I don't see in my owners manual where it says to change the transmission/ gear oil in my manual 2010 Clubman S. I don't believe in lifetime fluids so at what mileage are ya'll changing your gear oil? What weight?

 

I change mine every 30-40k whether it's lifetime or not. The R56 Mini's requires a MTF-LT4 75W90 GL-4 Gear Oil, there are two brands that come to mind. There is Redlines MT-90 75W90 GL-4 Gear Oil which doesn't meet the specs for MTF-LT4 and BMW's own MTF-LT4 75W90 GL-4 Gear Oil which according to Dave at Redline has a 20% higher viscosity than Redlines MT-90. I believe that the letters LT in the parts numbers refers to LifeTime.

 

That's good information friend, thank you. How many quarts does it take to fill and how long does the job usually take? Also, I'm curious...can you feel a difference?

 

Make sure what transmission you have before changing your fluid, if it's the limited slip it's different fluid than non-limited slip. Either way it takes almost 2 quarts, the drain is on the bottom and the fill if in the back of the transmission towards the top.

 

You're welcome,

The R56 6-speed transmissions take 2.2 liters so you'll have almost enough left for next time, there is a drain plug and fill plug. You must unscrew the fill plug first, then the drain plug in that order! If you were to remove the drain plug first before the fill plug, you will not be able to unscrew the drain plug period. I didn't do enough research when I was looking at what others were using, many mentioned Redlines 75W80. Thing is that's great for the older R53 Mini transmissions and even BMW's.

As of right now I have Redlines 75W80 in my transmission and it super smooth except the oils weight has 40% less viscosity or oil thickness than the OEM oil. So to play it safe I'd rather stick with the specs of MTF-LT4, my shifting is smooth but I don't know about gear protection. If you have the factory LSD than your choice must be the factory gear oil, the MTF-LT4. Today I did an experiment to see how much thicker the OEM gear oil is when compared to what I have in my transmission (Redlines 75W80), the OEM gear oil is like thick syrup when compared with Redlines 75W80.

 

I am using Mobil 1 LS gear oil, safe for LSD as well. Some will say it's a GL5 and shouldn't be used, but in my experience it's better than a GL4 and available most places.

 

Well today I had my Mini mechanic drain the Redline 75W80 transmission oil, then he filled up my transmission with BMW's MTF-LT4 75W90 GL-4 Gear Oil. I was shocked, I thought I was going to lose that smooth shifting that I had with the Redline gear oil. To my surprise it shifted even smoother than with the Redline, I'm not suffering from a placebo effect, I'm quite serious!

I will say this though, the BMW gear oil is much thicker than any gear oil I have even seen, more like syrup where the Redline 75W80 is thin by comparison. The BMW MTF-LT4 75W90 GL-4 Gear Oil has enough oil (5 liters) for changing your transmission oil twice, I have exactly 2.5 liters of oil left. It took 2.5 liters to fill, you get the picture.

Just don't buy it at the dealer ($160 dealer/$119 at ESC Tuning), they charge $18 for half a quart! Who out there sells half a quart of anything related to oil?