S80 2.0 geartronic buying checkup
 

Hi everyone!
A friend of mine wants to buy a 70k kms S80 with geartronic gearbox.
He is a bit apreensive since never had a auto box, neither I, só i was trying to figure out what can be checked while testing the car to diagnose if any problems might come UP soo..
Can you point me out what to check?

Thanks in advance!

I bought my V70 geartronic last year and I wish I test drove it longer, as when I hot home after buying it, the gearbox started to play up. Get the car fully warm, make it kick down. I would if I could turn back time use the manual function a lot more, drive it much further. Stop with it in drive and see what it feels like when you take off; try and do this a few times. Engage drive and reverse several times when the car is fully up to temperature. If it feels like you're bump starting a manual car I would avoid it.

I had something similar happen to me when we got our V70 (banging into D, etc etc) and I tried to return the car. Anyway, it all went away by replacing the ATF. The established method is to drain and replace 3 times. I did it 5 times over the space of a year. Silky smooth now! I may have been very lucky, but might be worth you giving it a try? Just to note I didn't use genuine Volvo ATF as it's quite pricy. Instead I used an equivalent from Westway Lubricants.

I tried to return mine too, I gave up after several weeks. I bought 20L of jws3309 oil as per the physical handbook. It didn't fix it. I since bough 20L of jws3324 from Westway and its loads better. I am actually about to leave for an appointment at Volvo to get the TCM updated. I've also replaced the upper torque mount and the lower left one (which was rock solid, unlike the new one which is pliable).

The online handbook says to use AW1 which conflicts with the physical one. Further research tells me that Volvo have a modified version for the front main seals which cures the problem, but to have the box out it makes sense to fully rebuild it, but I am trying the cheaper things first.

Edit: TCM updated, no difference made. Next to change the lower right engine mount and powerfllex insert, and maybe one more oil change.

WOAH! How unlucky for your handbook to say JWS 3309. Your V70 is 2013 right? It definitely uses the more recent JWS 3324 (AKA as AW-1 I hope because that's what I've used).

20L worth is ~6 changes so should be pretty pure now. It still bangs into D I take it? What else does it do?

I didn't manage to return mine because the problem went away as soon as their "gearbox expert" turned up to take a look. It came back a few months later though, so I suspect most of my problem was due to contamination and/or worn valve-body. A thorough ATF change seems to have fixed the intermittent problem (because it does come back from time to time), or the TCM has done enough to deal with it so I dare not update it because for now it works. How come you were unable to return yours?

I was having to go down the court route, I was advised not to drive it, the garage wanted to see it. I think they knew it was dodgy.I wanted to return it but they were having none of it and their attitude was totally different to when I was there in person buying it. I suspect they're used to ripping people off was my gut feeling. When I decided weeks and weeks later to not bother with court I thought I would just put up with it, didn't feel it was worth the stress. I needed the car for my dogs. The garage had serviced it before they put it up for sale, and it just said "oil changed". As a buyer I assumed it was the engine oil...

I got the jws3309 and noticed the drain plug was mangled, so someone before hand had changed the oil. I put in 20L in total, several flushes. It actually stated shifting quite strongly, not as smooth as before. (Generally shifting was smooth.) I find it hard to believe that the garage didn't know about the gearbox. I specifically asked them about it before viewing and was told there aren't any issues with it. By then I had viewed seven other vehicles, including a P2. This one seemed the best, clean MOT history, seemed nice enough. I just didn't drive it long enough. My mistake.

Fast forward to about a few weeks ago, I out in the jws3324 and its loads better. Before it would often bang into gear when selecting Drive or Reverse, however, now it rarely does it.

Other problems I had was pulling away from the lights, I've since learnt to pull away gently, really gently, and it seems OK. The other day, I stopped at some lights, applied the handbrake, and slowly let up off the brake and it jolted forward a bit, much like if you stall a manual car. Sometimes it shifts harshly down a gear, I think into either 3rd or 4th, and its always on the same roundabout in journey home.

I've only driven home after having the update, so time will tell what - if any - impact it has.

The bumping into gear D or R is low gearbox oil pressure at idle as it leaks out of the mainshaft seals internally, volvo came out with software fixes then which raised the oil pressure, this fixed a lot of gearboxes with a minor leak . Have you got the latest gearbox software? with a fix about 2014, modified piston ring type seals which requires the gearbox to Come out and removal of the oil pump assembly behind the torque converter for cases where the software is not enough...

Yes, it was installed this afternoon. I will select drive and reverse over and over at some point to get it to relearn.

It seems you've read plenty and know some of the tricks! Like Clan just mentioned, the latest TCM software raises the oil pressure. Now that it has the correct ATF and an updated TCM, hopefully it'll all settle down after a decent amount of driving. Good luck!

What Enfield said: drive it as much as you can, along various roads, and in different scenarios (eg: parking up in a multi-story carpark where you'll be doing slow-speed manoeuvres and doing a lot of D-R-D-R etc). Boa sorte!