Right now my BMW i3 is basically receiving an IV drip. A bottle, taped to a ladder, is feeding 75W85 gear oil into my differential at a hilariously low rate. I suspect the oil infusion will be completed at some point in the next three hours, and it’s all because BMW deleted the fill plug.
I’ve written about the whole BMW i3 fill-plug fiasco in my appropriately-titled piece “BMW Deleted The Fill-Plug From The i3 Leaving Owners With No Way To Change The Gear Oil: A Rant Against ‘Technical Cost Reduction’ And ‘Filled For Life’ Gearboxes.” Basically, BMW, like many other automakers, has decided not to prescribe an oil change interval for the BMW i3’s rear differential — that is to say, BMW considers it a “Filled For Life” gearbox.
This means, in theory, that you never have to change the gear oil, provided your definition of “life” is whatever BMW engineers decided it is, and provided your driving conditions aren’t more extreme than whatever the car was designed for and provided you don’t have any bad seals/water intrusion incidents that might contaminate the fluid. (More on this later in the article).
I hate the concept, though I’m not so naive to think that I’m smarter than BMW engineers. They decided that, for the vast majority of drivers and driving conditions, the rear diff will last the design-life of the car (150,000 miles or whatever) and well past the warranty period. Thus, it’s best not to risk the possibility of someone doing a fluid change and adding contaminants or using the wrong fluid, possibly necessitating a warranty payout.
Still, I don’t care about that (and also, I bet most BMW engineers would agree with me here; this was likely bean-counter choice). Just knowing that the life of my differential, under normal usage (i.e. no catastrophic damage from me hammering on it), is related to the fluid quality makes me want to change that oil regularly. I want my BMW i3 to last 300,000 miles, not just 150,000. More importantly, just look at how much fluid I drained out of my differential, whose capacity BMW lists as 500 mL?
What the hell?! Yes, my i3 is on ramps, but everyone drains their i3’s diff on ramps, and they all seem to drain about the 500 mL that BMW says should be in there. Why did I only have 300 mL of black fluid in my diff?
See, this is my point. This is why all gearboxes should be serviceable. Because of stupid stuff like this. A refillable gearbox gives me peace of mind knowing my car has the best shot at living a long, prosperous life, and that the fluid is 1. The right level 2. not contaminated and 3. the right fluid type.
Its’ also just the principle of the matter. All 2014 BMW i3s had both a drain and fill plug in their differentials, and then in 2015 BMW deleted the fill plug. BMW had the casting right there for a fill-plug equipped differential case, and THEY went out of their way to make a new one without a plug. This is maddening.
Anyway, I used to own a 2014 BMW i3, and since it was the only year with the fill plug, my drain-and-fill process was a breeze. But it’s not like my fluid, at 140,000 miles, was perfectly clean. Have a look:
To be sure, once the sludge was out of the bottom of the case and off the magnetic fill plug, the rest of the oil looked pretty decent:
Still, I’m changing one’s automotive fluids is an inalienable right, and one that I am attempting to exercise on my 2021 BMW i3S — a vehicle with no fill plug. How, you may wonder, am I going to pull that off without flipping the car upside down? Well, BMW’s official recommendation when a technician has to fill the differential for whatever reason (perhaps it’s a newly installed unit) is to actually fill the case through the axle shaft hole.
But you know there’s no chance I’m yanking a CV axle just so I can fill this transmission. That would take forever. What some people do is they wrap a hose in electrical tape until it fills the drain plug hole, then they pump oil through that hose and into the differential, after which they yank the hose and quickly install the plug, ensuring they’ve pumped enough oil to account for spillage.
This sounds like a mess, so what a BMW i3 forum-member with username Pipino did is create a new fill plug. This plug features a threaded center bore, which can be used to fill the differential via a threaded fitting, and then plugged afterwards.
Here you can see the new plug on the right (with its strong donut-shaped neodymium magnet), and the old one on the left:
Here you can see the fitting going into that center bore.
And here’s the grub screw plug for that center bore:
You might be thinking one could just pump the oil in through that center bore, remove the fitting, install the plug, and be done with it. But there’s a problem: The center bore is too small, and pumping thick gear oil through that would be a nightmare. It’d be slow and arduous and not worth it. Even if you could pump oil into the drain plug, there’s a bit of concern about straining the gaskets/seals from the pressure; obviously, there is a vent, but how big is that vent and how quickly could you pump fluid in there before it became a problem? I don’t know the answer, but what I do know is that Pipino’s process for filling the rear diff is a long one, as it involves using gravity:
Yes, that’s right; we BMW i3 owners are having to IV-drip oil into our cars because BMW ditched its fill plug. As you saw above, I already drained my diff (and only got 300 mL); luckily the metal filings on my magnetic drain plug didn’t look any worse than others’, though my car only has 25,000 miles.
