hi guys,

my 02 s60 has been a pain with it's tranny issues but i love the car and don't want to get rid of it so let's see if i'm missing something on getting it to work perfectly.

I bought the car a year and a half ago and after reading all the horror stories i only considered buying an 02 because the tranny had just been rebuilt by the previous owner and had a one year warranty and the price wasn't bad either.

i live in madrid spain and there's only one shop here that fixes auto trannies and supposebly they know what they're doing but i'm really starting to doubt.
according to the prev owner it was rebuilt because of hard shifting.

about 20k miles down the road the tranny starts acting up again(it was shifting hard when parking from day one but being my first auto tranny though that was normal).

sympthoms are:

• hard shifts from 3rd to 4th
• hard downshifts from 4th to 3rd(especially when braking a little bit harder)
• hard shifts when parking(from R to D etc..) sometimes with a little delay when putting in Drive followed by the clunk

what's weird(and important to mention i think) is that it only happens when the tranny is hot and usually people have problems when the tranny is cold.

so when it's cold it's perfect! smooth as butten no issues. then when the car does a few miles, especially in stop and go traffic things go bad again.(most annoying is 3rd to 4th which somethimes hit's kind of hard but i can't say it's slipping because the rev's don't go up and only happens under normal acceleration. there's no real noticeble delay just the hard engagement)


so the car went' back to the same shop, they took it apart, fixed something on the clutch for about 700€(lucky i didn't pay for it) and i get it back only to have the exact same issues.
now i'm taking it back next week again but i feel these guys don't know what they're doing since this would be the 3rd time they have take it apart

so after the second rebuid i took matters into my own hands after reading all the helpful threads here.
i had my volvo dealer do the b4 servo cover update, update the software and did a flush myself as i did not trust the indepened shop put the right stuff in my tranny.

so now it's updated, it has the improvements and the correct volvo fluid(my god that's expensive!! could not find mobil 3309 here in spain and the Toyota T IV amazingly had the same price as the volvo stuff)


is there anything i can do to make this tranny perfect?
why is it acting up only when hot? (after reading a lot thought the b4 servo would fix it but no..)

probably the shop is gonna be useless again and i'll have the same issues and no way i'm paying for a new tranny i'll just sell the car if it comes to that.


i'm really lost here and would be really gratefull for some advices.

thanks,

cristian

 

You seem to have done everything you could. My guess it is something with the rebuilt transmission itself. It's probably not under warranty is it? Give them a chance to correct it (at their cost).

 

What is missing here is the failure to do 3 critical things:reset the tranny fluid counter, reset the tranny adaptives and put the tranny in adaptive mode after major tranny work, like rebuild or valve body exchange. Failure to do these 3 things will lead to a failing tranny soon after the rebuild.

This can only be done by dealer or shop with vida/dice setup.

Spend about $200 and get yourself a vida/dice setup. Do the 3 things mentioned above and your tranny shifting will improve dramatically.

 

every time i asked volvo about resetting the adaptives they lift their shoulders like they never heard of it

i'll start going to different volvo shops around the city one of them has to know what i'm talking about.


but please help me understand what resetting the tranny fluid counter is exactly this is the first time i've heard of it.


also, the rebuild was done about 3 weeks ago and i only did about 700km with the tranny behaving as it always did with hard shifts. do you think that would be enough to damage it again?

i'm taking it to the shop next week and they will probably take it apart again(at their own cost) so hopefully they won't say that something new is damaged.

it's seriously frustrating when "professionals" don't know what they are doing.

 

The TCM has a "reset fluid counter" option that is supposed to be reset everytime the tranny fluid is changed. The TCM uses different solenoid shift pressure/patterns when the reset is done. It knows the tranny has fresh fluid.

If the reset has not been done, the TCM thinks there is burned/old fluid in there and uses solenoid pressure/shifting that is different than with fresh fluid.

AGAIN, spend $200 and get yourself a vida/dice setup and you won't need the dealer.

 

jda2000 thanks a lot for your help really appreciate it!

where can i buy a vida/dice?
unfortunately for me things are not that accesible here in spain never understood why.

if i can find it only it's gonna cost twice more to ship it here would rather find it locally somehow.

i want to try everything you've mentioned before having the shop take it apart

 

do a search on alibaba express, and get the vida/dice from china, about $200 shipped

 

thanks a lot i checked it out and ordered it from Alibaba. 195 with shipment included just as you said.

once it's delivered i'll do all you mentioned and see what happens i'll report back hopefully with a happy story

as always i appreciate the help i get on this forum considering the local dummies don't know a thing about volvo's or are playing stupid to get me in the long run..