Hi All,

My 2020 T8 XC60 has just been in for its annual service. One of the ‘recommendations’ was to have the coolant replaced every 4 years and therefore my car needs it doing now… Does that sound right?

Other cars I have owned have advised coolant replacement should be done at 10 years, or on some it’s a ‘life time’ fluid!

Interested to understand why Volvo suggest coolant replacement every 4 years - is there something special about how the coolant’s used on an XC60?

 

There's a range of opinions here - the Volvo manual says to check the coolant (ie mix/density/color etc) every 10K or 1 year and to adjust accordingly but dealer sites often say every 2 years or 30K miles. Other posts suggest 4 or 6 years. Key things to note are 1) there are multiple formulas and a color code to match the formula to your year or model (old Volvos had green then blue coolant - Toyotas use pink and I think my VW uses yellow..) The reason to flush periodically is to remove any rust and contamination which can build up in the coolant over time. Curious what does the color look like - do you see any discoloration in the overflow reservoir etc. Personally, I think changing coolant every 4 or 5 years is about right but keep up with servicing other fluids like brake fluid (every 2 years or so since brake fluid will absorb moisture) and service haldex systems (AWD system every 3 or 4 years) Last is the transmission fluid. For regular automatics, there's a lot of discussion since Volvo doesn't typically have a service interval - there tends to be the 50K drain/fill and 100K mile flush camps leading with the most opinions. For dual clutch automatics like the VW/Audi DSG, there's a prescribed service interval (40K miles/ 5 years or so).