What should I do?

[94_e34_525i]

Whats up guys, I have a problem making a decision. My car is gonna reach 100,000 miles and I want to change my Transmission Fluid. I believe it is the GM transmission 4hp 22 or something, I dont have any history on the car when I bought it, so to my knowledge it has never been changed, should I leave it in there or change it. I know there was a lot of discussion on this but I didnt see a definate choice. So I thought I should ask the experts. Change or No Change that is the question. (sorry its late) Thanks guys.

[Fahad]

bought my 525 (230 000 kms) with no service history aswell..
changed the ATF and filter few days later.. drove it for 3000km so far .. shifts smoothly.

done that to my previous e39 and drove it for a year until i sold it with no transmission problems.

once i toke my 97 e38 (728i) with 130 000 kms to the dealer for inspection II, asked them to change the transmission fluid beside other fluids they said the transmission fluid must not be changed and if i do so the transmission will die!

did i help at all?!
from what i read here some members think its risky to change transmission fluid
others claim changing the fluid might even solve some shifting problems.

i decided to give my 525's transmission a fresh fluid and filter anyway..

[632 Regal]

only change the fluid that comes out with a filter change, do this every 30k and your good to go.

[94_e34_525i]

Thanks for the help, I still have time to decide thankfully. 98686 miles

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

will extend the life of a good trans, help a marginal one and kill an ailing trans.

I change the fluid every year.

[Ross]

well said

[RallyD]

Thanks for the help, I still have time to decide thankfully. 98686 miles

phew, only 1,314 miles until your car turns into a pumpkin. lol
yeah, like Jeff said don't flush it, just drain and refill.

[Armen]

Hi there,

Just to be certain that it is a 4 HP-22.. there is an ID tag with this info on the transmission which looks like the one on this website:
http://www.jie.com/

They also have a nice oil reference guide here:
http://www.jie.com/oilref.htm

Once that's confirmed, ZF recommends changing the fluid about every 80,000km. With any transmission, once you have gone over 160,000km, internal parts are probably a bit worn and there may be small deposits here and there. If I'm not mistaken, there should be a magnet in the transmission's drain pan which helps collect these deposits... it might be worth while to remove those from the magnet to help eliminate the chance of them roaming around in there. But your best bet would be to e-mail them directly... a direct link to their automatic transmission page is:
http://www.zf.com/defaultz.asp?id=2320&lang=1&pageurl=http:_0__0_www.zf.com_0_ZF_ProductDB_0_use r_0_applicationLayerSelect_1_bgcolor_3_0_2_applica tionID_3_12288_2_applicationGroupID_3__2_productTe chnicID_3_12141_2_productGroupID_3_12144_2_product FormID_3_12164_2_productTypeID_3_316700_2_language ISOCode_3_en_2_newLanguageISOCode_3_en_2_hdr_3_1_2 _spc_3_1 there's an option on the right to make a request for info.. it wouldn't hurt to try.