2010 XC90 V8 (AWD) Anyone doing transmission flushes?

[adamsr3]

New member here.

I have been a long-time Volvo owner and currently own two XC90s. One is the T6 and, yes, I have gone through two transmissions already.

BUT...

I also have a V8 model and would like to know if any of the other V8 owners out there have done any maintenance on their Aisin Warner transmissions? I cannot find any DIY procedures to flush the trans fluid.

Do I need to worry about fluid changes in this transmission?

No flaming about the T6, please. I have a strange attachment to the vehicle and cannot get rid of it. I had the guys at Triple Edge Performance in Indiana (Dave Norris) rebuild the last one, hopefully it'll outlast the engine now.

Cheers!

[kcodyjr]

I don't know if the V8 engines have or lack any particular sensitivity compared to other engines.

BUT...

I've never heard of anything good coming from using a transmission flush machine on any car. Even those that can supposedly take it, sometimes the grease monkey hooks it up wrong and the car has to get pushed out of the service bay and onto a tow truck.

There's got to be some kind of transmission cooler on that, and thereupon you'll find transmission lines. There's a procedure here for using the transmission as its own flush pump by pumping fluid out of one and funneling new fluid into the other. It shouldn't be hard to adapt for your vehicle's layout. That said, it's a bit extreme unless you have reason to believe the fluid is badly burnt and want to replace it all at once.

Start with just draining the pan and refilling via the dipstick tube.

[jimmy57]

Yes, it is a good idea to do drain and refills. I'm not a fan of full flushes for no reason.
That gearbox is the one with no dispstick. You fill up top through a TX 55 head plug on the front left corner (under air cleaner) and get it warned up and let excess out through the tx 40 plug in center of the 17mm inhex drain plug.

[adamsr3]

Thanks for the quick replies. This vehicle now has 80K on it and I am sure the trans fluid is factory.

I appreciate your advice on this. I'd prefer to stick with a simple procedure, especially if it's just for piece of mind. Draining the gearbox and filling with fresh fluid sounds like something I can tackle. I do have a fluid transfer pump that should make the process even easier.

This car doesn't have a tow hitch adapter so if it'e been driven hard, at least it wasn't pulling anything.

[bguzz]

I just did mine on my 2008 3.2. It has the same trans as yours...the Aisin TF-80SC. At 64K, the fluid was dark as used engine oil...it needed it. It has no dipstick, so you need to be careful how you do it. I had a couple of S70's and always did the fluid transfer/flush via the oil cooler line...so simple.

With the XC90, I chose to just flush it out with the internal pump pushing it instead of draining the pan AND using the DIY flush method. The way I did it was to use 2 empty water jugs, a digital scale, and a 5/8" OD vinyl hose. I would weigh exactly what came out after starting the engine and then getting the bubbles, then weigh the exact same amount to pour back in. You don't have to worry about fluid expansion and temperature this way, as weight is always the same. Just make sure the line is a tight fit into the oil cooler (not the line that fits into the cooler like on the S70 method) and you should be fine with no leaks.

Incidentally, I chose to use Redline D4 synthetic fluid instead of Mobil JWS-3309 mineral based fluid as I feel that this widely used transmission (Ford Fusion, Mazda, Saab, etc) is probably in a heavy duty situation in our XC90's. D4 is JWS-3309 stamped, but in confirming that, I found that in either 2010 or 2011, Volvo modified the transmission spec and required AW-1 fluid, which apparently is a similar but thinner fluid so they could meet CAFE requirements. Redline said that their D6 fluid met that standard, but said you should be able to use either without issue. You might want to confirm that...I don't know if your spec if JWS-3309 or AW1. I used 16qts and by the time I was on 14, I think I had bright pink fluid coming out of it.

BTW, I thought that at 64K I might be over doing it with changing the transmission fluid as the car shifted beautifully, turns out it now shifts even smoother...a nice surprise. Volvo missed the ball on this when they call it a lifetime fill (maybe they meant lifetime of the transmission...which will be shorter if not changed).

[DGM]

The following link may help.

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/enesd ... change.pdf

[oragex]

I just did mine on my 2008 3.2. It has the same trans as yours...the Aisin TF-80SC. At 64K, the fluid was dark as used engine oil...it needed it.

64k miles is already late for transmission fluid.. to keep it in good shape, I won't go past each 40k miles to have a partial fluid change (no flushing!) of at least 70% of the fluid (about two drains)

[VFLXC90]

Great information.
I need to do this to mine this spring.

[MoVolvos]

_

The following link may help.

http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/enesd ... change.pdf

The pdf. in action but on a Honda, oh well but still helpful.



Blessings,

BKM
_

[richyoung]

@DGM
Thanks for the PDF. So this vehicle does have a dipstick! The overflow indicator will make it impossible to overfill if the procedure is followed. Won't have to be as careful draining and measuring now. Time to do a fluid change.