AW 55-50 Transmission Glad to help!

[mutant0407]

Originally Posted by nickbw898

I don't think you mentioned what mileage its at. My own experience with one of similar age is that if fluid has not previously been changed then the B4 servo is unlikely to fix evything and you have several things going on first of which is wear in the solenoids causing incorrect line pressure resulting in hard shifts and flares. The particulate matter my well indicate your clutch packs are severely worn but it may also be the scouring action of new fluid clearing out age old detritus. You do not say that you have performed the fluid counter reset or put the gearbox into adaptive mode and driven the various cycles to perform the adaptions in each gear. This is absolutely essential. You cannot do these things without access to somene who has Vida/Dice (or get the local dealer to do it) and the temp you state is outside the parameter Volvo requires the fluid to be. Some try using an infra red thermometer to get this reading but you can really only get it accurate via Vida/DiCE. You can monitor the temperature real time and even do it graphically. Without being at 95 degrees or above the adaption will not complete successfully and the triangle warning light in the middle of the dash will not flash amber to signal. While on the subject, I do not believe your high consumption figures are all gearbox related. You need to use the diagnotics to pull all codes and trouble shoot these first.
The other thin NOT to overlook is the TCM firmware update. Only your dealership can do this and only they know what your current version is and what the latest version applicable is…but the update in 2005 fo 01 T5 made for exceptionally smoother gear transitions allround, the XC update not so much: obviously this should be applied before readjusting the adaptions.
I recommend you read the following:
http://www.freewebs.com/howardsvolvos/driveline.htm

I think the details were in a much earlier post:
Mileage is 123K
I've a DiCE and VIDA
I've reset fluid counters.
I've had the TCM upgrade. (We have an Inde tech in Chesterfield who has a live VIDA subscription and charges about 2/3 dealer price).
I've readapted after each major change using the same VIDA plus drive cycles procedure at high gearbox temp as you have mentioned. Not sure if it was 95 tho - but did get to over the temperature recommended in VIDA (85?).
The engine is throwing no codes at all apart from an intermittent bank 1 lean mixture from the cat but that has not reappeared since clearing a while ago. The gear transitions are smooth just sometimes at the wrong time (too early or to late or hunting). No misfires codes, but compared to the old first gen 2.4T you have to push much harder (more revs, more juice, lower gear) to get up the same hills and the gear it chooses sometimes needs the geatronic because it is still trying to go up in too high a gear.
During adaptation it tales an age at 1400 to get to 30mph / 4th gear. 1800 4th to 5th change is nigh on impossible to get accepted as 'ideal'

I cannot work out whether this is all lack engine power (myriad possibles) or clutch slippage.

side question: according to VIDA, when you activate the numbered gear display, the warning lamp is supposed to show the lock-up status (SLA and SLS are on my list of key suspects) but mine shows nothing. Is it possibly only applicable to later gearboxes? All the soleniod tests show correct current changes but I can't test the actuation because I don't know where to put the stethescope to listen for the clicks.

[nickbw898]

Ok yes I probably missed the earliest post, about the adaptive mode, this is what the linky from VolvoXC.com pdf says about adaption and it accords with my experience.

Adapt mode. In adapt mode, the "transmission temp/trans oil hot" message is displayed in the information window the entire time it's in that mode...even though the trans is at normal temp...that's how the latest version of VIDA displays the mode apparently. Further, the actual gear will be displayed in the dashboard while in drive (instead of the usual D) so that you can track what shifts are taking place. Adapt mode will not work if the winter mode or the manual gear mode is selected. The transmission fluid temp must be between 65o C and 110o C or the TCM will not remain in adapt mode.
The flash of the orange triangle indicates that adapt is complete for that particular gear change. Note: do not switch off the engine or adapt mode ends.

I must say however when driving the adaptions, with traffic to keep eyes skimmed for, a laptop sitting on the passenger seat, I found I forgot to look at either the gear display or message window most of the time! I have never looked for lockup status so I cannot help and I have no direct experience of geartonic box. Have you tried joining Volvoxc.com and posting there? Some of those guys in America are truly amazing. They are also very willing to help usually.

[mutant0407]

Yeah adaptation can be really tricky. most times I did mine on a quiet country road in the middle of the night. For me swine is always 4th to 5th. Could I get the stuffing lamp to light??? Took about a dozen attempts. Thanks for the advice - I'll try volvoxc too.

