The Internet and Misconceptions

The internet is a wonderful thing, really. It’s the worlds filling cabinet! Anything and everything can be found here. But, is it all correct? Now, we know there is no way for the human race to monitor, correct or clear up everything on the internet. The best thing we can do is educate! The more my customers know and understand about their vehicles, the easier my job is!

What I would like to write about today is a misconception about BMW automatic transmissions in vehicles that are 1994 and newer. Recently, I had a customer on the phone that unfortunately had a transmission that was failing. He was telling me that he had read on multiple forums that this was a problem with BMW’s. Well, that’s not really true. And the cause is not limited to BMW. The initial problem started with us, people and society. We didn’t like maintaining our vehicles, we didn’t like the cost involved, and we didn’t like the inconvenience of not having our cars. It brings to mind one of my favorite saying “Careful what you ask for, you may just get it.” As petroleum technologies advanced and synthetic fluids came into the picture, factories started filling their transmissions with “Long-Life” synthetic fluids and telling people that maintenance was no longer necessary. They said that the transmissions were filled with “lifetime” fluid. Well, this made people happy, something they no longer had to worry about right? Wrong, just like there is no such thing as a “maintenance free battery.”

Basically what that says is, use it until it fails then buy another one from me and I can make a bigger profit, faster. This applies to almost everything around us, we have become a use- it-and-buy-a-new one society, and we are getting worse. But I regress. Transmissions require service if you plan on keeping and driving you car for any real length of time. Transmissions should have their fluid service approximately every 60,000 miles. We see a lot of cars with transmissions failing around the 80,000 to 100,000 mile range. Hey, guess what? That’s the “lifetime” of a transmission that sees no service! We have long-time customers on their second or third BMW with over 150,000 miles on them. You know how many transmission problems they’ve had?? None, why? Because we have serviced them. On the basics of transmissions, nothing has changed. They still wear, the fluid still breaks down, but because the damage doesn’t happen for a much longer time, the factories don’t care. Let’s face it; they want you to buy a new car every 3 to 5 years anyway. No machine lasts forever, or your “lifetime” without maintenance, unless you’re prepared to use it, throw it away and buy a new one.