Auot box - lifetime?
 

so, my autobox is fine (or appears it is).

Its on 125k.

Do i do a drain and refill or are they best left alone?

I dont know if im supposed to be maintaining it or could mess it up.

At this milage its confusing the hell out of me.

cheers

My vehicle (75k, no tow bar and private owners came out black). I would remove maf sensor, inlet hose sensor and lift out the air filter housing. Undo the fill plug first (to ensure you can top up before you drain). Then discharge via the bottom plug and measure the fluid that comes out. Then top up via the fill point with the same amount. You should ensure the gearbox is at ambient temperature and that the fluid you replace it with is also at ambient.

Leave it at that, you now have fresh fluid for a 1/3rd of the box and the shifting mechanism will not be vastly different enough to put the box out (mine was instantly smother however having done this).

Give the fresh fluid 6,000 or 9,000 miles to the next engine oil change and then repeat.

Reviewing my fluid, and discussing with other xc90 owners I would imagine yours to be well beyond it’s service life by now.

Mine is on 134 k and I had the autobox fluid changed at 133k. They said it had been caught in the nick of time as the fluid was smelling abit burnt. They did it properly by running fresh fluid constantly through the box as it was running till the outgoing fluid is clean. Not cheap but cheaper than a new box. Gears change nice now. Plus they put the laptop on it and flashed the upgrades on to it aswell.

where was that?

Southport, Lancs.

any idea what amoutn were talking so i know how much to buy?
I as thinking of going with Amsoil fully synth which is amazing stuff

its quite a few litres, because the proper way to do it is to have it pumping in and out , so in effect you waste a lot of decent fluid to guarantee that all of the old ****ty fluid is out of the box. Otherwise your new fluid gets contaminated with the residue left in. Im sure 10 litres plus was mentioned.

anything to report? I used the search function and get scared, and close the browser - too many reports of crap happening after even partial changs

Im tempted to run it until it dies

introduce too many problems if i change it now?

no history of it being done before other than stamps in the book