[nickbw898]

Well I have come indoors from sunbathing in the garden to fire up this site because I just had an email alert to an earlier (much earlier post) and I have read through from the early part. There seem to be a lot of additional posters all chiming in with questions specific to their own vehicle. The auto box in the 2001 cars is a known week point.The neutral stop feature was removed early in 2002 because it exacerbated that situation. A prolific poster in USA on www.VolvoXC.com/ was a guineapig for that model. Volvo had his vehicle wired up as a test bed to debug the gearbox and firmware - he goes by the moniker of JRL. He has a business in North America buying and selling V70 XC models. He will tell you stay away from 2001 models and if you are experiencing banging into and out of gear and between forward and reverse gear shifts then your box is shot or just about to be: walk away. If you have high miles on the car and the fluid in the gearbox has never been changed then it is also toast. Anyone telling you it can be fixed is selling snake oil! There was a design change in the valve body of 2002 and onward gearboxes which made it much stronger. They are not interchangeable with the earlier faulty part.

[mutant0407]

That's especially sickening with mine as it is registered 2002 but built December 2001.

Uneconomical though it would be, I wonder if you can swap the valve body + gearbox as a pair for a later version...

Primary concern for me though is just trying to decide if it's the box or the lump that is the problem. I could spend a fortune sorting out the gearbox, only to find that the engine was the culprit after all. You would think that, with 15 or so computers under the bonnet, one of them could tell me where the fault was!

Anybody know somebody who is really good at reading Vida traces? Perhaps if I did a few test drives and posted the graphs?

[nickbw898]

I feel for you but I was trying to point out that this is a really difficult area to work on and once problems develop all too often the damage has already been done. Sort of be careful, when in a hole, stop digging. But having said that there are many threads on the Volvoxc site dealing with this box and the geartronics and it would be worth your time reading through them before you go further. You need to login as a member to use the search facility (it is free) which is very helpful and don't neglect to look at the "resources" section where the site admin has posted much useful repeatedly asked for stuf.
http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showth...-valvebody-job
This thread in particular might be a stating place as it is current.

http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showth...Drive-when-Hot

and Astro14, howardc64 and JRL are experts. Take a look at the site quoted by howard www.reamman.com I don't know of anything like it in the UK but for North Americans this looks an obvious choice.

http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showth...when-Hot/page4

[nickbw898]

Originally Posted by Nick44

Hi,
This is a software item in the TCM.
It counts (I believe) the number of times the fluid exceeded certain parameters.
Has to be done by a Volvo main dealer.

The parameters are spelt out in Vida as being temperature (of transmission fluid) being exceeded incedents, which leads to degredation of fluid. The counter can be and should always be reset by anyone with Vida and the counterfeit Chinese DiCE, when fluid has been sump dumped and filled or flushed using Gibbons method. This procedure can usefully be done when the engine oil and filter are changed so that the Service Interval parameters (Time/Miles) are changed saved and the Service Light turned off too.

[nickbw898]

Final linky on this topic (at least for me) don't all cheer at once!
http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showth...about-adaption

[kevinwalter]

Originally Posted by nickbw898

There was a design change in the valve body of 2002 and onward gearboxes which made it much stronger. They are not interchangeable with the earlier faulty part.

I've heard it is possible. Just extend one of the slt/sls/... cable. Then it would fit.

I've just changed my valvebody to one from the same year. The shifting is much better. It still has a weird behavior from 2 to 3. It looks like it's going into 5th gear and then immediately goes to 3th gear. The TCM activates solenoid 5.

I've reset the whole car! Even adaption of the TCM because it still had the same behavior as the old body. (Shiftflare between 2 and 3)

What is the proper way to adapt the shifting?

[nickbw898]

Why are you asking after you have played around and why have you not researched the subject first? If you do not have Vida/Dice you will not be able to do any of it unless you pay a dealer or Indy with the right equipment to put the box into adaptive mode. This has to be done when the gearbox fluid is at a minimum temperature 85 degrees C and the car may not be switched off until the process is complete. The process is long and complicated to explain in detail and anyway it is all covered exhaustivly in Vida. I suggest you use a search engine to find accounts of it. You may also look at Howard's Volvo site; Volvoxc.com and Sweedspeed.com. search AW 50 - 51 and adaption.