[juld0zer]

Hi everyone,
Hope you're all surviving this COVID madness alright. Locking us all up does crazy things to the mind so this is born from my boredom.

Just wanted to share my experience with improving my shifting comfort. I wanted slicker, lighter shifts and to make the box feel less agricultural as folks in Europe would say. My car is a 2006 130i with the ZF gearbox (GS6-37BZ). On the label on the box it specifies MTF LT2 oil. I replaced the oil a year ago with LT2 and it made only a tiny difference in comfort. I drained it last week and it looked like diff oil - grey and filthy. My gearbox also has a lot of chatter at idle (it's not the DMF as that was replaced less than 6mths ago). I was reading up on SMF conversions and their associated NVH complaints and one supplier claimed to eliminate 90% of it with a homebrew 50:50 mix of Redline 75w140NS and Redline D4 ATF. Redline oils here are very expensive but I have heaps of BMW oils available. Based on the Redline specs, I chose MSP/A which is a 75w140 oil used in F8x LSD and ATF3+ which is the ZF 8 speed oil. I mixed it by combining a litre of each into a big bottle and shaking it up for a couple of minutes.

The difference is night and day. It feels like a brand new box, almost as good as my old MX-5's box if only the throw was shorter. It is slicker and lighter in all operations of the lever. It is still a bit notchy but i think that is how this box is. Better than a vague rubbery shifter i guess. It's starting to get cooler here now (below 20*c in mornings) and the box feels as good as it does when it is fully warmed up

[matteblue3er]

I used D6 ATF in my manual trans from Redline. That's what they recommend. Unfortunately I don't have a stock gearbox/fluid setup to compare to (was an auto originally)

[samak]

I was planning on replacing my MTF during this quarantine as well. I was going to stick with OEM fluid but when I called BMW to order the LT2 fluid, the service advisor said not to replace it given its never been changed and that I'm already at 100,000 miles. He said that he's seen multiple high mileage transmissions grenade after 10-20,000 miles of a fluid change (something about the change unsettling contaminants in the transmission). I haven't been able to verify this but I'm holding off on it until I can find more info

[Phil325i]

Originally Posted by samak

I was planning on replacing my MTF during this quarantine as well. I was going to stick with OEM fluid but when I called BMW to order the LT2 fluid, the service advisor said not to replace it given its never been changed and that I'm already at 100,000 miles. He said that he's seen multiple high mileage transmissions grenade after 10-20,000 miles of a fluid change (something about the change unsettling contaminants in the transmission). I haven't been able to verify this but I'm holding off on it until I can find more info

Those alleged horror stories relate to ATs not MTs...

[nsjames]

Originally Posted by Phil325i

Those alleged horror stories relate to ATs not MTs...

and even then they're bullshit.

new fluid>old fluid.

I've always used redline in manual transmissions.
I've never been disappointed.

[neilvan]

In my summer BMWs I use a Mix of D4 and MTL (50/50ish) and its lovely.

For the all year round ones We just use D4.

LT2/LT3 doesnt matter, its the same transmission pretty much; Bmw just made the fluid thinner to meet emissions/waste standards better(at the expense of your transmission).