Flush or just oil change at 150k

[Pointer7]

Easington,

I used Holden Volvo in Norwich. They drained and flushed it 3 times and reset the adaptions.

It really made a difference, crisper gearchanges and responded quicker from a standing start

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

I don’t believe any manufacturer or professional garage/gear box company would ever do a drain and refill manually by hand. The machines that these garages use to do a traditional flush are not expensive compared to others (couple of grand) and they allow a genuine flush to be done In under an hour (under 30mins for a volvo) as opposed to multiple hours by hand. They are also suitable for use across all vehicles and all platforms.

Doing a ‘sump dump’ refresh is a home mechanic in the drive technique. I swear on sump dumps, they are an excellent way to get lovely cherry red fluids with all new gaskets and o-rings for double figures. But they are just that, home mechanic based.

I got to the point (and still am) whereby I can drop the fluid, refil and be on with my day in sub 30 minutes. But with at least four of these required it would take your local garage 2 hours plus and from a fluid perspective it’s very wasteful.

There's plenty that do drain & fills only & these are professional Volvo specialists.

I asked for a traditional flush & was told they don't do it (by more than one garage).

Methods may vary between garages though, so ones in your neck of the woods may well do a traditional flush, but I'm yet to find one near me that does a fluid change with a machine & is a Volvo specialist.

I wouldn't bring my car to a generic gearbox specialist, but that's through personal choice. I'd much prefer to bring it to a garage that actually knows solely Volvo's & their transmission's inside out, instead of a place that deals with all sorts of makes & models.

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

There's plenty that do drain & fills only & these are professional Volvo specialists.

I asked for a traditional flush & was told they don't do it (by more than one garage).

Methods may vary between garages though, so ones in your neck of the woods may well do a traditional flush, but I'm yet to find one near me that does a fluid change with a machine & is a Volvo specialist.

I wouldn't bring my car to a generic gearbox specialist, but that's through personal choice. I'd much prefer to bring it to a garage that actually knows solely Volvo's & their transmission's inside out, instead of a place that deals with all sorts of makes & models.

Thanks for feeding that back to me :-) I had assumed that it would be much simpler to do it with a machine however it seems that’s not the case.

It makes me feel better as I flushed it myself and now I know that’s what a lot of garages would have done anyway!

Cheers.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

Thanks for feeding that back to me :-) I had assumed that it would be much simpler to do it with a machine however it seems that’s not the case.

It makes me feel better as I flushed it myself and now I know that’s what a lot of garages would have done anyway!

Cheers.

Well, it is easier to flush with a machine (its all done at once then). Just the garages I've come across either don't have a machine full stop or tell me "don't use a machine to flush the transmission, just drain & fill it". There's probably plenty of garages with machines, but I'm yet to come across them. Horton has one & is very highly regarded, but that's the other end of the country to me.

Now, this leads me onto the next point...

It depends what you class as a 'flush'. You can drain/refresh the fluid via the oil cooler by disconnecting one of the hoses & putting that hose into a bucket/container. Then the other hose goes into your new container of fresh fluid & you start the car, then new fluid is sucked in & the old fluid comes out. Repeat the process until the fluid is clean, but you have to be careful that you don't run out of fluid with the car running (so have plenty to hand)!

Alternatively, you can bring a car to a garage that has a fancy & probably expensive machine that does effectively the same thing as the gibbons method, but the fluid goes through the machine itself & not into buckets/containers.

[Easington]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

I don’t believe any manufacturer or professional garage/gear box company would ever do a drain and refill manually by hand. The machines that these garages use to do a traditional flush are not expensive compared to others (couple of grand) and they allow a genuine flush to be done In under an hour (under 30mins for a volvo) as opposed to multiple hours by hand. They are also suitable for use across all vehicles and all platforms.

