Hello,

My friend and I went to look at a 2001 S40 1.9T tonight w/ 144k on the odometer. Seemed like a very nice car until I checked the transmission fluid dipstick and the fluid was almost black . He really wanted the car but I advised against it because of this. It seemed to have no other problems except for a very slight click when letting off the gas and then pressing it again at cruising speed (not sure if this is normal, or what?).

Anyway, my main concern was the transmission, everything else seemed OK. Is this one of those cars that Volvo did not tell customers to change the fluid on?

The transmission felt fine but the fluid color worried me, a lot. When I bought my V70 w/ 97k the fluid actually looked like it had been changed before, but this S40 obviously has not.

Is the transmission in that particular S40 pretty much doomed, or am I being paranoid? If it were flushed would it last a good while, or what? And also if my friend looks for one w/ less mileage (say, 100-110k) and the fluid looks clean, is it a safe bet the tranny should last a while? He really wants one of these cars, and I can't blame him they are really nice.

Thanks for any help provided!

 

Paranoia is good when purchasing.. If I was buying the car, have the owner change the fluid and drive it. See what it does. Also since you found that, maybe have it inspected by an independent Volvo shop. Sometimes if the fluid is that black, changing the fluid out will help with shifting... That is, sometimes. Good luck!

 

its at a honda dealer actually, and I think they are going to change the fluid tomorrow since the car has not been through their inspection process yet. or they might look at it and refuse to change it, i dunno. if they do i will have to drive it again, too bad its almost 2 hours away. i know there seem to be 2 schools of thought on all this regarding changing the fluid or not changing it. personally if it were my car i wouldn't want black fluid in the tranny. it seemed to shift fine, could it be detrimental to change the fluid at this point or would it be beneficial? i've just never seen fluid this dark before and i've pulled the ATF dipstick on a lot of cars. thank you!