My mechanic tells me that VOLVO refuses to sell him transmission components, only refurbished transmissions.
I may need clutch parts for a Geartronics tranmission.
Any advise?

 

More vehicle history and exact problems would be helpful. Volvo has had certain years where transmission issues are rampant. Identifying the age of car, mileage would help give a better opinion.

 

Car is 2002 Model V70 T5 with 61K Miles.
wILL IT HELP IF i FLUSH THE TRANSMISSION?

 

Might, might not (since we don't have any idea what kind of issues you're having with the transmission). It would be unusual for the clutches to be burned up at only 61,000 miles (mine has nearly four times that, and the clutches themselves seem to be fine, even after some pretty heavy-duty towing).

 

WTF is the problem?

Please tell us exactly what issue you are having with the transmission? Then we can help you isolate the problem. I appreciate the model and mileage that will help when you tell us what your issue is.

I mean are you having trouble changing gears. Are you hearing the transmission grinding? What is the issue that is making you ask this question?

Are you even experiencing any problems? Or is your mechanic just saying the clutch needs to be replaced? If you are looking for parts their are a few threads on the site about Volvo specific part sites.

 

This is exactly the problem.
The car takes off well in first gear, switches into second normally, and then the transmission gets stuck in second, the switch to 3rd is not smooth, when it finally switches I can hear a bump , the passenger can also hear it and then from 3rd. on the switch to the other is smooth again.

The bump is harder, it can be felt and heard at lower speeds, and living in the city my wife hast to drive slow, one of the exit streets for my house has a children´s park and the limit is 20 MPH and the other exit street has a limit of 25 MPH.

My regular mechanic told me the transmission is too complicated for him and sent me to a specialist, but this guy scared me because he has a big warehouse with maybe thousands of old transmissions. In any case he is too busy, but took the car for a ride and heard it too but couldn´t figure it out. He also says that VOLVO refuses to sell transmission parts and that if push come to shove we would need to buy a rebuilt one from VOLVO. Other than that the car is still fine and strong and smooth, I just replaced the rear shocks.

 

Ok, well I am not as familiar with exactly how manual transmission work. But I will tell you what I know about these cars.

With Automatic transmissions in the 01 and 02 Volvo V70, S60, S80. They are plagued with transmission issues. Honestly, you are the first person with a manual transmission Volvo from this era I have seen. Most commonly similar to what you are saying. It happened with my 02 S60. When the car was going from 2nd to 3rd gear there would be a long delay and a rev of the engine before it would want to go into 3rd gear. I drove it like that for about 10,000 miles before it got to the point I had to do something about it.

This was about 4 years ago. But a new transmission Volvo wanted about $6k for I want to say. I was able to find a salvaged one of the internet with about 50k miles on it for like $700-800 and paid a local transmission shop $1100 to install. It was transmission out of an 03 V70 to put in my S60. If you go this route I would never pay for an 01 or 02 transmission.

Most transmission shops will say you need to flush the fluid which is like $200. On other Vehicles that very well could be the case. But if you read through these forums you will notice that about 80% of the S60, S80, V70 all with the same frame, engine, transmission; the transmission issues are from 01 and 02 models.

Hope that helps

 

I have read some other posts mentioning the slave cylinder for Manual Transmissions. It is just so rare you see a manual transmissions on Volvo's now.

But another member posted a great guide on some of the issues which might be relevant a few years ago for auto transmissions.

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...g-gears-59684/

 

Sorry, I thought that I had mentioned it in the first posting, but this is a Geartronic automatic transmission,

 

It sounds like the dreaded 2nd to 3rd gear "flare", where the transmission feels like it shifts into neutral for a second or two between gears, leading to a "bump" if you don't let up on the gas (since the engine will be rev'ing higher when it finally does engage).

There's a well-known fix for this that involves just a $30 part and a half-hour's work... basically replacing the S4 Servo cover. I won't post info on it here - it's very easy to find by a google search.

Otherwise, if my description of the symptoms are correct, I'd guess that it could be one of the shift solenoids (there are three larger linear solenoids that tend to crap out). They can be replaced for a few hundred bucks and a few hour's work.

Or, you might get lucky and be able to have someone re-set the fluid change "counter" and reset the adaptation and then you drive around and "retrain" your transmission to shift correctly (I'm working on this right now after towing a large trailer a few thousand miles).