Anyway, here’s my setup:
I’ll let you know how it goes. In three hours.
[UPDATE: Looking closely at the fluid entering my diff, I notice brass particles! Where can this possibly be from? The oil was new! Surely it can’t be corroding the brass fitting on the orange juice container that quickly, can it? Have a look:
I’m confused. -DT]
[UPDATE: It was a poorly-made brass nipple. Blast out your funnels/hoses/barb fittings with brake cleaner ALWAYS, folks! I usually do; I forgot this time and it bit me! -DT]
I’m honestly kind of torn on this particular gripe.
It’s not engine oil, coolant, or transmission fluid – all of which will need replacement at some point, even with long-life fluids.
Gear oil has a hugely long lifespan (as mentioned by someone as ~150,000 miles for their truck) and I wager that some other failure will doom the BMW long before differential failure due to gear oil wear will happen. I’m pretty sure Jason’s F-150 has the factory fill in the rear pumpkin.
I mean, it’s hilarious that BMW went to the effort to redesign the cover one model year in, probably costing them more in redesign effort than saved in part cost for a low volume car, but I’m not an accountant.
A cheap pressure bleeder meant for brake/clutch hydraulic fluid might work.
B ite M y W allet is only just behind V engeful A uto G roup in purposely constructing for the warranty period only, and still often misses that.
At least it’s not an A ll M oney G one…
And furthermore… no car should have a “design life” limitation. My Honda recently passed 300k miles and is doing fine, I have every intention of pushing it past 400k and no doubt I’ll get there. It’s a work horse and I’m going to flog it. And this reminds me – I should change the MTF and the diff fluid. And I’ve got fill and drain plugs for both.
Did my CRVs transmission and rear diff change last weekend. Splurged and got new crush washers and everything. Under an hour for both with a beer in hand.
You want me to design a car for infinite design life? I can do it, but you won’t enjoy paying for it.
Or I could design you a car with a 200,000 mile design life, which would make getting to double that quite likely, especially with planned maintenance.
EDITED: because I did a terrible job stating my thought…
The problem is in instances like the article where the designers actively remove the option to extend the design life through planned maintenance. This is an idea that everyone should find offensive.
People aren’t necessarily asking for infinite design life, they just want to be able to extend the functional life if they so choose and to make repairs when necessary…
But there is a procedure for planned maintenance of the diff oil: fill through the driveshaft hole. Combine with changing a worn out CV boot/suspension bush and the additional labour isn’t huge.
I’m a design engineer for an OEM, we aren’t monsters, but sometimes the compromise that gets in to production prioritises cost, quality or ease of assembly over serviceability.
In this case I think it’s nuts to redesign the diff housing to remove the fill plug boss, but I’m sure it made sense to the team of people who made that decision.
You want me to design a car for infinite design life? I can do it, but you won’t enjoy paying for it.
Not new no.
In 5-10 years though….
Welcome to marine outdrive and outboard gear changes, which are required a lot more frequently. There is a hole at the bottom of the gearcase, and a hole at the top. You might think the hole at the top is a fill, but you’d be wrong. It’s a vent. You squeeze oil in from the bottom until it comes out the top vent hole. You then put the plug in the vent hole. Next you remove your filler pump and very quickly try to screw the drain plug back in while oil is gushing out. On my latest boat, with a Bravo drive the fill plug isn’t on the side of the gearcase, it’s behind the propeller! So it’s even harder to get the plug in quickly. As a consolation prize, it does have a remote fill reservoir, so all the fluid that drains out while fighting to get the drain plug is replaced from the top.
Wait. If it has a remote fill reservoir, why not just fill it from that instead of fiddling about with upside-down filling?
Because that’s not how you’re supposed to do it. I think it has something to do with air pockets not allowing the thick gear lube to get down there if it’s empty, and giving the price of outdrives and lower units, you don’t want to take that chance.
You squeeze oil in from the bottom until it comes out the top vent hole. You then put the plug in the vent hole. Next you remove your filler pump and very quickly try to screw the drain plug back in while oil is gushing out.
