owners manual for what weight for this 1991
318is needs it called for your standard 75-90w gear oil. Called local dealer just to verify got the same answer. So I got two quarts of AMSOIL gear oil.
Loosen the drain plug and drained the fluid out comes "RED fluid" The first thing I thought of was. some idiot put in the wrong fluid in the tranny. Called a friend in San Diego who's well verse on Bimmers. He gave me the long run down of different type of coding "stickers colors somewhere on the bell housing. Well, I had an "orange" one, but nothing was mentioned about Orange color but there was "Red". I found my colored sticker covered with oily dirt and revealed the type of fluid this transmission uses.
I am sure most of you in this forum knows that.. For those of you who don't if you have an orange sticker under the bell housing passenger side, your transmission takes your standard DEXRON III fluid. Oh by the way "Castrol" is no longer Castrol. It is now "Coastal" and new identification for transmission oil. Found out today when I was looking for Castrol ATF.
Be
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It's really quite simple. My friends at Bimmerhaus in Colorado, with a tech with 25 years BMW experience, says to run basic ATF Dexron III. It's what BMW recommends and is make tranny shift so smooth. Redline is overkill and works no better than ATF.
For the diff, they use Mobil 1 synthentic gear lube. One quart should be enough.
Good luck.