Or, something's totally hosed up and you need either a new transmission or a whole lot of repair...

 

Yes you have the symptoms right. I would like to follow the recommendations , the SW update, the flush and the Servo replacement.
Question remains, for the SW update, does it have to be at a Volvo dealership or is this SW available anywhere else?
For what you describe as a generic problem this should have been a Volvo quality issue covered by a recall but a I don´t remember receiving any notifications from Volvo, as I bought the car from the dealer here in Miami.

In relation to the Servo replacement from the pics does not seem too complicated I guess my mechanic, who is not a Volvo specialist would be able to do it, or do you think I should take that to the dealer?
I never went back there since they charged me 600 bucks for a mirror back in 2003.

 

Its a wonder that nobody has told you that a company called IPD sells the servo cover and it comes with instructions. I recently had the same issues but let it go to far and end up having to get my tranny rebuilt with a cost of $3500 but the car is like new now. Where abouts do you live ? if possible try to find a indy Volvo shop with Vida computer, they will be able to tell you if is a simple fix or a rebuild.

 

I did the servo cover myself, and found it to be a pretty easy job. You just have to drop the left front wheel, and wheelwell liner, then use a pin spanner (or suitable substitute) to get the C-clip out that holds in the servo cover. Drop the old one, pull the piston, lube and replace the O-ring on the piston, slide the whole thing back into place, replace the C-clip and then drive around for a while to retrain your transmission how to shift. It's all covered in the IPD instructions in detail (I didn't mention IPD knowing any search on the issue would lead there).

The only difficult part for me was pushing the servo cover back in far enough to engage the C-clip. I ended up using a prybar and a small bottle jack to push up against the servo cover so I'd have two hands free to insert the C-clip.

With any luck, this will fix the 2-3 flare, and the OP will be done worrying about his transmission for a while.

 

Update.
Took the car to the dealership. They said: A. They haven´t done a SW upgrade in 8 years. B. replacing the servo cover rings wouldn´t do anything. C. That I should go see a tranny specialist.

So I went to the TS who said it was the solenoids that he would replace them for 1200. So I said yes.
Called me at 4 pm to pick up the car. Said he had replaced the box and nothing had happened, problem of slipping in and out of 3rd remained. That he was not going to charge because it was his mistake. But I gave him 300 for his effort and honesty.

Now I received the Servo Cover rings from IPD and have scheduled a replacement appointment with other mechanic as the tranny specialist said I was waisting my time and money doing that and that he was not going to be an accomplice..
I will try any way.Íf nothing works will have to replace tranny for 2500, minus the 300 that I already gave him.
Will see.

 

I think you are doing it right. With all repairs, check with the garage so they don't 'flush' the fluid, and they use only Mobil 3309, Toyota T-IV or Valvoline MaxLife. First, replace the servo cover. About $100 in parts.

Then the three solenoids $300 parts, 2-$300 labor ($1200 is way too much, they don't remove the transmission, he only needs to replace the three parts, takes 2-3 hours at most). As a side note, each New solenoid must be properly adjusted or it won't work properly. You can also check for a nissan garage (they use the same transmissions). Looking at the repair price $1200 it doesn't look like your mechanic knows what the job is exactly about.

AW55 50SN 55 51SN Brand New Rostra Linear Solenoid Kit Equinox Maxima Volvo 9404 | eBay

You are in for about 6-$700. If the issue has been there for long, there is a good chance a fix is too late. On the other hand, a refurbished transmission (or used one) for your car has good chance not to work properly despite paying lots of money. If you didn't know, a refurbished transmission from Volvo has only the here above repairs done. So again, it's a chance.

Although your Volvo dealer seems honest, I would be aware of repairing it there $$$ Not always their repairs have be worked well, as per forums discussions.

 

It's nice that the Volvo dealership didn't want to charge for the work they did, but I have to wonder about their statement that the servo cover swap doesn't do anything. Maybe it's already been done (and they were just clumsy in their wording). Otherwise, I can say with absolute certainty that it CAN fix a 2-3 flare, and did in the case of my own V70 T5. And it cost $30 and took about 30 minutes (most of that working out the easiest way to press the cover into place while leaving two hands free to place the C-clip in place).

