This weekend I performed some basic maintenance on my 2002 E39 M5. This was at another productive DIY event put on by the National Capital Chapter of the BMWCCA. It was held at Proctor’s Foreign Auto Services in New Carrollton, MD. Owner Tim Proctor has hosted the DIY crew before and was very gracious, helping us out with advice and the resources of his shop.
I changed out the M5 transmission fluid and the fuel filter. These are basic maintenance jobs and are far easier with access to a lift. I went with Redline MTL for the transmission, which is not technically the specified fluid. But it’s the one recommended by Mike Miller in his Old School Maintenance Schedule. I confirmed this when I met him last month at the NCC Tech Talk.
The bolts weren’t that hard to loosen, and the job was easy once Tim lent me his pressurized pump to add the fresh fluid. It took almost two full liters. I did the differential fluid change a few years but only 20K miles ago, so still have some time there. BMW should be ashamed to claim that transmission fluid never has to be changed – look carefully at the main image above, where the sticker says “lifetime fill, no oil change.” (They later backed off such ridiculous claims, but still only for M cars.)
Here’s an excellent YouTube video I found on the fuel filter change, courtesy of Terabass. Using a lift, I didn’t need to fully remove all the under trim as shown in this video. Removing the center screws and fasteners allowed the plastic shield to hang down, giving access to the filter.
One other difference – we did not remove the pressure regulator along with the filter from the car, as shown in the video. We removed just the filter itself, leaving the regulator and the front hose on the car. (Will be clear if you watch video, click here if you don’t see embed).
Fellow DIYer John gave me a helping hand, which I tried to pay forward helping out after my jobs were done. As usual it was a fun Saturday hanging out with club members and enhancing the BMW ownership experience through DIY work.
Here are some pics that will hopefully help the next owner, click to enlarge. Next month there will be some major preventative work on the M3, I’m looking forward to writing that one up. Happy motoring and enjoy your Fourth of July.
Drain plug below, fill on top
Target acquired – note plastic shield hanging down to left
Fluid pump – thanks again Tim
New filter in, date written on side
Section we left on car
Picture of me working on the car is featured image on the NCC DIY program page