I have a '07 r56 S manual with LSD 35,000mi. I refuse using the Mini oil, and have used Mobile 1 0-40 and/or Castrol 0w-30 and notice define smoother idle and faster spool when driving hard. I change oil every 5-7k and recently installed catch can. I've seafoamed probably 10 times in last year. car is running smooth.

I've been disapointed in how notchy the shiftin is on this car, and doubt the "lifetime fill" for the transmission. Based on reading thread on this site, I purchased 2 ltrs of Redline MTL, and drained and filled my tranny this past week.

Impression: Wish I would have done this 2 years ago.

The oil that drained out was dark brown (note: this is a daily driver, never tracked or abused.) and was surprised how unclean it seemed. Note, I put the front up on ramps and unscrewing the upper fill plug resulted in oil draining outl-- it's because the car is not level. this means that to swap fluied we should really have car level-- that is hard unless you have a lift. In future Ill jack up the rear once front is on ramps to be able to fill the tranny to full level. Nevertheless, even with filing the tranny till it spilled out the fill hole (only about 1.5 ltr oil) it runs much smoother, and idle is much quieter than before.

Impression: Wish I'd done this years ago. Noticeable improvement in shifting-- smooth, much less high frequency vibration. About as much of a noticeable change as when switching from runflats to regular tires (or about same magnitude perception of improvement as putting on the torque-arm bushings). And this is with my winter runflats installed. Expect very smooth drive-triain when this spring when put my non-runflat summer tires back on.

It's significant how much vibration his transmitted through the drivetrain to the shifter in these front-drive vehicles-- especially if you have runflats-- if you want that smoot shifting feeling you remember from the rear-drive BMWs then get rid of this crap lifetime tranny oil and put in Redline MTL.

I'm liking it a whole lot-- for those who have thought about this-- just do it-- you will not be disappointed. Shifting is now much smoother and no longer hear any gear lash during idle. Feels smoother at WOT.

A more perceptible mod than any other I've done-- and i've tossed the runflats, noisemaker delete, the downpipe mufler, and added NM springs and endlinks all they way around. I'm all about performance and handling. This tranny oil replacement definitely smoothed out the high frequency harmonics in the drivetriain-- and with just a simple oil swap. Go figure. Given these results, it's clear to me now that they put oil in that's just suffient to works for the application, but clearly not as good as what exists. Go with Redline MTL-- you'll be happy with results.

 

I'm a newbie and I've been wanting to do this. Any DIY instruction/pics?

Thanks!

 

so your running it without the correct amount of trans fluid in it?

 

I wonder what the dealer would charge for replacing the manual transmission fluid?

 

All I could fit was about 1.75 bottles of Redline MTL also. What is the correct amount then?

 

i believe 1.8 is the correct amount, so you're good