I'm also going to be doing the ebay solenoid rebuild, because 3,000 miles of towing a HUGE trailer has apparently gummed up my linear solenoids (creating a similar 2-3 and 3-4 flare). I can't complain though - with what I paid for the car and the huge number of miles I've put on it in the last year, it could crumble to dust tomorrow and I'm still way ahead. It's certainly a car that works better for those of us who don't mind twisting wrenches than those who are dependent on the dealerships for service.

 

OK, thanks a million to Habbyguy´s advice the tranny in my V70 Volvo is as smooth as new.
After spending 300 in replacing the solenoids, that did not do a thing, to the point that the mechanic put the originals back I decided to go with the 30 dollars fix and replace the Servo Cover rings and seals.

My corner mechanic charged me 85 for the labor and also replaced another 4 qtrs of fluid, second time I do that.

When I picked up the car he said we had failed. He drove around the block a couple of times and problem persisted.
I drove home and noticed that the second gear was not slipping any more, but kind of getting stuck. That lasted about 10 minutes. For the remaining 10 minutes until I got home car was fine. Then my wife drove it about 30 miles yesterday in slow traffic and she said that it was fine.
I drove it today, went to Costco. For and back maybe one hour, part in slow traffic part in Express way and it was perfect, smooth and with great acceleration on the Palmetto EXPWY.

Will it last? I really hope so.

 

Whoo hoo! Really glad to hear that your story has a happy ending. And yes, I DO expect that the fix "will stick", since the problem that occurs due to the mis-designed servo cover won't come back with the new cover in place.

It's interesting that the mechanics seemed to discount the possibility that a new servo cover would do anything, but sometimes the info you will get from a very tightly focused source (like a forum devoted to a single model car, inhabited by a bunch of folks who have seen most of the issues that can possibly happen with that car) can trump the much larger body of knowledge of a professional mechanic, since that knowledge is of a more general nature.

In other words, the pond here is only an inch wide, but a mile deep - while the pond at the garage is a mile wide, but only ten feet deep. ;-)

I also had a "negative result" for the first mile or so of "training" I did with my car. There is a very specific driving procedure that should be used for retraining the transmission, but you seem to have had a good result with "just driving around". I wouldn't worry a bit about this unless you notice bad shifting in the future (I'd very much doubt this will happen). If you DO notice anything amiss, it's a trivial matter to "reset" the transmission and retrain it. It DOES require someone with a VIDA / DICE system on their laptop, but don't worry about figuring that one out unless it's necessary. In the mean time, just enjoy that sweet-shifting V70!

 

I have an interesting addendum to this thread. I'd mentioned that a few thousand miles of towing a large trailer had left my transmission with a 2-3 flare again. My assumption is that one or more of the linear solenoids got "gunked up" by microscopic metal particles that were created by all the extra stress and heat in the transmission while towing. The solenoids tend to attract this "gunk" because they're essentially electromagnets, and this "gunk" collects in the bore of the solenoid, eventually causing the plunger to stick, which of course affects the operation and shifting of the transmission. My plan was to order one of the rebuilding kits to fix this - basically, the kit gives you the parts you need to disassemble, clean and reassemble the linear solenoids.

My V70 sat for about 10 days while we were away on a family trip, so when I went out to start the car last night I was just a little worried that it might not want to start. But it started right up. The surprising thing was that the shifting was perfect - not a single flare in 20 miles of city driving. Hmmmm....

My guess is that the residual magnetism of the linear solenoids faded away during that 10 days, and that the metal particles either just drifted out of the critical areas, or were flushed out by the first burst of fluid flowing over / through the solenoids. But at any rate, my V70 is back to shifting just fine without having done anything at all. I guess some problems really DO go away if you ignore them.

That said, it's really not going to shock me if the flare returns, at which point I'll order the rebuild kit and plan 4-5 hours of quality time with my transmission.

UPDATE: Yesterday, the wife drove 50 miles in stop-and-go traffic (including a stretch of more stop than go as the police closed the highway due to a potential jumper on a bridge). She said it shifted perfectly the entire drive.

I should add that I did install an external, magnetic filter in the transmission cooler line before my big towing excursion. I suspect that might have helped capture some particles that would otherwise have ended up in my linear solenoids, whether or not it had anything to do with "fixing" my transmission after the 2-3 flare developed. I'm thinking of doing another fluid flush, even though the fluid still looks and smells new (only about 10,000 miles on it, but that does include 3,000 miles of towing).

 

Just in case you're wondering why I think I was stressing my V70's transmission pulling a trailer 3,000 miles...