I decided to go ahead and do the flush on my 01 S60 instead of the drain and fill. I was a little worried with 109K on the original fluid but I had an extra hand so I decided to give it a try. It was VERY easy and the car seems to shift much better now. Hopefully I won't have any problems with changing over to brand new fluid after having the old in there so long.

The only problem I ran into was that it turned out to be very messy....I ended up taking the drain hose to the upper radiator connection off each time so I could get an exact measurement (counting the fluid in the hose as well). So needless to say.....my motor has a lot of ATF on it now but it will eventually stop dripping....Next time I will leave the hose connected and not worry about the "exact" part as much. I don't know what I was thinking but really did make a mess....ATF on the engine, suspension and the garage floor now! Learn from my mistakes...

Thanks everyone for all the help with this!

 

That's kind of my basis for drain and fills. If doing a home made flush the first time, you learn from mistakes, but it makes a mess.

Hint though, next time you change your oil, assuming you do your own, you may want to get 4 quarts on hand of the 3309 and drain out the pan, and clean the magnetic plug surface.

 

This might be the wrong place for this, but my son's "Coolant Low Stop Engine" message came on, and he mistakenly poured in a small amount of gasline antifreeze and water, and thankfully made it home. Are there any suggestions on how I should proceed? Thanks.

 

Fred MC: Thanks again for the great advice (as always). I will just do another drain and fill with 4 qts. at the next oil change to clear up any remaining gunk that will come out. It was messy of course but I learned a lot the first time through so the next one should be really easy. I will probably do it all again in another 50K. I don't mind loosing a little of 3309 if it keeps me from paying $400 to let the dealer do pretty close to the same thing. Hopefully I will have many more good miles with this S60 (really hoping to get over 200K by taking good care of it).

As for the coolant issue.....I would probably drain the coolant and start over fresh to be on the safe side but you may want to post this question in general on the forum. I am sure you will get the right answer on here (probably better than mine) Good Luck!