Thread: L322 td6 GM transmission oil & filter

It cost me $272 to get the service done. Pat

Originally Posted by PAT303

It cost me $272 to get the service done. Pat

The filter/gasket kit will cost about $AUD65 delivered plus 5 litres of ATOl another $30 - should take about ½ - 1 hour to do by the looks of it.

From what I understand the LR part price for the filter is about $200 so for $272 they may have only changed your oil?

Did you get to see the old ATO or the filter?

From previous research on auto transmissions the colour and smell of the old ATO tells one everything about the condition of the tranny. The magnet on the bottom of the sump also gives one clues as to when a major rebuild may be necessary.

The state of the filter is usually reflected in how smooth the gear changes are.

It was filter and fluid,I had to drive to Perth as no one in Kal can flush the convertor. Pat

So being a GM transmission does it require Dexron VI ?

If so, you'd be safe using any licensed Dex VI fluid.

Originally Posted by PAT303

It was filter and fluid,I had to drive to Perth as no one in Kal can flush the convertor. Pat

Hi there Pat - $272! wow, I wonder what transmision fluid they ended up putting in? - I bet it wasn't the proper spec fluid.

The genuine filter costs about $250 and the genuine fluid costs $650 per 20 litres. My auto tranny service centre tells me that you need all of the 20 litres to do a proper flush.

So we have a total of $900 plus labour.

I'm told that most tranny flush places use cheap D3 fluid and not change the filter.

I'd be interested in hearing other's experiences......

Well it's going better know than it ever has and the changes are smooth.I paid for a service and have the reciept so if they filled it with the wrong fluid and it goes bang thats their problem not mine.I was supprised at the difference it made and it will go back their in 50K to get it done again. Pat

Originally Posted by PAT303

Well it's going better know than it ever has and the changes are smooth.I paid for a service and have the reciept so if they filled it with the wrong fluid and it goes bang thats their problem not mine.I was supprised at the difference it made and it will go back their in 50K to get it done again. Pat

Thanks for that Pat - can you provide the service centre's name and phone number? I'd like to ask them which ATF they use? If we can find a reliable and cost effective supply of ATF in Australia then all will be the better of for it!

I'd be interested, as today I spent a couple of hours chasing up Caltex, Castrol, Mobil, Shell, Valvoline, Fuchs - all categorically state that there is no distributor of ATF in Australia that complies with the manufacturer's specifications. When I contacted BMW they state that they get their ATF from BMW Germany and it costs about $800 per 20 litre drum.
Advice from a service centre is that the tranny holds about 8-12 litres including cooler lines etc and that a proper flush needs 3 times that amount. When the sump is removed to change a filter only about 4 litres is removed and renewed.

Research of other forums indicates that older L322 td6's and BMW Z5 td6's in UK & Germany have developed valve body wear after some 150k and that this has been more pronounced in vehicles that have been serviced with the ATF replaced with non genuine ATF. There are plenty of warnings about using non genuine spec ATF.

I stand to be corrected, but gear changing in an auto is dictated by hydraulic valves working within a very soft aluminium (for ease of manufacture machining) valve body. When the valve body wears the gear changes are softer and softer until they wear so much so they stop working effectively. Apparently mods have been attempted to insert hardened valve body bores and even these wear quickly with non genuine ATF - it's apparently that critical.

I know from experience with my GM700 tranny that when performance mods are made the gear changes become almost unbearably rough until they 'wear in' over time.

Originally Posted by rick130

So being a GM transmission does it require Dexron VI ?

If so, you'd be safe using any licensed Dex VI fluid.

Nope! - I was on the phone with the Castrol tech support guy for over an hour and they strongly discouraged using any of their D products.
D3 is the normal ATF that most service centres use.
D6 is usedfor those applications that specify it (synthetic) but I was strongly warned aginst using it by Castrol.