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All4, Transfer case, Hang on Clutch and Rear Differential Fluid Replacement.
Hello,
New here on this forum. I've been doing the maintenance work on my lady's 2017 1.5L Clubman All4 with the automatic transmission. The Duchess (as she calls her) is her pride and joy. She's got over 150k miles on it and the ATF, Transfer case, Rear differential and Hold on Clutch have never been serviced to her knowledge. She wants to keep the Duchess for a long time, so I'm thinking I should service these fluids soon. I've been searching the internet and this forum and I can't seem to find any good write up's on the procedures for servicing these fluids, that don't have broken links to the TIS website. I'd like to know what fluids to use where, drain plug torque specs, o-rings or aluminum seal rings to use, etc. I'm also curious of oem alternative fluids that people have used successfully. Can anyone help me out with this information or point me in a good direction? I really appreciate your help!
There are instructions in Ye Olde PDF manuals (available on ebay).
They list:
- Topping up fluid in the rear differential clutch (but, they don't show where the drain plug is).
- Topping up fluid in the rear diff final drive (again, they don't show where the drain plug is, if there even is one).
- Draining and topping up fluid in the automatic transmission.
- Topping up fluid in the transfer case (no drain plug shown).
Here are photos:
Automatic transmission drain: draining the automatic transmission topping up the transfer box. the top-up fill plug is on the passenger side (for US cars), just behind the drive axle. i've seen videos on youtube of mini mechanics using a fluid extractor to drain the old oil from these. top-up screw for the rear diff clutch pack. this is separate from the rear differential itself. you may need to drive the car until it's warm, then suck the old fluid out with an extractor. for this kind of thing I like to use a piece of copper tube that I can gently bend down, insert into it into the hole, and then use the extractor to pull fluid. rear differential gear case top-up bolt. as with the rear diff clutch pack (and transfer box) you may have to us a fluid extractor to get the old oil out.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the great info reidmefirst!
Can you decode the bolt torques listed above? First time seeing them like that.
I've been collecting some fluid info from various sources on the web. Here's what I have so far:
- Transfer Case: Any 75W-90 GL-5 (non-limited slip) differential fluid
- Rear Differential: 70W-80 synthetic GL-5 (mopar 68227765-AB is an option)
- For Hang on Clutch (HOC) use FEBI BILSTEIN 101172 HALDEX OIL or Ravenol AWD-H Haldex,
- Automatic Xmsn: Mini ATF 6
Does anyone use any of these non-oem alternatives or have recommends on other alternative fluids?
I've read about people removing the pumps and cleaning the screens on these Hold on Clutch units on other brands of vehicles with the same or similar unit. Does anyone have any insight on that?
I’m at almost 80,000 miles and have changed these fluids twice with no issues.
I’m short on time, but that’s good info above. Off the top of my head:
The front transfer case has a drain and fill plug. I found it helpful to remove the aluminum duct pipe (you’ll see it) to access it. The fill plug is a bit tight to access, so I had to get creative with an 8mm (??) allen socket and an 8mm box-end wrench. Fill until overflowing. This fluid gets really nasty black quickly - not sure why.
Rear differential needs to be sucked out and filled until overflowing. Very easy. The fluid stays super clean, visually.
Haldex-type unit. The official drain/fill procedure is insane. The TIS shows taking off the driveshaft, unbolting the Haldex unit, and swiveling down the entire differential and letting it drain. And draining the Haldex separately I believe. Then reinstall it all and fill with a super precise method while the whole thing is swiveled down.
I use a big shop syringe and sucked about 250ml out then tried to refill as close to that as possible. I’m pretty sure the TIS procedure is not to “overflow”, but I’ve found my 250ml method is essentially an overflow anyway 🤷🏼♂️
The pump is hard to get out to clean the screen. You basically can’t unless you remove the entire differential/Haldex unit from the car. More discussion here on a BMW X1 F48 forum.
AutoCoarsen's torque values line up with the numbers from my manual. Here I've included all the values mentioned in the pictures above.
Took me a while to figure out how to figure out the tightening torques in the maintenance manual.
Tightening torques listed in tables late in the repair manual. There are several hundred pages of torques =).
Note that if you google search for the torques I list here, you may be directed to incorrect values. These torques are specific to the maintenance manual for the individual car and do not apply across the entire BMW/MINI line (so, for instance, "24 11 1AZ" for a BMW X1 may be very different from the same value for a F54. At least my copy of the manual suggests that the torques for the F54 and F60 are identical, but these tables/values will probably not match up to anything for the F56 or any other model car...so again if you're stumbling upon these values via Google search be warned that they are specific to my manual and not a generic cross-reference).
The fluids I personally use. ** No guarantee these are correct**
- Front transfer. Amsoil Sever Gear 75w-90 GL-5. I’d guess any 75w-90 will be fine.
- Rear Diff. MOPAR 70w-80 GL-5. I’ve been tempted to put the same Amsoil Severe Gear 75w-90 back there for simplicity sake…
Any capacities available?
What do you use for the tranny?
TIA
I’m at almost 80,000 miles and have changed these fluids twice with no issues.
I’m short on time, but that’s good info above. Off the top of my head:
The front transfer case has a drain and fill plug. I found it helpful to remove the aluminum duct pipe (you’ll see it) to access it. The fill plug is a bit tight to access, so I had to get creative with an 8mm (??) allen socket and an 8mm box-end wrench. Fill until overflowing. This fluid gets really nasty black quickly - not sure why.
Rear differential needs to be sucked out and filled until overflowing. Very easy. The fluid stays super clean, visually.
Haldex-type unit. The official drain/fill procedure is insane. The TIS shows taking off the driveshaft, unbolting the Haldex unit, and swiveling down the entire differential and letting it drain. And draining the Haldex separately I believe. Then reinstall it all and fill with a super precise method while the whole thing is swiveled down.
I use a big shop syringe and sucked about 250ml out then tried to refill as close to that as possible. I’m pretty sure the TIS procedure is not to “overflow”, but I’ve found my 250ml method is essentially an overflow anyway 🤷🏼♂️
The pump is hard to get out to clean the screen. You basically can’t unless you remove the entire differential/Haldex unit from the car. More discussion here on a BMW X1 F48 forum.
Just got done performing this service today. Replaced the fluids in the transfer box, hang on clutch, and the rear differential. The transfer case was EASY since it had a drain plug. I did have to remove the lower motor mount and the condensate drain pipe. But still, easy peasey. The hang in clutch was a pain. The fill plug is in a terrible spot. I did remove the rear subframe brace to make it a little bit easier. The rear differential was the Goldie locks swap. Not too difficult, but not the easiest. Would have been nicer if there was a drain plug.
I did purchase a vacuum extraction tank from Amazon. Made sucking out the old fluids very simple. Then for the fill I used a Motive pressure fill tank. All in, probably only an hour and a half time.
