XC70 D5 Gearbox Fluid Change

[XCR]

Your recommendations for trusted garages in the North East please guys.

[Bashy]

FYI, you can save yourself about £100 doing it yourself, down here, my local indy wanted £150 to double flush with trans fluid.

I paid £40 for 20L Mannol off of eBay, plus the gaskets from Volvo oh and ya need a long funnel

[Bomster]

Originally Posted by Bashy

I paid £40 for 20L Mannol off of eBay

Assume that isn't AW-1? Best price I can find for 20L of that is more like £100.

[XCR]

I'm not about to buy cheap fluid, or give the impression that I don't trust the garage to not swindle me, but short of looking over their shoulder (verboten)...I'm not sure what to do.

The car had been standing for some time and drove really sluggishly on the drive home, but now it rarely misbehaves. In fact, going out just now the up changes are all occurring at around 2200 RPM and the car feels livelier the more I drive it.

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by XCR

I'm not about to buy cheap fluid, or give the impression that I don't trust the garage to not swindle me, but short of looking over their shoulder (verboten)...I'm not sure what to do.

The car had been standing for some time and drove really sluggishly on the drive home, but now it rarely misbehaves. In fact, going out just now the up changes are all occurring at around 2200 RPM and the car feels livelier the more I drive it.

You will be absolutely fine, it’s a doddle. Me personally I would phone up Volvo first to confirm it takes JWS-3309 for example (don’t know what year it is).

Then just say to the garage can you change it with JWS-3309. I think anywhere would do it without incidence.

[Bashy]

Originally Posted by Bomster

Assume that isn't AW-1? Best price I can find for 20L of that is more like £100.

Yeah my bad, should have said 10L, it's just under £40

[XCR]

I found the quotes from the local indy and the Volvo dealer very close, however the dealer offered to 'reset the adaptions' for an extra £108.
Anyone have any experience of this ?
Also worrying was that one dealer was suggesting only one sump dump but surely its 3 x 4 litre cycles, right ? I found myself explaining that if the original oil is degraded then changing out only 3 litres once would only improve the quality by 40% and for £300 thats not exactly VFM.
From my limited knowledge these 'boxes learn your driving style and adapt anyway....so what am I potentially paying for with an adaption reset ?
Also taking it to an indy I'm nervous that the fluid temperature could be overlooked when setting the fill level.

[Dancake]

Resetting the adaptations at the time of an oil change allows the gearbox to learn the best way to operate based on how the vehicle is driven. It's as close as you can get to resetting a gearbox without changing solenoids or other internal components that can wear. Over time the gearbox will have made adjustments to how it operates as a result of different driving styles, mechanical wear and oil degradation. New oil and an adaptation reset can be useful, but £108 does seem excessive for something that literally takes a couple of minutes to do. It's what you would expect to pay at the likes of a main dealer though. An adaptation reset can in some cases yield favourable results, but there are other times when it doesn't seem to do anything at all. You may even feel initially concerned about the different operating characteristics of the gearbox after an adaptation reset. I would personally have it done at the same time as an oil change, but don't expect miracles.

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by Bashy

Yeah my bad, should have said 10L, it's just under £40

That’s a good price for AW1!!

[Bomster]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

That’s a good price for AW1!!

Honestly I find the whole ATF spec for these cars so confusing, specifically AW-1... to the point it makes just want to spend the extra and buy the Volvo AW-1 fluid.