Hello,

The power steering fluid is low in my wife's 2002 Volvo V70. I was going to put some power steering fluid in it, but I looked at the owners manual and it specifies ATF in the power steering reservoir both on page 133 and on the back cover. The first time I saw it, I wondered if it was a typo, but it doesn't seem likely they would have put in wrong in two places.

Will regular old ATF work okay in this? I have some Valvoline ATF (non Type F). My understanding is that the Volvo automatic transmission won't shift correctly with just any old ATF and needs either Volvo or Mobil ATF.

Oh, and Merry Christmas! We're going to use this car to go to grandma's house a little later...
-Eric

 

Hello, When you have some time, research this topic here and on the other Volvo boards. It's hard to believe it's a double typo but sure appears to be one. My pristine, dealer maintained '02 has the characteristic, pale green Pentosin CHF11S (aka Volvo fluid) in it's P/S system. The cost is so small, the compatibility is so broad and the benefits of synthetic are so universally tauted that I choose to "match the color". Add to that the fact that the growling of the P/S pump of my second-hand 1999 V70 went away for ~60K miles when red stuff was finally flushed out. The P/S pump I bought from a junkyard when mine died at 112K came from a 2000 and had the pale green fluid in it. Scientific method?-no. Use synthetic P/S fluid?-yes. Kira