Maintenance Tips - esp manual owner

[1DarkChaos]

Hey guys

I just want to share my experience with fellow manual m3 owners. The car felt a little sluggish especially the shifting so I went ahead and changed the manual transmission and rear diff oil dispite BMW telling me tranny oil change is not needed on these vehicle.

I also did an engine oil change with Liquii Moly as well and I swear by this, it is the best oil for our car. With OEM/Castrol oil, I always had to fill in a quart of oil about every 5000km, and my mechanic told me to change to Liquii Moly and ZERO drop of oil burned. Many BMW specialist mechanic also recommends this. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Back to the diff and transmission oil change, so at only 47000km, it looked clear coming out but when you compare with the new oil, man is it dirty! The diff oil was really clean but o well, it only took 1.5 bottles. After I took the car back, it totally felt like a different car, the shifting was so much more solid, I can actually feel it and the difference was that big I had to post on here as my first post lol Make sure you use original oil or nothing, especially for the rear diff oil as they have a special Friction Modifier. Other brands MIGHT cause groaning.

Guys, make sure you change the transmission oil, don't listen to BMW. The DCT on the other hand, I would hold off until 100000km,

Just my 2 cent, hope it helps

[JDM_CL9]

Thanks for sharing!

Are you the original owner on this car?

[6ixSpd]

It's fairly standard practice to do transmission and diff services on these types of cars, no matter what BMW says about their so-called lifetime pixie dust fluid.

[Bartledoo]

The liqui-moly burns less because it's thicker, which is not necessarily a good thing and doesn't mean it's better for the engine.

Good work going above and beyond the service recommended by BMW though. 👍 Their service intervals (or lack thereof) are appalling!

[Chris_08_M3]

I also did the diff and trans fluid last week and the car performs and sounds much better.

[Ggeezer]

I've always found that using the diff oil with the friction modifiers is counterintuitive in a car with a locking differential since essentially it helps to reduce friction rather than increase it. The latter is what you want in a car with an LSD.

[R3dliner]

Many people experience louder engine noise with the Liquid Moly. The M power oil is more quiet.
You should change the diff and man trans oil every 30k miles.
My shifts do feel smoother after the change.

[Thik]

Used Redline ATF for manual transmission oil. It's much smoother in the winter.

I don't notice a difference when I change the dif fluid...but I change it anyways...it's not cheap tho.

I put Mobil 1 0W40 in the winter and have been using Libromoly 10W60 this spring/summer. The M1 needed to be topped up every 1,000km. The LM haven't need topping up yet and it's been 6,000km.

[1DarkChaos]

well I aint no engineer but burning oil is never good as the oil has to go somewhere either in sludge or out the exhaust thr the cat. It has nothing to do with the oil being thicker, it is the same thickness if the numbers are the same. It has something to do with anti friction addictive for better engine protection. Definitely switch over if your mechanic carries it.

[Bartledoo]

Originally Posted by 1DarkChaos

well I aint no engineer but burning oil is never good as the oil has to go somewhere either in sludge or out the exhaust thr the cat. It has nothing to do with the oil being thicker, it is the same thickness if the numbers are the same. It has something to do with anti friction addictive for better engine protection. Definitely switch over if your mechanic carries it.

Well I am an engineer :-) but wasn't trying to pull that card, especially given the number of cheaters/morons who I've seen graduate with engineering degrees. However, the numbers being the same doesn't mean the exact viscosity at any particular set of operating conditions is the same. And it is pretty well documented that the liqui moly is thicker. But if you think everyone should switch to LM then I guess I can't argue.

[1DarkChaos]

Originally Posted by ksteckba

Well I am an engineer :-) but wasn't trying to pull that card, especially given the number of cheaters/morons who I've seen graduate with engineering degrees. However, the numbers being the same doesn't mean the exact viscosity at any particular set of operating conditions is the same. And it is pretty well documented that the liqui moly is thicker. But if you think everyone should switch to LM then I guess I can't argue.

damn If you are an engineer then you win lol

[tokic_o]

now that you guys bring it up.....i do have to fill in a quart of oil every like 2-3K km which is kinda annoying....

[jgbedford]

Where do you guys get your transmission and differential serviced in the GTA?