[TheHunterHofman]

Hi all,

Made a quick and simple video on how to change your differential oil:

Hope this helps any of you and look forward to your comments/input!

Best,

The HunterHofman

[F87source]

Originally Posted by HunterHofman

Hi all,

Made a quick and simple video on how to change your differential oil:

Hope this helps any of you and look forward to your comments/input!

Best,

The HunterHofman

Good video but here's a few nit picky things.

1) The most critical thing is that you must lube the o-rings on the fill and drain bolts. This will prevent the O-ring from binding, pinching/tearing, or rolling up and causing a leak. This is a large reason why some cars experience leaks.

2) Do not break bolts with a torque wrench. For viewers with click type mechanical torque wrenches, even if you set the torque wrench to the maximum setting so it doesn't click you are still wearing the internal spring mechanism out as you are still causing it to deform while loosening the bolt. This will cause the torque wrench's calibration to become more and more inaccurate over time as the spring mechanism wears out (hence why after a certain amount of clicks you must recalibrate), this is the same type of wear that your torque wrench experiences while in normal operation however you don't want to accelerate its wear by using it to breaking bolts, tightening bolts, and especially yielding bolts. Instead use a ratchet or breaker bar for this task.

For a digital torque wrench i'm not sure if it must be recalibrated after use, but I still wouldn't risk additional wear and tear on the electronics by using it to break the bolts.


3) I think your diff oil is quite dirty, it came out nearly black with alot of silver metal shavings (from the gears and likely clutch pack) with no golden color left - I think you should shorten your diff oil change interval since these diffs are quite sensitive. If you want it to last do the changes more frequently and let the diff warm up via gentle driving for a bit before beating on the car.

Otherwise no other comments, good video overall - quick and concise.

[TheHunterHofman]

Originally Posted by F87source

Good video but here's a few nit picky things.

1) The most critical thing is that you must lube the o-rings on the fill and drain bolts. This will prevent the O-ring from binding, pinching/tearing, or rolling up and causing a leak. This is a large reason why some cars experience leaks.

2) Do not break bolts with a torque wrench. For viewers with click type mechanical torque wrenches, even if you set the torque wrench to the maximum setting so it doesn't click you are still wearing the internal spring mechanism out as you are still causing it to deform while loosening the bolt. This will cause the torque wrench's calibration to become more and more inaccurate over time as the spring mechanism wears out (hence why after a certain amount of clicks you must recalibrate), this is the same type of wear that your torque wrench experiences while in normal operation however you don't want to accelerate its wear by using it to breaking bolts, tightening bolts, and especially yielding bolts. Instead use a ratchet or breaker bar for this task.

For a digital torque wrench i'm not sure if it must be recalibrated after use, but I still wouldn't risk additional wear and tear on the electronics by using it to break the bolts.


3) I think your diff oil is quite dirty, it came out nearly black with alot of silver metal shavings (from the gears and likely clutch pack) with no golden color left - I think you should shorten your diff oil change interval since these diffs are quite sensitive. If you want it to last do the changes more frequently and let the diff warm up via gentle driving for a bit before beating on the car.

Otherwise no other comments, good video overall - quick and concise.

Thanks for your comments! Good call regarding the lubing up, simply forgot about that. Regarding the torque wrench, I was aware of that, however I didn't have access to my own tools since I was in a shop with a 4-post car lift. I usually never use my torque wrench as a breaker bar, but thanks for the headsup.

Finally, that car has had its differential oil flushed at the run-in service (1200 miles) in December 2018 and the car now has almost done 10,000 miles. The car has also never seen a track. It would seem that the timing of this differential oil change is pretty okay then, wouldn't you think so?

Thanks again for your comments!

[F87source]

Originally Posted by HunterHofman

Thanks for your comments! Good call regarding the lubing up, simply forgot about that. Regarding the torque wrench, I was aware of that, however I didn't have access to my own tools since I was in a shop with a 4-post car lift. I usually never use my torque wrench as a breaker bar, but thanks for the headsup.

Finally, that car has had its differential oil flushed at the run-in service (1200 miles) in December 2018 and the car now has almost done 10,000 miles. The car has also never seen a track. It would seem that the timing of this differential oil change is pretty okay then, wouldn't you think so?

Thanks again for your comments!

Yeah 10k miles is not bad at all. So yeah that should be fine to run that mileage on the fluid. I'm just surprised how dark it is, I mean it is a diff so there's supposed to be alot of metallic wear from the clutch packs. But wow it's quite dirty, however at that mileage I'm sure it is fine.

I wouldn't however do the bmw recommended service interval of 50k miles or 5 years though, that would be way too many miles. I think max 40k km or 4 years whatever comes first. Of course if you track alot you'll need to change fluids frequently too.