S-70 AWD transmission

White850Turbo · Post by **White850Turbo** » 05 Apr 2006, 15:55

Original info was gathered from VADIS regarding orignial poster's issue w/ AWD tranny.

I did find some rather interesting stuff related to the non-AWD transmissions as well:

Post by **mom** » 05 Apr 2006, 16:02

Yeah I saw this one too, and the difference between 1161540 and 1161640 is the quantity but it is the same oil.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 05 Apr 2006, 16:14

mom wrote: I think it's a higher standard and that's all.

Well, that's what I'm hoping. My chassis # is 476548 made at factory 2 so I fall under this same service bulletin too. So far so good with my tranny at 115K miles on the odo. Mine is a 4 speed Auto too with Tranny flushed with Mobil-1 ATF (the synthetic non-3309 stuff) at 100K miles (bought car with 87K miles). I'm due for a flush here in about 15K miles (try to flush every 30K miles), though when I checked my fluid yesterday (at the half-way mark) and it was still bright red and no smell at all.

harrych · Post by **harrych** » 05 Apr 2006, 19:23

Here is the latest I got from my dealer after not so long day on the phone. This time I talked with a different technician. I asked him if he could find out what was the original transmission fluid in 99 S70AWD and after a short research he said there is no way to find out or to know, I do not know if this is true. He checked my VIN# and said I need JWS3309 for proper operation of the transmission and this is the stuff they put in any AWD transmission 99 and later. As I said I talked with different person unaware of my talk with the master technitian two days ago and I got the same answear which should mean JWS3309 is the right fluid(double check). Probably it realy is a higher grade to which one could go from Dexron, but not backwards. The technitian could not say for sure if that is true. He said I should flush the tranny with JWS3309. This is what I am going to do. He advised me to just flush it with the new fluid with flushing machine at any garrage. Since I live on an island and garrages here are big rip off I am going to do the flushing myself as I did it one week ago. I have even better idea aiming to minimize the amount of the old fluid to be mixed with the new, because this is what you do when you flush isn't it? I have a friend of mine who has a power extractor and I am going to suck up as much as possible (I am hoping to get at least 6liters out of 8liters total since some fluid is always left in the torque converter) from the old fluid through the dipstick. Then based on how much I extract I am going to fill it up to 8liters with the new fluid and then start the flushing. This is my plan I think is reasonable and would appreciate any comments on it. I haven't done it yet because first a friend of mine picked up the fluid for me but because we live on an island he could not get on plane-this fluid is hazardous material and has to go on a boat and second after this whole discussion I wanted to double check with the dealer. I'll let you know how it goes when I do it I hope not later than friday.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 05 Apr 2006, 20:21

harrych,
Glad you were able to get confirmation on the 3309-ATF. We who don't have AWD's are still trying to figure out if it's good for our trannies too.

In regards to how you're planning on flushing, I would not advise sucking all of the tranny fluid out and then filling and then flushing. This will introduce air into the system, not to mention a dry, moving pump if you're sucking it out while the car is pumping. Maybe having the car on during this process is not your plan, but still, in my opinion, you'll get a lot of air in there and that's something you want to avoid at all costs. I would do as you did last week, 2 quarts at a time. Any more being pumped out before filling with 2 quarts of the new leaves the pump in a state that is not healthy for it, from what I've read, so just be patient...a 30 minute job that feels like 3 hours. Even if using this slow process, if you see air bubbles you're suppose to stop for awhile and let things settle. Air just aint good in a tranny. The flush machine is better, but if you enough of the new, you will flush all of the old out and should be just fine.

Good luck and let us know how you do.

harrych · Post by **harrych** » 05 Apr 2006, 21:08

Thanks for the advice and remarks MadeInJapan.
Without sucking up it will make the things even easier for me becase I have done it recently and I know what I am doing. I'll have 16liters to work with. I've done some math and teoreticaly if I flush the tranny with 2liters at a time I should end up with 96.875% concentration of the new fluid which I guess should be sufficient for normal operation of the transmission. I may do another flush after let say 5k or 10k to get better concentration of 3309 but for now I've had enough with all this crap.

harrych · Post by **harrych** » 06 Apr 2006, 19:23

I finally flushed the transmission today. I did it as before 2liters at a time. I had a helper this time and I was done in 30min. Some bubbles did show on the first pump out but I waited as advised by MadeinJapan (Thanks once again for the advices pal) and next pump outs went normal. Here are some impressions. The Volvo fluid was a part#1161640 in 4liter bottles. The bottles are absolute POS and spilled some fluid all over the place. It says the fluid is Made in Canada and it is designed for AW55-50 five speed transmission but it does not say by who. I does NOT say if it is JWS3309, nor that if it is synthetic. I could take photos of the container and post them here if someone is interested. I think this may be the right fluid for my transmission though becase as I said I flushed it with Dexron/Mercon last week using not 16liters but 24liters untill it came clear and today after not more than 60miles after the flush the fluid was not bright red but kind of red-brownish. 16 liters of the Volvo fluid were enogh to come on clear red again. I also noticed different smell of the Volvo fluid than the Dexron. Another imspression is that changes are now a just a click smoother and accerelation is as quick as before flushing with Dexron. After putting Dexron I felt kind of sluggish acceleration. Maybe I am paranoid now but I'll keep you posted how the things develop. Good luck finding the right fluid for FWD T-5 and GLT.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 06 Apr 2006, 20:00

Good write-up. Thanks, and yes, keep us posted.

Post by **JRL** » 06 Apr 2006, 21:20

The Volvo fluid is Mobil

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 06 Apr 2006, 21:56

Yes, we all know that.
It is up further in the thread.