It’s interesting this conversation and I will give the definitive answer....
1).The tooling required to do this on an XC (as you don’t have to raise the vehicle) is sub £50 for top quality stuff. £10 for cheap BandQ stuff that may not last too long.
The sealing washer and 2 o-rings are about £15.00 from Volvo. The fluid is fairly expensive as noted (it’s not £23.00 l).
The valve block, once sludged up will not leave you change from £1,000 and the gearbox probably not change from £3,000 plus.
2). The sump dump method is all over you tube. It’s simple to do, anyone can do it. And if you do a sump dump with less than 3l renewed you have no requirements to reset gearbox adaptive learning etc. The temperature of the vehicle (it’s supposed to be at temp) will not be exceeded idling in your drive.
3). Use extreme caution with fluid recommendations. The Volvo forum has well known lore to ‘only use JWS3309, nothing else’. This is incorrect. In 2011 there was a change over and a further change to AW1. They are not compatible.
For reference I changed mine at 72,000. It was brown, mature and not smelling. Once renewed it drove noticbly better.
One great approach is to change 2.7l each year you service it.
So there is the answer. £20 for fluid and an extra hour. Or a potential £1,000 to £4,000 repair bill.
Anyone who doesn’t change the fluid themselves is rather physically not able to do so which is always an issue. Or they are stupid.
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