2001 V70XC transmission geartronic

daves · Post by **daves** » 10 Feb 2007, 11:11

I owned a 2001 V70 XC 97,000 K miles, with a geartronic trans. for about 2 weeks before it almost totally quit working. The transmission was shuttering or vibrating and slipping when starting from a stopped position, not shifting into gears correctly and never shifting into 5th. It was diagnosed at the Volvo dealer as completely gone and in need of replacing. The dealer was good enough to give me equal value on any car in his inventory, so I didn't lose any money. I liked the Volvo very much but didn't choose another Volvo and won't until I find out more about the transmissions. Do you think there is an ongoing problem with this model (the automatic/manual transmissions)? And are we going to see more failures as more of these are reaching the 100K mile mark? Most people I know who had the older Volvo's with other styles of automatics didn't have problems, even with 200 - 250 K miles. I like taking care of a car correctly but when you baby one with expensive fluids and service fees.....and then still have problems, there's something wrong. Especially when people are driving Ford Taurus's with close to 200K who have never done much of anything to them as far as service and upkeep (and have used regular ole cheap gas and inexpensive fluids). What do you think about the future of the geartronic transmission as a reliable transmission that will give good service to match the rest of the cars long standing reputation of giving high miles with no major problems?

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 10 Feb 2007, 13:17

The geartronic transmissions in later model Volvo's are very reliable. The '01 model 70 series are known to be excessively problematic- especially their transmissions- so much so that there are others on some other forums trying to get together a class-action. Don't let this one model year cloud your opinion on the whole V/XC/70 line.

Post by **JRL** » 10 Feb 2007, 13:24

Haven't seen many Taures' that ran at 200K

Anyhow what MIJ said is correct, the 01 Volvos and pretty poor cars in general. 02's are MUCH better and by the time you get to 2003's they're not bad at all, just the usual Volvo stuff.
You DO have to take care of these transmissions.
Volvo says lifetime fluid, that's a load of CRAP.
The tranny fluid MUST be changed every 60K without fail, earlier (every 30K ) is better! If you don't do that, it WILL fail, guaranteed.
Small price to pay for a good transmission

daves · Post by **daves** » 10 Feb 2007, 14:47

Thanks for the reply....Any idea what they did to better the transmission in the later years? It's basically the same, that is, 5 speed auto/manual but what did they do inside to change it to make me want to buy an 02 03 or 04? ...and along those lines if someone were to replace the crapped out 01 trans with a salvage could it be done with a 02 03 or 04? If you get a rebuilt one from Volvo would it be an updated one or the some old problematic automatic?

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 10 Feb 2007, 18:43

I know that there are other reasons why the '01 transmissions are crap, but one of the things that keeps coming up is the STOP NEUTRAL function of the '01's where when you come to a stop the transmission automatically goes into neutral. When you start moving again, the car slams into gear...somehow this was suppose to save gas, thus the environment. By the time that Volvo figured out that this was a bad idea, and started routinely disabling this function, most cars already tons of miles on them and transmissions were many a times already shot. On '02's this feature was discontinued and in '03 a better coupler for the AWD (Haldex) was introduced which was less wear and tear on the transmissions in general. Over-all the design of how the engine meets up with the transmission was also made better. After '03 all Volvo's seem to be very very stable and you hear very little about any engine/tranny issue.

Post by **JRL** » 10 Feb 2007, 18:58

Also the valve body was redesigned along the line with about 10 different software setups!

daves · Post by **daves** » 10 Feb 2007, 19:17

That's soothing to hear especially since I no longer own the 01 I bought....but what about the poor suckers who have a totaled 01 trans. Would one have to be a mechanical (and computer) wizard to replace the failed 01 transmission with a newer transmission, say from a 03 or 04, or would that just be out of the question? And if one had alot of money or purchased insurance to cover the engine and transmission when they bought the used Volvo and got a rebuilt transmission from Volvo would the problem be built into the rebuilt transmission? ....I guess I'll just wait a year until I can afford an 03 or 04. Thanks for clearing up the difference and improvements between the transmissions.