It's been a long time since I have serviced any transmission, and I have read several of the posts here, but I have some questions.
2006 XC90 2.5T AWD L5 AW55-51 155,000 mi, no previous fluid change. Fluid is brown or tan. (By the way, what color is new volvo fluid, smell, and flavor?)
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I am considering doing the 4 x fluid change.

BUT WHAT ABOUT DROPPING THE PAN, CLEANING IT AND CHANGING THE FILTER? That is what I did in the old days.

thank you everyone for your help.

 

There are some different schools of thought with transmissions and honestly I have no idea who's right or wrong.

There's the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" folks that say leave it alone. There's the "flush to get rid of the floating crap" folks that think squeaky clean is best.

What I did was somewhere in between. I drained and refilled. Drove for a while and repeated a few times. You never get every bit of the old fluid out but if you can have 80-90% new fluid that seems way better than 100% old fluid. I used a clear tote that I pre-marked with measurement lines so I could put exactly the same amount in that I took out.

We've all heard horror stories with flushing so I wanted to avoid that. There is a flush using the car running.
The transmission dipstick is buried on the drivers side front-bottom of the engine. Refilling requires a funnel with hose through the dipstick tube. Make sure you use the right fluid. The Mobil ATF 3309 is good stuff (NOT Mobil 1 ATF fluid, that might get you a busted tranny).

Regarding dropping the pan and changing the filter... Maybe others will chime in but I'm not sure the filter is very accessible on the XC90 transmission. Quite frankly, I'm not sure if you can even take the pan off. If so, cleaning it up makes sense so that might be a good idea.

Thanks for the post. It's a good reminder I'm about due for another drain and refill. Good luck!

 

found out the filter is an internal part that requires removal and complete tear down to access, as well as the magnets that collect metallic debris.
I think I will take a low and slow approach, draining and refilling once a month for a while and see what the fluid looks like then, before the snow flies.