I recently bought a 2006 XC 70. It has about 116,000 miles on it. Have had maintenance work done on it including timing belt, water pump, fuel pump, and fuel sensor. It's running great now and I look forward to putting lots of miles on it. However, I have looked and looked and can't find the transmission dipstick. I know this is a year where Volvo did not recommend a transmission oil change and have read many posts on this site with the discussion do you change the fluid, do you flush, do you not change, etc. I also saw a post saying the dipstick is in the front near the battery relay and grill. I haven't found it anyplace. Just want to see the oil's color and pick up the odor to get an idea of the transmission fluid's quality.

 

The dipstick (on your 5 cyl) is there - it's hidden behind a coolant lose - It can be pretty warm on your arm getting to it when the engine is hot! So don't give up.

 

Thanks for the info. I finally found it. I've never seen that location for trans dipstick before. I could hardly get my hand to it cold and it has a clip that has to be loosened to remove it. I had to move my hand up from the bottom of the engine compartment and could hardly get enough leverage to remove it. Then I had to put it back - hard! Looks like it is designed to be checked when the car is up on a rack. The owner's manual has no mention or diagram of where the trans dipstick is. I guess they did not want the owner to check the transmission fluid? As stated on here, the owner's manual shows no change interval for transmission fluid. Nothing that hard on my old 940!

 

Lots of discussions on when or whether to service the transmission fluid. You are correct that Volvo does not have a recommended service interval for the tranny fluid. Lots of misinformation too like "I changed my tranny fluid and all of a sudden it shifted horribly etc". If the car is new to you, first thing I'd do is a simple fluid level check and look for leaks. Wipe the dip stick on a white paper towel. The fluid color should be reddish brown or brownish. If its black and smells burnt - well that's bad but the damage is likely already done. If you wish to service the transmission the most common DIY is a drain-fill. Pulling the drain plug will not remove all the fluid - probably less than half but you can do a set of 3 or 4 to get to 80-90% fresh. IE drain the fluid - option to use filter paper to look for any debris. Measure what was drained. Add that amount back in (you'll need a long funnel with a hose to reach to the dip stick port.). seal it up then start the car for a few minutes to circulate the old & new. Repeat 2 more times (probably need a case of 12 quarts). One last thought - most common mistake is not using the correct fluid type. Check your owners manual for what's appropriate for your model ie JWS 3309 or DEX3 etc. Note you likely have an Aisin transmission which is same as used by Toyota so some people save some $$ by buying Toyota fluids :-) There are differences for the 4 speed vs 5 speeds so you'd need to do the research.

 

JUST SPOTTTED this thread is a year old...well still good advice I am giving lol.

Agreed with everything above plus:

The Toyota fluid is TIV (T4) fluid. That's what I use. The Mobil 3309 can't be found or ordered where I live and they manufacture it for Toyota as I understand it.

Once you do a complete cycle of drain and fill as recommended above (3 drain and fills and 12 quarts of fluid total) then once every 15k miles drain it just once and add back what you drained which is pretty close to 3.2 quarts. Some people go 30k. I prefer the shorter interval.

Drive a good 50 miles between each drain and fills to make sure all the fluid is throughly mixed. Some people say you can just run it through the gears parked with your foot in the brake but I prefer some drive time.

I have 240k miles on mine and it shifts like new. I fully attribute it to regular fluid changes.

When putting the fluid back in find a plastic tube that fits inside the dipstick tube and outside of a funnel nipple so you don't get leaks. It is a slow process to fill because the tube is narrow but it's only 3quarts or so each time.

good luck!