Asking as someone who knows absolutely nothing about boats…
Can you not plug the vent hole, turn the whole thing up side down and plug the bottom? Or replace the fill plug with a Fumoto like valve and just close that valve?
Turn the whole boat upside down? Seems a little excessive, not to mention difficult. Also the fill valve is underwater when the boat is in operation so it has to be smooth to the outdrive/lower unit.
I assumed these outboards could be flipped on their own.
They weigh 300-600 lbs and and attached pretty securely to the boat.
So you can’t just undo a few bolts and throw it onto an engine stand like a VW sand rail?
That sucks.
I mean, the oil change procedure is messy, but it’s faster than removing the outboard entirely. Plus this same procedure applies to outdrive (sterndrive) where although lighter than an entire outboard it’s more difficult to remove and reinstall.
I know everyone thinks BMW is the greatest car in the world and all, but I keep reading stories like these and I’m starting to think that BMW’s just plain suck giant green donkey….
This oil change was necessary. David is fishing for clicks to make some money of his lame videos
Why the negativity? Isn’t there already enough of that in the world?
If you don’t like something, just stop reading or stop watching.
Agreed. Life is too short to waste time being angry and bitchy.
(also let’s be real; ain’t nobody clicking phone videos about brass particles in a clear tube!)
Watching the tiny glitter float down the tube was pretty fun though…
Is it possible that you are new here? Because this is the one place on the internet where people are generally decent and not whiny. David is one of the nicest humans I have yet to meet.
I put BMW and John Deere in similar categories.
High performance
Poor reliability
OE parts priced like they’re gold plated.
John Deere motto: “Bleed Green”. They mean it.
The old John Deere tractors were the exact opposite. Love them. The new ones make me happy to not be a farmer.
Could be worse. Could be a Lamborghini
Like it so much, buy a second one!
BMW makes their vehicles to last the lease period (pretty sure they classify that as a full sale too). They know their main demographic. No need to make it reliable if its warranty is what, 60-80,000 klms powertrain? These warranties need to increase to reflect the price we are paying for all this top of the line engineering (across the board for manufacturers).
I vaguely remember a bottle that has a hose through the cap. You add your fluid via said cap. Close the cap. Then their is an outlet where you can add compressed air and the air pushes the fluid through the hose that is at the bottom of the bottle. Goes through the hose to where ever the hose goes.
Today’s episode finds our hero, David Tracy, refilling the lifeblood of the transmission in his i3 with an IV drip. Next we’ll see him restart the i3 with an AED…
Deleted fill plugs make be want to restart the vehicle with an IED.
I’d like to know they they put in a differential at all instead of twin inboard motors, maybe with a clutch to lock them together if wheel slippage was an issue.
Also why not replace the drain plug with a Fumoto valve? That way you can pump it in and shut the valve nice and clean like.
My main concern is that I’d lose the magnet.
Then don’t buy a Fumoto:
https://www.amazon.com/DEEFILL-Magnetic-Stainless-Compatible-Chevrolet/dp/B0C3X3QM9Q?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=A2MNY1UU1X7JPL&gQT=1&th=1
It’s expensive.
Should I try it?
If I was you I might. Its gotta be worth more than watching three hours of your time drip through an IV. And maybe, just maybe if you write about it you can write it off your taxes. Ask your tax professional.
Now if you want to make it fun get one of these oil syringes and give your rear end the enima it deserves:
https://www.amazon.com/AIGMISON-Suction-Transfer-Extractor-Automotive/dp/B0D5WM1KHL
I’ll give it a shot!
What is the thread size on the fill plug? (Owner of a 2019 i3S). Might do this as well.
Two small motors costs more than one big motor. Heavier too.
Two gearboxes and maybe a clutch costs more than a single gearbox and a diff.
You’re also doubling on inverters, plus all the HV and coolant connections.
That excuse might work for Chevy but this is BMW. Their whole schtick is unnecessary overcomplexity.
I’d say in the last 20 years or so BMW’s schtick has been expensive cars with unexpectedly cheap unnecessary overcomplexity.
I assume your working definition of “cheap” is:
of little account; of small value; mean; shoddy.
Vs mine:
Awesome; amazing; enviable
So… drill and tap the case for a fill-plug while it’s empty, give it a thorough clean, and save yourself some time?
I’d have to pull it.
