ATF Change

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by Finbo

I rang the garage (ACC UK Ltd) and they confirmed they only use the genuine Volvo ATF.

But for a full flush the price would be a lot more than the £85 quoted. I was told around 6 litres would be used in the process which is very different to what Oilburner says (12 litres). I was also told they would use a flushing liquid in the process and that's why only 6 litres of genuine ATF would be used as the flushing liquid would help take everything out before the new ATF is put in.

I don't think Volvo recomend using flushing liquid. VIDA has very specific instructions for changing the ATF.

Roy

[jtaw45]

I'm doing mine tommorrow,i've got 3 litres of Carlube recomended stuff which is fully synthetic. I intend to drain whats in the box via the drain plug and refill with the carlube stuff. Then i'm going to use the gibbons flushing method with 10 litres of amsoil ATF.
My reasoning for using the carlube stuff first is that i want to make sure i get all the old stuff out and if the 10 litres of amsoil isn't enough i'm left with the dirty oil still in the system. At least this way if 10 litres isn't enough i'll be left with new fully synthetic carlube and the amsoil instead of dirty oil, and if 10 litres is enough the carlube stuff will be pumped back out the other end and act as a flushing oil.
Has anyone got any info on refilling the gearbox via the oil cooler return pipe as opposed to the dipstick tube? When i did my S80 the longest part of the job was getting the new stuff back into the gearbox.
I'll let you know how it goes.

[oilburner]

Originally Posted by Finbo

I rang the garage (ACC UK Ltd) and they confirmed they only use the genuine Volvo ATF.

But for a full flush the price would be a lot more than the £85 quoted. I was told around 6 litres would be used in the process which is very different to what Oilburner says (12 litres). I was also told they would use a flushing liquid in the process and that's why only 6 litres of genuine ATF would be used as the flushing liquid would help take everything out before the new ATF is put in.

That's because using the home method (without flushing fluid) does indeed require 12L+. However, I would be concerned that some flushing fluid may get left behind.

How can they be sure it won't?

BTW, with only 6L of new fluid, 1.2L of old stuff will be left behind. In comparison, the method I used meant that after 12L flushed through, 1.3L of old stuff was still in it (assuming enough fluid was pumped around at each stage not to keep leaving pockets of old stuff untouched), so very comparable with no risk of flushing fluid being left behind. With my chosen method, I would need about 14L to get down to less than 1L of old fluid or 30.8L to get to a marginal 0.8% of old fluid...

With their method of using flushing fluid, you would still need 24L to get to about the same point of 0.5% of old fluid still hiding out somewhere but only 12L to get down to just 0.2L of old fluid.

Forgive me if I don't bore everyone with the maths...

[jtaw45]

Where abouts in the system will the old oil remain? I'm assuming that you shift through the gears while flushing to clear out the solenoids. I'm not questioning what your saying i'm just curious as i want to do the best job possible when doing mine.

[oilburner]

Because try as you might, there's always some in the torque converter, behind the clutch bands, in all the various lines where pressurised fluid finds it way through the box...

Just flicking the box from P->N->R->D->4->3->L (or whatever on a geartronic) whilst idling for 30s doesn't pump enough of the stuff around every nook and cranny to be certain of shifting it all.

But that's the best you can do...so I wouldn't worry too much.

The flushing machine may be worse, in that the gearbox will not be moved through the various positions whilsting flushing (otherwise flushing fluid will get stuck places you don't want it...) and so quite a lot of old fluid may not get shifted. For me this makes the gibbons method the best, IMHO.

[Finbo]

A member posted a diagram on another thread with a picture and info from Vida on how to do it. On Vida it said add 2 litres at a time with a total of 6 litres.

Ah, just found it:

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showth...ght=atf&page=3

I appreciate it's difficult with different methods, but is there a definative answer as how much should be used and what method???

Or is there a different method from a garage's point of view to a DIY'er who'll use the Gibbons method

[oilburner]

The Vida method is similar to Gibbons, except that they drain the sump and don't re-fill with the same amount.

Emptying the sump drains 3.1L or so, but they only put 2L back in!

Each time you run the engine another 2L will be pumped out, so with their method they remove 3.1 + 2 + 2 litres = 7.1 but then only top up with 6L! Of course the implication is that the level should be checked and topped up, but it doesn't say that...

Their method would result in only about 50-60% of the oil being changed, because quite a lot of what's pumped out in each cycle is the stuff you just topped up with...

It doesn't help that they don't go through the gears until the end either.

I don't like the frequent use of the word aproximate either, these gear boxes like the level to be just right.

If if that isn't bad enough it states the gearbox holds 7.1 +/- 0.25 litres, which contradicts their own manuals that state 7.2 litres...

Maybe for once the amateurs know best?

[Finbo]

Thanks for that.

Maybe that's why the garage said it will use a flushing liquid/agent, so when you re-fill the torque converter you won't be pumping out the new genuine Volvo fluid?

I appreciate when you say that there is no guarantee that it will all be flushed out, but will the above help??

From what you're saying you'll never get all of the old fluid out. Volvo recommend NEVER mixing their ATF with any other. If that's the case,what happens when someone changes their ATF and refills with another brand like Amsoil?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm just trying to decide what's the best/safest thing/method to use.

[oilburner]

They're the great unanswered questions of ATF flushes!

If anyone has any answers I'd love to hear them too.

"but will the above help??"

Possibly. If they use the Vida method (+ flushing liquid) then there isn't much chance of getting the flush into the rest of the box. Conversely, there isn't much chance of getting the old oil stuck in there out either!

[RoyMacDonald]

Don't forget to reset the gearbox oil change counter to avoid getting an error code some time in the future.

Roy