After being told by my Volvo mechanic that my tranny was toast and after finally finding the part, I was told by the "part guy" that my tranny had a very premature death (at 110k) and that's unusual. I told him that I don't how well the car was taken care of before me but that I had it serviced regularly and even had the transmission flushed last time it was at Firestone. And therein, he said, lies the problem! Apparently Volvo transmissions aren't supposed to be flushed? Why is that? I want to talk to the manager at Firestone to a) let them know not to flush Volvo trannies and b) try to get my money back . . .but I want to sound like I know my stuff. =) Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

Well, actually Volvo trannys ARE supposed to be serviced (fluid changed) every 20k miles, and then they last quite well into the 200+ mile range. Now, you don't know the previous owner's habits but even so 110k is, in fact, unusually early death. But I've seen it before so, I'd say, no, don't go crying on F'stone unless they did something really stupid... Just flushing it is not in that category.

 

I still have my stock tranny with ~256,000 miles, stupid me only serviced it once. It is still very strong and shifts great.