I recently bought a 2016 BMW 435i with 88k miles. It has manual transmission that works well, but BMW claims the fluid is good for the life of the car. I will not put many miles on this car as I do not drive more than 5-10k miles a year at most. Should I consider getting the fluid changed soon or just wait until problems start to occur?
Waiting for problems to occur on a transmission is waiting too long. Standard transmissions don't have bands, clutches, a valve body and all kinds of other moving parts to pressurize, cool and lubricate, so they won't show problems in the same way. They're basically like the differential in the rear end of the car and have gears on 3 separate shafts, all splash lubricated.
You may as well change it now, on a standard, it's usually not much different than a typical oil change. Usually there's a filler hole and a drain hole. If there's just a filler hole, use a siphon pump to draw the oil out. Put the car on a level surface and fill it up until oil starts coming out of the filler hole. Keep track of the amount of oil that comes out and put that back in, just to be safe.