Good! Instant article or two for all of us
Maybe I skimmed over it (and after spending quite some time looking this up for myself, I can’t find it), but if that drain plug is that important to people, why modify the cover when they made it with what’s needed?
Probably unobtanium, if I assume? Or it probably costs like $1,000?
So I take it the Renault Traffic decided to go the quicker route on how to fill it yesterday?
Are you sure you got all the orange juice out of that bottle? Maybe that is some sort of residue left over that has a reaction to the diff oil, causing some additive to separate from the oil? Maybe? I am not qualified to answer this question but that is strange.
It’s hard to tell not being able to see close up too but it doesn’t look like metal to me in the video.
this reminds me of the decision to remove trans fluid dip stick and requiring a 180 degree filler to fill or top off the trans.
Look at the brass particles on you! How dare you question BMW’s engineering decisions you peasant you! Learn to follow orders because nothing bad ever happens when everyone follows orders.
Ugh, this reminds me of re-filling the transaxle on my ’94 Wheel Horse tractor. It has a very robust transaxle and Eaton industrial pump to run the hydrostatic drive and hydraulic cylinder (Capable of down-pressure, even!). It’s well-known to be virtually bulletproof, but occasionally you do need to drain and refill it, especially since it’s a simple system that basically uses the axle as the fluid tank, and the lubricating oil has to serve as differential, transmission, and axle lube plus run the hydraulic ram. And it’s a “garden” tractor, a rather large machine compared to the glorified riding mowers you buy at the big box stores, capable of running a mowing deck as big or bigger than most zero-turn mowers, or mounting a huge snowthrower or push blade or even a proper plow — So it tends to get dirty and spends a fair amount of its life really working that hydraulic system and oil.
Fortunately, there is both a drain and a fill plug. But not much venting capability, since the whole thing needs to be closed-up when its filled and running. So normally you put a funnel in the fill port and slowly fill it, letting the air bubbles burp out as you go. Unfortunately, it still tends to cause oil to puke back up around the funnel and make a mess on top of the axle and on the ground. And the last time a shop did it for the previous owner, they failed to fully wipe up the top of the axle and gearcase/diff housing, so of course it accumulated all kinds of decaying grass clippings and mud and general detritus which isn’t particularly good for machinery. So, when I decided it would be wise to drain and refill the axle, I had a fair bit of cleanup to do just so I could safely remove the fill plug without muck falling inside, and then plenty of cleanup to do just because the job is hopelessly messy.
I like the idea of an IV-drip sort of arrangement, but the filler is small enough that I’m not sure how well five quarts of 10W-30 is going to go down a necessarily small tube. Although if David has luck with getting 75W-85 gear oil through a similar setup, I’ll be willing to give it a try if it means less of an Exxon Valdez-level environmental disaster to mop up.
When we got our i3 REx, I did a shakedown drive of about 150 miles round-trip to make sure the extender fired up, ran normal, and was therefore safe for my spouse (who wasn’t really into the whole idea of a generator).
About halfway through – when the generator / scooter motor fired up I started noticing smoke. A lot of smoke. Definitely looked like oil smoke.
Pulled over, not leaking. Figured it was likely a missing filler cap (which was the problem) but I still had it towed on the dealer’s dime to fix it.
Anyway, it is how our i3 received the nickname Lil’ Smokey.
We’ve blown right past “we won’t give you right to repair” to “we won’t give you ability to repair”.
This is really like my wife’s gripe about a lot of women’s clothing being dry clean only when all men’s clothing can be washed at home. I told her it’s simple – if it’s dry clean only, we leave it on the store shelf. If you hate that all of the women’s stuff is dry clean only, QUIT BUYING IT. The manufacturers will figure it out eventually and start producing product they can actually sell.
Same deal here. Quit buying cars without dipsticks and drain holes. I think it’s ridiculous you need to use a vacuum pump to suck the used motor oil out of an engine.
Such a vehicle will never reside in my garage.
I have a similar rule where I’ll never buy a car with an internal combustion engine without a dipstick
We may have to agree to disagree on this one as I have three cars with two-stroke engines.
