Otherwise known as "welcome to my nightmare"
I recently purchased a 2001 s60 T5 in the maya yellow color. I knew going in that I was in for some repairs. The oil was extremely dirty and it needed front tires and it had a "flare" in shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear. But this car is loaded up and just an eye popper. Has a few dings but that was okay. Figured I could fix it up as I go along. Oh yeah...144k on it. Thought, what the heck, it's a volvo, million mile car right?
Took it by a mechanic that I use and he changed oil and filter. We talked about changing the tranny fluid. We figured it probably had never been done. He told me to go by parts store and pick up a couple of gallon jugs of valvoline.
Next day took it back. Put it up on the rack and we did a couple of drain and fills. The fluid was just as black as could be. Took forever to get the fill plug out so figured..yep, never been changed.
After the second change and fill. he put back in the approximate amount of fluid that we took out and just for good luck added some Lucas.
Took it out for a test drive and guess what. No 3rd. Oh jeez!
Figured that changing it lunched it. No clue about using the regular valvoline.
Got home that night and read thru the forum here. Oh jeez! Wrong fluid!
Saw the argument about the valvoline, so to clear things up, I called a local volvo shop. Now these guys are no lame guys. Extremely highly regarded as volvo experts. They told me that the only valvoline fluid to use in these is valvoline maxlife.
So I picked up 8 quarts of this and took it back to my mechanic. Believe me he felt really bad about it but he is not a late model volvo guy. He has worked on bunches of old volvos.
Well..we did two more drain and fills. Nice red color to the fluid now. But NO change. Still no 3rd. So it looks like I am going to have to do a tranny job on the car. No way I can afford it. So I am getting really good at driving it in manual mode. Just tap it twice to slide on into 4th.
Just don't think anyone will buy the car with the tranny like this.
My best advice? Don't do a tranny fluid change on these except for draining and filling very small amounts over time. You are just asking for trouble.
Got one more stop to make at the volvo dealer to get the fuel pump changed, which I knew I needed from the hesitation and the heavy gas odor but was happily surprised that this fuel pump is original and qualifies as a free replacement from volvo under the extended warranty program that they instituted. I was strongly corrected when I referred to it as a "recall". LOL.

 

mobile 3309 ONLY 0 if you used something other than that FLUSH IT now and put the right stuff in.

your transmission is probably toast.

 

Agree on the Mobil, but for the thousandth time there is no "e" in Mobil...

I hope the tranny isnt completely destroyed, keep us posted on the progress..

 

Called my local volvo experts and they say maxlife is fine. They have done 100's of fluid changes with it and have had zero problems with it. I believe them because they are probably the most reputable volvo tech shop around.
They say my problem is most likely a stuck solenoid. Probably the s3. But they get 139.00 to hook it up to the scanner and check it out. Since I have already spent my extra money this month, I will have to do this next month.
Anyone have experience replacing one of these solenoids? Difficulty?

 

With your miles and the fact that if never got a fluid change and then got the wrong fluid... no solenoid is going to do it, its toast almost without a doubt. I FULLY disagree that you can use any trans besides 3309... and the engineers that built the car agree.

I would be afraid the dealer is going to nickle and dime you for as much as they can at this point until they state they need to replace it.

 

Well I really didn't want to get into a debate on tranny fluid. And I am not dealing with a dealer. I am only contacting a local repair shop that has 30 years of almost exclusive volvo repair. I am just outside Austin, Tx and I think there are more volvos per capita here than anywhere. These aren't run of the mill guys. They really strive for consumer satisfaction.

Anyway, I have googled every way I can think of to learn about this s3 solenoid and it's location but so far, nothing..zip.
Anyone got a link or explanation?
Found out I am not the only one that this has happened to. I spoke to another 01 s60 owner that happened the same way to him. And he used the 3309. Something about dislodging too much junk at once in the tranny. That doesn't make sense to me because I thought a solenoid would be electrical.

 

Ive used all data to search what types of transmission your volvo can take. Depending on what kind of transmission it is, a 6 speed autmomatic will use JWS 3309 oil, a 5 or 4 speed automatic will use dexron IIIG or Dexron IIIH

 

tville
I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think there is a fill plug on an S60 transmission, you refill through the transmission dipstick tube. I beleive the plug you describe is the mount for the third gear mechanism (S3) Good luck

 

I can confirm..there is NO fill plug...... You can only fill through the tranny dipstick....

 

I have a 2001 V70 T5 with the Geartronic 5-speed automatic transmission. From what I've read, this is an Asian-Warner tranny and the Mobil JWS 3309 is an appropriate substitute from the obscenely expensive Volvo OEM fluid. Before I order a case, is this the right fluid for the Geartronic transmission?

 

Yes it is

 

Hi,

I have a 2004 S60 that has a little shy of 60,000 miles on it. I bought this certified with 30,000 miles on it, but I do not know what was done to the car before I got it, so I have to assume nothing. I am thinking that the trans. fluid should be changed, but I am tired of being gouged by Chicago Volvo mechanics. On prior non-Volvo cars, I had everything done by a indy mechanic for fair prices. Although, he does not work on Volvo's, could someone like that be trusted to do something like a fluid change? I am not very mechanically inclined, so doing it myself would probably not be a good option. I have not had any factory scheduled maintenance done, but it seems like a lot of that stuff is done when I have oil changes, so it seems like a waste. If I am wrong on this, please let me know also.

Thanks for your advice

 

Hello,

I checked with the dealer that I bought my car from to see what they would charge for a transmission fluid change, and they told me that this is not done on Volvos?! Has anyone else been told this? I am finding it hard to believe that the almighty Volvo transmission does not require a fluid change from time to time

Response:
Volvo does not service their transmission so that would not be something you would want to perform

 

That doesn't make sense....I don't know why the dealer would tell you that. Volvo doesn't maintainence the tranny until 105,000 miles. However, I just performed a fluid change on mine at 38,000...just pulled the pan plug, let the 3 qts run out and refilled it. That only gets 25% of the fluid out, but I'll do that every 7,500 miles or so. That way I'll keep getting the fluid replenished.
I don't like the idea of no fluid change until 105K...these tranny's are way too expensive to let them die.

 

These transmissions are so called "no maintenance"

total BS - change it more often then you think you need to.

 

I talked to the dealer again and also contacted my regular mechanic, and neither will change the fluid. I may have to try this myself. When you change the fluid, do you just let it drip out until it stops?

 

I have a volvo s60 24.t and the volvo dealer said it costed 600 to flush the tranny. I suggest you get it done be them. if you wanna save money money just drain out a couple of qts of oil fill it back up, run it through all gears, drain out a couple qts again, fill it back up, run it though all gears, repeat that at least 3 times.

I highly recomande you get this done at the dealer, the transmission is not a cheap fix so spending 600 to save you a few thousand doest seem like a bad idea.

 

I think that $600 is robbery at the dealership.. My local volvo dealership was willing to do mine (s80) for $200... yes the fluid costs a bit more for a s60, but not 3x the cost...

I would do it myself or look into letting an independent volvo shop handle it

 

If you want to flush it your self, drain it until it stops coming out, but make sure you know how much you drained. Then top off the transmission fluid run it in all gears and drain again, there should be about only 4 qts coming out each time. this is because the rest of the fluid is still inside the transmission and wont drain. That is way you should repeat the draining at least 3 times. To try to get all the new fluid in.

Type of fluid is jws 3309 You can find it from mobile 1.

 

Yep. If it is a large brass plug on top of the transmission, that's exactly what happened. Now you have to pull the transmission to fix it.