S60 T5 Transmission.. Ticking Time Bomb?

S-lime · Post by **S-lime** » 26 Feb 2016, 19:50

Hey all. Bought a 2001 S60 T5 in incredible shape today. 170k kilometres on it. Thousands in receipts as the car has been maintained very well. Engine and transmission are both working excellent. I know these cars have notoriously bad transmissions. Transmission has had a flush and is shifting strong. I want to modify this car a bit. Full exhaust, an aftermarket transmission cooler and a re-map. Is it worth doing this or is this just a recipe for a blown transmission? I use the tiptronic shifting to my advantage by releasing the throttle every shift so I'm not slamming into gears at 6,000RPM wide open throttle, but I don't know how much this car can take.. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Post by **precopster** » 26 Feb 2016, 22:39

Swap to a manual if you want to explore the potential of the car fully. New fluid every 20,000kms if you're a hard driver may stave off the inevitable unless the trans has been rebuilt recently. I have a 2001 V70 T5 with a replacement transmission (very early build car with a late serial number on the trans) and it has only 212K (kilometres) so it would have failed at around your mileage initially. Look on trans ID plate (remove airbox) and it should show a serial number beginning between 1A and 1E for 2001MY. If it's much later or removed it's a rebuild or replacement.

S-lime · Post by **S-lime** » 26 Feb 2016, 23:05

Thanks mike! Yeah I wish it was a manual but sadly this is the only T5 I could find. I'm kind of confused by this transmission ID plate however. Where is it exactly and what am I looking for?

Post by **precopster** » 27 Feb 2016, 02:14

Remove air cleaner box and you should be able to spot it facing up near the selector cable.

Post by **oragex** » 27 Feb 2016, 07:28

170km is a good mileage for that car. If the transmission works flawlessly, perhaps it has already been replaced and the owner sold the car afterwards. I would wait a few months before deciding for mods, have enough time to see if any issue surfaces. The weak points were the transmission and the throttle body. It is a great engine so a good chance you will love the car.

If the streets are fine in your area (which if I remember well were indeed), you can keep the actual struts. They still work fine but get harder which is only an issue on poor quality roads. I would inspect the front control arms with the wheels fully turned each side, but again if the car was gently driven they should be fine. Another thing to inspect is the timing belt which is normally due - use only quality parts for this. The water pump is good for 300K km. Youtube has a few videos how to check the PCV system.

Post by **JRL** » 27 Feb 2016, 10:06

Has the stop neutral software been deleted?
If it has do you know when it was done (at what mileage).

S-lime · Post by **S-lime** » 27 Feb 2016, 10:55

I'm not sure if the transmission has been replaced.. Will check later. The throttle body has been replaced, along with the timing belt, water pump, entire pcv system and struts.

I'm sorry, what is stop neutral software and what is the purpose of deleting it?

Post by **oragex** » 27 Feb 2016, 12:53

mmm.. double post

Post by **oragex** » 27 Feb 2016, 12:54

S-lime wrote:I'm not sure if the transmission has been replaced.. Will check later. The throttle body has been replaced, along with the timing belt, water pump, entire pcv system and struts.

I'm sorry, what is stop neutral software and what is the purpose of deleting it?

If all replacement parts were Oem Volvo parts, then this is a great find because all items mentioned to have been replaced are the main wear items that cost a lot to fix. It's great to have them already fixed. The neutral stop was a transmission setting on early 2001-2002 models that would put the gear in 'N' while waiting at a traffic light (some believe the transmission would lack lubrication while idling in 'N'). It caused many transmissions to fail and was discarded later on. Not sure if your Geartronic model had it though.

S-lime · Post by **S-lime** » 27 Feb 2016, 13:21

They are all OEM and I have reciepts for all of it. I do believe my car has it because from a dead stop it seems to hesitate for a split second before accelerating. How do I disable this?