V70: Gearbox Squeaky gear stick

[Splodger]

The ball and socket below the gear stick seems to be dry and now squeaks and rubs through the shift. Can this be simply just lubricated with a spray silicone or grease...didn't want to do it without asking in case there was some electrics in the casing or there was another way of doing it

Cheers

[tommyweaves]

I slapped some grease in mine even though it didn't look dry. Don't think it made much difference to be honest. No electrics in there that could be damaged as far as I remember.

Mine only squeaks on forward movements, i.e. into first, third. Also, does you gearchange feel more notchy than it should?

Let us know how you get on.

[Splodger]

My cars done 154k and I've only done 8k of them, it's only just started the squeaking/rubbing. When I had a look at it the ball joint does look dry to me. So I'll try greasing it.

I did post a while back about it feeing a bit notchy through 1st and 2nd and the guys mentioned there not the smoothest of boxes so I just put it down to miles.

[green van man]

My Volvo dealer greased the ball and socket of the gearstick of my P1V70 so it seems to be a known thing.
My P3 XC70 has no problem at present but has less than 70k miles on it.
If I recall correctly the socket is a nylon supposedly self lubricating material, I have found that some spray lubricants react with the plastic and do more harm than good, I favour a good dollop of grease of the general purpose type. Silicone spray will help but I would think it a short term fix.
Any electrics in there should be of the self contained switch type and grease on the ball should not impact them I should think.

Paul.

[tommyweaves]

FWIW I've had mine from new (MY2011 bought in Oct 2010) and it had a greased ball and socket, so I can only assume it's meant to be greased.

[Puffster]

Mine is very loose and although it doesn't squeak, looking at it, the ball has worn (big grooves) and there is loads of white powder around. I'm guessing it wasn't greased by the police when they had it.

I have a new unit to go in at some point when I have some time. Gearbox is fine itself, just sometimes find 3rd instead of 1st...

[tommyweaves]

Originally Posted by Puffster

I have a new unit to go in at some point when I have some time. Gearbox is fine itself, just sometimes find 3rd instead of 1st...

Out of interest how much is a new unit? I'd also be interested in a "how to" if you're doing it yourself!

[Puffster]

IIRC £220 but you might be able to find a scrapper.

How To I will try and do but its simple enough once you've de-constructed the centre console! I'm hoping to just take the top off but we'll see. Four bolts hold it to the tunnel. There's a red ring pull that should be pulled once everything back together as it keeps it all lined up.

Its one of those jobs when I've got a spare hour I'll get round to doing and when its not cold/raining!

[Model flyer]

It is a known problem that the ball and socket wear and produce white powder ! It's the ford effect again as older Volvo's didn't have this problem. Silicon grease sorted the problem on my V70 and made the movement smooth again .It was still a bit loose but not excessive and didn't appear to worsen after applying the grease.