Fair point, Mike. 🙂
Well played, well played
They sell ICE cars without dipsticks??? And I thought my car’s lack of a coolant temp gauge was annoying
Kind of like the Transfer case on the more recent SHO Fords. Sealed for life, yet life is not that long. Planned obsolescence. You would think after the 70’s and the big three nearly becoming no more because of this crap, they would not try to wade back into this nightmare scenario, but I can say that BMW and Mercedes and numerous other Higher end car companies seem to be weathering this trend better than expected. Either the high end buyers don’t care much about resale value, or the Buy Here Pay Here lots are still getting plenty of suckers to buy the 80k mile vehicles that only last a year or two at most.
Following that logic a bit further, my guess is the subprime market will learn to avoid these cars.
There is a huge amount of loan failure in that realm, and if the car craps out, the buyer has no incentive to keep paying, thus pushing the repo rate even higher.
A lot of those places’ bread and butter is getting a car, “renting” it out until the buyer defaults on the loan, getting the car back and then starting the process all over again. Lather, rinse and repeat.
They do better the more times they can cycle the car, so it’s in their self interest to avoid the cars that are going to self destruct in X many more miles, unless they can pick them up at auction for really dirt cheap prices.
Either way, it depresses the vehicle’s eventual resale, which in turn increases vehicle depreciation. Maybe luxury car buyers don’t care about such trivialities, but I sure do.
I expect some sort of other horrible, costly failures will doom most higher end vehicles (Japanese luxury vehicles excepted) long before ‘inadequate maintenance due to inconvenient design’ will.
Same deal here. Quit buying cars without dipsticks and drain holes. I think it’s ridiculous you need to use a vacuum pump to suck the used motor oil out of an engine.
Such a vehicle will never reside in my garage.
A solid plan as long as there are enough pissed off new car DIYers out there.
Reminds me of the Mitch Hedberg line “This shirt says ‘Dry Clean Only’, that means ‘it’s dirty'”.
Using vacuum pump to get all of engine oil out from dipstick tube is way better than lifting it to drain oil into a pan while rolling on the ground in the driveway while your socket and plug roll away from you into the grass or fall into nasty pan. This way you also do not need to change oil pan drain plug or its washer after oil change
I already have the tools for doing it the traditional way, and I don’t mind the chore (except in the winter time, but hopefully fixing that soon with a heated garage).
What I don’t have (or want to get) is a single purpose vacuum pump and whatever attachments are necessary for each engine, assuming I could even use such a thing on all six of the machines I have that require oil changes.
I am curious how much overlap the Venn diagram of ‘Buys new car regularly’ and ‘Insists on high ease of ability to service obscure items by yourself’ is.
Methinks the BMW accountants are closer to the mark than the Autopian ones.
Mostly, I expect the dealer service techs to drive that conversation more, if manufacturers are ponying up for maintenance costs on new vehicles under warranty these days.
Great points.
I doubt the corporate bean counters care about the long term serviceability of the cars. The quicker they reach planned obsolescence, the sooner they make another sale. In fact the need to slurp out the engine oil probably drives more business to the dealerships.
While I wouldn’t call oil changes obscure, I do get your point about the Venn diagram overlap. And there’s no doubt the folks at BMW know their demographics. I’m just not one of their potential customers.
The hot rod credo is, if it doesn’t work, change it!
I doubt David has time to swap the part with the drain plug into his one year newer model, but I do like the sentiment!
How many people check for the presence of drain and fill plugs on axles and transmissions when buying a car? Clearly you would, but even the average DIYer probably doesn’t even think that the car would not have those present.
Yeah. I’m probably a bit obsessive about junk like that. It’s probably not healthy.
Lol. I have yet to change my own oil on my 2017 full sized crossover. I mostly do it on my other cars, but I had a bunch of “free” oil changes from the dealer when it was new and after I got done with those, I looked at it and it had a filter location that would probably be both hot and messy…and at that point it was only a trip car, so was only getting oil changes about once a year when I swapped snow tires….so I got lazy and the tire place just does both now. I’m at the age where sometime I’ll just spend money to save time. Its not a vehicle that I care much about other than that it works when needed…but this article has reminded me that I should probably pay someone to change the rear diff oil 🙂
The R50 mini coopers has a similar issue, especially with the fragile midlands 5 speed transmission. After I bought my second cooper I wanted to make an easier way to fill the fluid. Under the battery tray there was a plastic transmission vent which I removed and drilled and taped a 3/8″ NPT hole into and installed a 1/2″ barb and a foot and a half of rubber tubing. I then ran the hose up and into an accessible place and capped it off, the next time I had to change the fluid, it was as simple as dumping the fluid, fitting a funnel to the filler hose and pouring in the pre measured amount of fluid.
