V70R Phase 3 - Auto Gearbox clunk
 

I have a 1999 (V-Reg) V70R Phase 3 - with engine B5244RT and the 5-Speed Adaptive Automatic Gearbox.

The car was imported from Japan about 4 years ago and the bodywork and interior are in mint condition.

It has clocked 146K Km (approx 90k Miles). The engine is fine other than burning or losing some oil each month. Fantastic torque and acceleration.

Only issue I have with the car is a clunk from the gearbox when in low gears going between 20 - 40 mph. Sometimes when slowing down, sometimes when just accelerating gently. The gearbox will change gear with a loud clunk and the car jolts. The gearbox performs perfectly when at high speed, kick downs perfectly too, just a problem in low gears at low speed.

I've had my mechanic change the oil, There isn't any filter/magnet in the gearbox, so the oil was dirty when it was drained. You are only able to get about 80% of the oil out when doing the change, so it may take a few changes to get most of the old oil out.

The oil change did seem to make it better, still clunking but less often. I'm planning another oil change to see if it improves further.

Any other ideas please. Anyone else had problems with this gearbox?

I have the same car in Laser Blue, owned by myself for the past 18 years.

This occasionally happens to me, but only when cold and changing down from say 3rd to 2nd.

I've dealt with it by keeping the car in 3rd or 4th while it warms up plus it will warm up faster this way as the revs are higher.

This seems to work for me.

I also drain (not flush) the gearbox oil at every service, so perhaps once a year and probably less than 3K miles between oil services as the car is not my daily driver.

Please let us know how you get on, thanks

I found changing the valve body cured all the low speed clunks and jolts, fluid changes only helped a small amount and other than taking the box apart the valve body was the garages only suggestion really.