[TurboWeasel]

2016 330d 2WD.

I've been going round in circles trying to figure out exactly what gearbox I have.

Bimmercat and Realoem say it's an 8HP70Z going off my VIN, and it's capacity is 8.5 Litres (hmmmmm).

On ZF's European catalogue, no such 'Z' suffix gearbox is listed. Every single 8HP box takes the same service kit - 1087.298.365, which is 7 litres of LifeguardFluid 8 and a filter kit.

What gives with the American VIN decoders? It stated it's a European Sedan, but lists a box code that doesn't exist and the wrong capacity.

The reason it's boggling my mind is because reading into it, BMW used lifetime oil (LifeguardFluid 9 I believe) and it's not compatible with 8, and blue fluid is not compatible with green fluid, it turns into an unpumpable gel, your gearbox will fall into a 1000 pieces blah blah.....

So in short, has anyone in the UK with an LCI 330d used the above kit without any issues?

I don't want to service it if it's going to bugger it up!

Is it worth climbing under the car to read the exact code on the gearbox casing? In the good old days, you used to get a sticker in the boot

Cheers

[Misschief]

Perhaps it’s worth finding your local authorised ZF partner?

https://aftermarket.zf.com/en/afterm...tner-finder/#/

[MY340i]

whats the current mileage of your car?

[TurboWeasel]

51K

It doesn't need doing immediately. I bought the bits on AutoDoc's 41% off day recently with a view of doing it in the next few thousand miles. Just proactive maintenance.

It is very likely the right stuff since ZF Europe list the same service kit for all 8HP boxes, but just an element of doubt I wanted to iron out.

[TurboWeasel]

Just for closure, Lifeguard Fluid 8 and 9 are interchangeable. The only difference is 9 has added silicon for a couple of 9HP applications.