Does the i3 have some sort of vent for the diff? If so there should be the option of filling it through the vent.
BMW’s been doing this for a while, now, with “lifetime” fill without concern for serviceability. They do it on their motorcycles, too.
If it lasts as long as the initial lease agreement, then do their accountants really care?
I suppose these shenanigans pale next to Ford’s “Lifetime air filter” bullshite.
eventually they should care when the secondary market value tanks so much because of this BS that they cannot sell the new ones at any price….Jatco comes to mind here.
What compelled you to consider changing the diff oil at 4 years old and 25,000 miles in the first place though?
That seems like a much shorter interval than even the most maintenance obsessed person would go with.
By comparison, my truck has a 150,000 mile change interval (no time interval listed)
Because when I buy a car, I baseline it by replacing all its fluids. As I learned in this case with the 40% oil missing, you can’t trust whoever came before.
I mean fair in retrospect given what happened here, but I’d usually make an exception for something that *can’t be changed easily* by even the 99th percentile DIYer.
Maybe I should change that policy.
I assume there was no obvious leakage or you would have mentioned it. So this sounds like a short fill in production. It’s not like that stuff is going to boil off.
It worked better before you drained the oil out of it, and now it does not because there is no way to pour oil back in
Good practice.
I changed the differentials & transfer case fluid early on my truck (Bought as a 6,000 mile demo)
All were low on fluid. Like, the minimum level.
I imagine the bean counters are at work here. Factory fill is the bare minimum to save a few cents worth of fluid on every vehicle produced.
From what I know of David from all these years of reading him, not knowing what that diff fluid looks like has been eating him up inside since he bought the car. He would probably change all of the fluids on a brand new car.
100% true. It has bothered me for months, and I even felt bad taking it up Angeles Crest sine I didn’t know the oil situation.
That is Great.
Now you know you have fresh oil in there but the thing won’t run.
It worked better before you drained the oil out of it
That can’t be healthy, mentally. You’ve got some kind of rare beater induced anxiety or something. They could probably spend years studying you and tracing the roots of various compulsions back to especially frustrating projects. “I wasn’t like that before I got that postal Jeep”.
It’s the rust in his veins.
I’m betting it had more to do with a) cleaning car parts in his dishwasher or b) wearing clothing “dyed” with used engine oil…
It might be worth considering buying an earlier diff cover with the drain hole and doing a quick swap. This is insane process. FCP Euro lists two diff covers, left and right, for the 2014 i3. Or possibly a used part, although that may seem distasteful on your newer car. Good luck!
The (stupid, awful, clunky, garbage) Aisin AF40-6 in our 1st Gen Cruze Diesel is considerably more work to check the level on (or drain/refill) than the comparable 6TXX that the non-diesel 1st gen Cruzes use.
Those have a convenient check plug on the side of the transmission. Get it up to temp, raise it (keeping it level), turn the engine on, remove the bolt and that fluid should be level with the bottom of the threads – basically fill it up until it comes out the hole, then wait for it to stop and put the plug back in. More inconvenient than a dipstick, but not all that difficult.
The AF40-6 also has a check plug. On the bottom of the transmission. In the drain plug. Get the car up to operating temp, lift it (level), and then remove the check plug and wait until it drips at a rate of one drip per second. Then reinstall the check plug and add 0.4L of fluid. All of this requires removing the underbody shield, too.
So, in order to check the fluid level, you basically have to measure the amount that comes out and hope that is about 0.4L. But you always waste fluid when checking the fluid level.
Oh, and the fill plug? It is either a hex or torx, depending on which shape it feels like being at that moment – and its ultimate desire is to become a circle.
Horx
My cat makes that sound!
Oof, that’s rough. And I thought I had it bad needing to put a 10mm hex bit into the drain plug and stick a wrench onto the exposed bit on my Cruze’s manual transmission.
Is there vent hole in the orange juice container as well? Given the flow rate, it seems like a pinhole would be sufficient.
That’s only logical, otherwise you’d be out of your Vulcan mind. 🙂
Yes, I drilled a small vent hole.
I still find it amazing that BMW went so far as to delete the drain plug but there’s still a turn signal lever.
At least BMW didn’t remove the dipstick from their newer model… Oh what’s that? They did? Ah. Yeah okay maybe they are evil.
A worthy BMW owner knows faith is sufficient.
This is gonna take forever.