Hello all,

New member here, I'll keep the intro short. New to Volvo, new to AWD, not new to turbos. I've always owned 4X4 trucks and/or FWD sedans. I bought a new truck and the wife is not too fond of the manual FWD Jetta in the winter (New England) so we decided to try AWD.

I purchased an '05 XC70 to be my wife's daily driver (private sale). It's got 102,000 and seems to be in good shape, aside from a rust spot on the passenger door. No other body rust visible. I'll more than likely just swap the door with a junkyard door at some point. After I got it hope I gave it a more thorough check, suspension/steering is tight. CV boots are all in tact. Bevel gear and Haldex are dry. PCV not an obvious issue, under hood and under tray clean and dry. Took it for a good spirited test drive at full operating temp and all was good. I'm a DIY'er, so I'll be doing some maintenance right away. It's due for an oil change now. I'll be doing the timing belt/water pump/serp. belt etc. sooner than later, she will be driving 20k/yr. The previous owner (owned for 2 years) did not change the transmission fluid. Assuming it has not been done, should I change it? Some people feel that if it's "gone this far" don't change it, you will cause imminent failure. I have never owned an automatic past 115k miles, so I'm a little nervous about that. My plan is to have this car for 5 years and 200k total. I don't mind the maintenance at all, after all I bought an 11 year old car with 102k on it...My oldest daughter is 13 now and I think this will be a good "starter car"/"college commuter" for her.

Thanks,
Chris

 

did you pull the dipstick to look at the color and feel? I know there's a community that swears by changing out the fluid every 50-75K and then I see posts who blame a fluid change on a bad shifting afterwards. I did my 95 850T at 100K miles and it now has 200K (already been to college too...) and it still shifts fine. If you decide to change out, you have two choices - the drain and fill (which does about 1/3 each time so you need to do a few cycles) or the full flush by disconnecting the cooler. Either way, my advise would be to make sure you use the exact spec'd fluid for your model. I suspect some of the "it broke my transmission" complaints are due to incorrect fluid types. Also, You may want to consider doing the bevel gear oil. I'm pretty sure that proper GL5 gear oil (I'd go OEM for that to be sure) - but you may have to suck out the oil fluid as your model may not have a drain plug

procedure ref for the bevel...

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...hp?f=9&t=30549

 

I did pull the tranny dipstick and looked and smelled fine. Not dark brown and not burnt smelling. It shifts fine so far. My wife's (former) Pilot lost an integral tranny cooler line failure at about 90k so I had no choice but to change the fluid. I did do a subsequent drain and fill about 5000 miles after that. Sold it with 115k and it was running perfect.

I have seen the same theories with other automatics too, not just volvo (GM trucks in particular). I'll have to do some more reading before I make a decision. I cant see changing the fluid on a properly operating transmission with the correct fluid causing a problem but... There are some interesting theories as to why. If I did I would do the drain and fill a few times rather than the "flush method". I will do the bevel gear and other fluids probably when I do the timing belt.

 

I bought an 07 XC70 couple of months ago; I had it oil change (no filter), flushed coolant, drained and filled trans. fluid, To day I change oil with filter ( not do it again till the Summer) drain and fill trans. fluid It already black, (take a trip to NYC this weekend, will do the trans again when come back) changed bevel gear box oil. Do and how to change oil in rear differential?

 

I've done the second oil changed with filter( last time I didn't changed the filter because after drained oil I found out all my oil filter wrench can't open the Volvo filter housing, this time I bought the adjustable wrench "It's a mistake!" it's can open the filter housing but it can't tight the housing back), and changed the trans fluid second time, change the angle gear oil, got it all done on Friday. I took a trip to NYC on Saturday from E. Petersburg, PA. 350mls round trip; "Oh my! Did she ran so beautiful!" She just humming along the highway at 70-80m/h all the way to NYC, stepped on the gas the turbo kick in she lurked a head like a pony express, stop and go and changed land in the city like a champ.