How to Replace Transmission Pan and Filter 1997-2006 BMW 325Xi

What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video, I'm going to show you how to service and change the transmission filter on this 2001 BMW 325 XI. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1Aauto.com. To gain access to any of the transmission area you're going to need to remove this panel. There's some Phillips head screws. These are retainers that hold it in. We already took these out because they're a little bit rusty. Most of these are broken. So there, there, there's two right there and one goes right there. Just slide that off. So I want to drain this transmission pan. There is a drain plug. I'm going to use a T40. Now this drain plug's pretty rusty. So I'm not sure if it's a T40 or T45. T40 fits. But it does seem a little bit loose. So let me just try. All right, I'm going to try the T45. So I'm going to use a T45. I'm just going to tap it in. There you go. I'll just use a socket. Loosen it up.

Make sure you have a drain bucket underneath to catch the fluid and that fluid looks pretty nasty. It should have a red color to it and it does not. Definitely not red. All right, now that's dripped out most of the fluid. You can take the drain plug, put the drain plug back in. Just make sure the seal looks okay on that. There's a little O ring in there. We're going to ratchet, snug it up. That's good. Now I'm going to use a 10 millimeter socket, extension and a ratchet. I want to remove these bolts from this transmission pan. Now there is a couple of different transmissions that come in this vehicle. So this would work for this. If yours is different, then it's going to require different components.

All right, so we've got most of these out. I did leave one of the corner bolts in just like that on that one and also on this corner. So when I take these out then I'm going to separate the pan from the transmission and then it won't fall because sometimes if it falls then we get transmission fluid all over the place. Even if you drain it out, there's still going to be stumped in there. So get that out. Now I'm just going to take a pry bar. Just find a location you can pry a little bit. Be careful not to hit any of the machine surfaces. With that loose, I can take these down. Take that one down and support the pan while you take the other one down and drop the panel.

Make sure you still have the drain bucket underneath because the filter is going to drain. So with the pan down it's actually a good idea to take a quick look inside the pan and see if you see any excessive material. I don't see any big metal pieces. If you did see metal pieces then you're going to have internal transmission damage. I don't see any in this. There is a little bit of metal on this magnet right here, which is normal wear for the age of this vehicle. This vehicle has about 120,000 miles on it. So that actually looks pretty good. You see a little bit of metal in there, but just not big chunk, big pieces. If you saw big pieces, then that would be of concern. Another thing you want to look at is the fluid condition. Just see if there's any clutch material in it.

You can also look in the pan. I didn't see any clutch material in this one and when you're draining it out, you could see. A lot of times if the fluids burnt, it's going to smell horrendous. This fluid does not smell that bad. So it's not burnt, which is good. But when it's burnt, it's going to smell so bad that if you walked out of the room and walked back in the room, you should be able to smell it very strongly. Then if you have that burnt smell, then you probably have some kind of internal transmission components that have failed. So I'm just going to pull this filter out. Just grab the filter right here. It goes in up front here and grab it in the back. Just slide it down slowly and there's the seal right there. Pull that out to drain that out. I'm just going to remove the gasket. I'm just going to use a little pick. Just get underneath here and pry up. Just be careful not to scratch the pan and then pull the gasket up. We are going to replace this, obviously. Peal that up. All right, good.

Now I'm going to bring this over to the parts washer and wash it.

So I just compared the old filter to the new filter and the new filter comes with the seals. This was actually just a spacer that's on the new filter. So those seals are still up in the transmission. So what I need to do is I'm going to take this little hook pick, try to grab the seal without damaging the transmission and just pull those down. You can probably use a screwdriver or something else. I'll pull the other own down too, trying not to score the side. There we go. Pull that one down too. Now I'll take the new filter, just rub a little bit of that transmission fluid on the seal.

Slide it in position and push it up. All right, so that's bottomed out. So that's good and that's sitting properly. I take a rag and clean off all this area. Just wipe it down. You can you just a little bit of brake parts cleaner and just ... I'd spray it on the rag. I wouldn't actually spray it at the transmission. Clean that up good. So if you see any of the gasket material still left on there, you can take a razor blade or a scraper would probably be a little safer. Be careful with the razor blade. You just scrape it. All right, so we cleaned up the pan. Do the same on the pan. Make sure there's no gasket material left behind. So just take a razor blade. Clean up any of this or a scraper. Make sure you get any of the old gasket material off. That's clean. I'm just going to take the gasket, line it up with the holes. All right, that looks pretty good and this gasket comes with some new bolts. So I'm going to use the new bolts with the filter kit. Slide that in position.

You get a couple of these bolts started in the corners, opposite corners. You just use a 10 millimeter socket and extension and then I'll get the other one started. Then I'm going to go around and just snug these all up. I'm just going to go to the outer corners first and then I'm going to go back around and torque them all. Now I'm going to go back around with a torque wrench and torque these all to 48 inch pounds. I'm going to take a 17 millimeter wrench and I'm just going to take the fill plug out. Loosen that up. It would be a good idea to pull this fill plug out before you actually started draining the fluid just in case this does not come out because in that case you would not be able to get fluid into the transmission. So make sure you try to take this off before you drain the fluid or take the pan off.

We forgot to do that before. Now we're going to want to transfer the fluid. You can use a pump and make sure you use the appropriate fluid. You can check the owner's manual to make sure you get the right fluid. A lot of times it tells you what kind of fluid right here. Check that and then we're using this gun style pump. This is more like a grease gun style fluid transfer pump. So we put the fluid in here and then transfer it in there. Takes a lot of effort. So a regular pump would work better. All right, there we go. Oops. All right, let me just putting my finger over the hole for a second.

All right and I got a nice stream coming out, which is good. So what I'm going to do now is I'll take the fill plug, put that back in. I don't have to tighten this all the way down. But I am going to start the vehicle and run it through the gears and then with the vehicle running still in park, we're going to come back down and check it. To check the transmission fluid level, I need to start the vehicle, let it run for a minute, shift from park to reverse to drive and back to reverse, then back to park, do that a couple times and then I'm going to raise the vehicle up and I have to check it at the fill plug with the vehicle running. You want to do this before the transmission warms up too much. If it warms up over 130 degrees, then you're going to have to wait until it cools down. Take a 17 millimeter wrench then check the fill plug is right here. Pull this out. We want to see a slight stream of transmission fluid.

So there's no stream. So what we're going to do is we're going to add a little bit of transmission fluid. Keep in mind the engine is still running. It is getting pretty hot right here near the exhaust. So be careful. There's a little stream. Just going to hold my finger over the plug for a second, the fill hole. and that looks pretty good. So that's a nice stream draining out. So that's full. That's what you want. Take the fill plug. If you have a new seal, put it on. This one looks pretty good. Take the 17 millimeter wrench and snug it up. Looks good. Take a little brake parts cleaner, wash off the excess. Just be careful around the exhaust.

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