Doing a ‘sump dump’ refresh is a home mechanic in the drive technique. I swear on sump dumps, they are an excellent way to get lovely cherry red fluids with all new gaskets and o-rings for double figures. But they are just that, home mechanic based.

I got to the point (and still am) whereby I can drop the fluid, refil and be on with my day in sub 30 minutes. But with at least four of these required it would take your local garage 2 hours plus and from a fluid perspective it’s very wasteful.

Claytons of Mansfield will drain and refill for about £240 (5L of oil is charged for) whereas Marshall in Grantham have a machine that connects to the oil cooler pipes.

I had previously drained and refilled myself and tried to put in what I'd taken out but it was a windy day and did lose some old oil onto the drive so wanted the level set correctly

[bobmccann]

Hi all, talking of flushing the transmission, I've just got a D4 with 81sc transmission. The manual says the fluid should be aw-1, which I think is jws3324 spec. Which fluids are you using in your transmissions? Thanks.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by bobmccann

Hi all, talking of flushing the transmission, I've just got a D4 with 81sc transmission. The manual says the fluid should be aw-1, which I think is jws3324 spec. Which fluids are you using in your transmissions? Thanks.

Use what your manual says & nothing else. JWS3324 is the same as AW-1.

The older transmission requires a different fluid, so what I use & what you need are different. It depends on the model year & transmission. Yours being newer, as per your owners manual, requires different fluid.

[johnnyoro]

Originally Posted by bobmccann

Hi all, talking of flushing the transmission, I've just got a D4 with 81sc transmission. The manual says the fluid should be aw-1, which I think is jws3324 spec. Which fluids are you using in your transmissions? Thanks.

Hi I am currently in the process of flushing my gearbox each dump of fluid has been 2.8 ltrs (Very carefully measured ) and 100 to 200 miles in between . The car has 44000mls so I was not expecting much in the way of change just the satisfaction of doing the job .
However I was surprised at the state of the fluid and even more surprised that the gearchanges are noticably smoother
I am using Millers oils Millermatic ATF SP111-WS Which meets all the specs required .
The picture shows the original oil compared to Fresh

[Max2ksr]

Hi, so being new to Volvo's, I asked about a fluid change on my auto box (2015 D4 8sp auto).

The dealership said "filled for life" so they wouldn't do it. I'm still dubious, as Audi said the same about my 120k mi A5, then did it and the car was loads better.

The impression I'm getting from here is that they aren't filled for life and are serviceable items. Or are they voluntarily serviceable items?

Any ideas on cost for a dealership/ease of doing it yourself?

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Max2ksr

Hi, so being new to Volvo's, I asked about a fluid change on my auto box (2015 D4 8sp auto).

The dealership said "filled for life" so they wouldn't do it. I'm still dubious, as Audi said the same about my 120k mi A5, then did it and the car was loads better.

The impression I'm getting from here is that they aren't filled for life and are serviceable items. Or are they voluntarily serviceable items?

Any ideas on cost for a dealership/ease of doing it yourself?

They say they’re “sealed for life”, but I as well as many many others would advise you change the fluid, regardless of what Volvo tell you. Volvo only advise changing the fluid if its used in “arduous” conditions. However, that doesn’t mean someone that doesn’t use the car in these conditions never needs to change the fluid. You wouldn’t drive a car for years on end without changing the oil, so a transmission should be no different in my opinion. Why Volvo & other manufacturers tell people this “sealed for life” term is beyond me... its a ridiculous statement to make.

For a dealership to do it (if they will) would be around £400… that’s just an approximate guess. An independent Volvo garage could do it much cheaper, probably around £200.

As for doing it yourself, its possible. However, you need VIDA diagnostics to reset the fluid counter & to check to transmission fluid temperature.

Make sure you use the correct fluid, or a fluid that meets the spec for your transmission.

If you do any towing, then you should change the fluid every 25-30,000 miles. If you don’t do any towing, then you could stretch that to 40-50,000 miles max. This is what an independent garage told me.