Hello, I’m new to the forum and new to owning a Volvo.

I’m about to buy a used V60 2013 with 100.000km on the clock. The dealership is selling in auction given the fault I’m about to describe.

The car was bought as a trade with no apparent faults. Shortly after, a transmission warning light appeared on the dash and the engine was surging, mostly at lower speeds. The dealer had the transmission reprogrammed which they say improved the surging significantly but the warning light remains hence they can’t see on the forecourt.

I’ve been for a test drive and personally (lacking any knowledge) cannot notice the surging described but the dealer says it’s still there in his opinion.

Naturally the cars available at a very good price (£2500). But, is it worth the risk? And if so, what may be the problem?

it sounds to me like if the dealership has gone to the effort of reprogramming then they’ve run diagnostics and they couldn’t have been that bad to justify attempting reprogramming. On the other hand, the reprogramming didn’t work and the dealer didn’t want to put any more money into fixing?

Help would be appreciated!

 

Do you know the particular transmission code that's causing the light to stay on? It's difficult to say if it's worth the gamble without knowing the code.

Without knowing the code-
Either the Volvo Dealership doesn't want to pay a tech to diagnose the issue, or they know it needs a transmission. I would assume the latter, because an experienced dealership tech, with all diagnostic capabilities available to them, could figure this out in less than an hour.

If £2,500 plus the cost of a new or rebuilt transmission in your area, plus the labor to remove and install it still makes it worthwhile...

Buy it!

You may just buy it, service the fluid, and that could be all you need to do. I say this knowing full well that the "lifetime" trans fluid has never been changed on that car.

 

Thanks PixelDust

It’s not a Volvo dealership, it’s a small family run car sales enterprise that doesn’t have a garage / mechanic attached to it. To quote them when I emailed about the fault

”I'm not a mechanic, so not in a position to comment on the issue. We put it through for a trans reprogramme, which helped a lot, but didn't make the problem go away. Therefore we put it on an auction and have done our best to describe what is wrong.”

I might be being very naive but they seemed very genuine and have 250+ 5* reviews on google.

For £2500 is it worth buying and running without even bothering to sort the problem?

 

It may vary well be in that case. Especially if £2,500 won't break you financially.

 

as noted you will need to see the fault codes to know what's wrong. My suggestion would be to bring the car to an independent shop for an inspection (probably cost you 100 or so) where they can scan for the codes, check the color/smell of the tranmsission fluid, check the level etc. There's a few things that could be going on here - 1) engine issues like misfires or a dirty/failing MAF can present as a transmission issue (surging/hard shifts) 2) shifting issues can be electrical in nature - poor connections to the TCU and harness, could be the shifter solenoids that control the valves. Replacing solenoids doesn't require a full rebuild of the transmission. 3) failing clutch packs inside the transmission is the worst case scenario - but that would present as debris in the pan and dirty brown/black burnt smelling fluid. Your inspection would help you understand if you have an issue and what's the most likely resolution (ie 1 being small 2 is medium 3 is walk away...)

 

Hi @mt6127 and @PixelDust . Thanks again for advice.

Took it to an independent garage and I was told that the DSG dual clutch was faulty and would need replacing at an eye watering price.

Thanks again

 

Yikes, I didn't realize you were talking about a DSG transmission. I have one in my VW CC - the service manager told me that they've never had a DSG transmission break but have needed to replace a few clutches. That's a full transmission out job and most likely requires special tools so I have no doubt about the big ticket quote being correct. Doesn't sound like its something you could fix at home short of doing a full transmission swap with a used one.