New owner of 2006 XC70 with a million questions

ChattownXC70 · Post by **ChattownXC70** » 09 Mar 2025, 10:24

I purchased an 06 xc70 Friday on the ol facebook for the low low price of 900 bucks. This is my 2nd P2 and 5th Volvo total but the others were 740’s.

Anyway, I bought this car knowing it had a transmission issue. The young lady I purchased it from said that it would go into limp mode and shut the car off after driving a ways. Sometimes not very far and sometimes a few days. I figured it was the valve body so agreed to come out with a trailer and bring her home.

Upon getting there it was completely void of fuel, the battery was dead and it was a bit rougher than the photos represented. But after putting a gallon of fuel in, jumping it off it fired right up and sounded fine. Didn’t see any obvious leaks or anything so I paid her and loaded it up on the trailer for the 2.5 hour drive back home.

Once home I unloaded it into the shop by jumping it off again and driving just fine. I put some fuel in the tank along with some stabil just in case and put the battery on a trickle charge as it’s only 2 years old according to the sticker. I clean the interior up and give it a little better inspection. And again, everything seems good.

The next day, yesterday, I fire her up and take her around the neighborhood to see how she drives and if I can get the trans to act up. There are a couple pretty steep hills by my house and I could tell there was a tiny bit of slippage but otherwise seemed ok.

As I usually make bad decisions I figured it would be a good idea to drive it about 3 miles to a little spot I usually take my janky cars to just as a little test run. There’s some hills, some stop signs, curves and straights. Just a nice test drive. After about 1 mile the car stopped pulling all together in all gears and would just rev up so I whipped it into a sweet little old lady’s driveway and called my wife to come get me.

Once we came back with the truck in order to pull Ruby Sue home I asked my wife to just see if it would move in gear, which it did so told her to just go home and I’d be there directly.

Upon arriving I decided to check the trans fluid for the first time. As I figured it was terrible. Dark, dark brown, almost black and smelled pretty bad but not the worst I’ve ever sniffed haha.

So I have been reading non stop about the problems with these transmissions, which I was aware of some. My plan when buying this was to replace the vb because I figured that was the issue. But after reading all night drinking a pot of coffee now I wonder if that’s even it. It seems most vb problems cause hard or delayed shifts but can also cause slipping but maybe not to the extent I was seeing.

I do not have vida or a dice and from reading on that not sure it’s even a thing anymore? Seems as if you have to have windows 7? I am by no means a computer guy.

I did use my BlueDriver code reader and all it turned up was p0027 for the exhaust valve control solenoid but I’ve ordered an oil change kit as judging by the sticker it’s about 8k miles on the last change and I’m hoping that will resolve that.

So my main questions are:
How likely is a fluid flush and vb to restore my 188k mile trans to former glory? Anything else I should be looking at? Perhaps the filter cleaning method of drilling a hole?
And how does one acquire vida in 2025 or have I totally missed something to make it seem like it is harder to run on a newer laptop?

Post by **abscate** » 09 Mar 2025, 13:39

If you listen you can hear the trans oil pump whine when the screen gets plugged. That’s a good tip off to get the drill out.

Post by **850 LPT** » 09 Mar 2025, 14:12

Maybe there is hope since the problem is so intermittent. Perhaps a trans fluid drain and fill would be a start for bringing it back to life.

There are people who sell used windows 7 laptops with Vida installed. I will see if I can find some info on that, there was someone here recently who had the same question.

Post by **850 LPT** » 09 Mar 2025, 14:14

There is some info in this:

viewtopic.php?p=657655&hilit=vida+laptop#p657655

ChattownXC70 · Post by **ChattownXC70** » 09 Mar 2025, 15:38

Abscate, I didn’t hear anything when the trans stopped pulling. I was driving with the windows down and the radio doesn’t work so no worries there haha. However, when the wife pulled out of the little old lady’s driveway I did hear a whirring noise but not sure if it was the trans pump or turbo noise or what. I wasn’t really expecting the car to move under its own power so was surprised and not really paying close attention.

850 LPT, thank you for that link. I did find one source for a laptop in my frantic searching last night but your link had more current info. I will look into it! I really appreciate you finding the info and posting it for me.

As to the flush and fill, I ordered 12 quarts or Mobil 3309 and will be doing this Wednesday or Thursday but am kind of torn between draining from the plug and refilling several times vs doing th cooler line pull method. I couldn’t really find any definitive info as to one being better than the other. Anyone have any insight on which to do?

Again, I appreciate the replies and helpful info!

Post by **850 LPT** » 09 Mar 2025, 15:55

I would personally stay away from a full flush, that is asking for more trouble. You will want to gently nurse this tranny back to life. Do a drain and fill, then drive a short distance, then do another and so on until the fluid starts clearing up and symptoms hopefully improving.

Good luck!

Dirk

ChattownXC70 · Post by **ChattownXC70** » 09 Mar 2025, 15:56

850 LPT, ok that’s what I was leaning towards anyway. I will do that a few times and see how she does. I really appreciate the info!

Post by **jonesg** » 09 Mar 2025, 18:52

vida on an external thumb drive SSD has its own operating system, I think mine is WIN10, no need for the old win7 pro.
Boot and go, david gives very good support to help you configure your bios so it boots from the SSD, not the laptop internal drive.
Just be sure you have at least 4MB ram or more. He also sells the DICE and cheaper JRL cable, tested, ebay is a crapshoot, some don't work. Erie volvo , a large volvo scrap parts yard sells used transmissions.
Google has a lot of results too.
https://www.google.com/search?q=used+vo ... s-wiz-serp

ChattownXC70 · Post by **ChattownXC70** » 09 Mar 2025, 19:02

Jonesg, I was just perusing the site referenced above from 850. Pretty sure that’s who you’re speaking of. That is the route I will go with the bootngo. That sounds like my best bet along with a dice unit from him.

Also, I didn’t even think about just entering what you did in a google search. Genius! Thank you for the help! If the ol fluid exchange doesn’t work I will see about snagging a good used one on the cheap. May do that anyway just for a back up if I find a good deal.

Again, I really appreciate all of yall helping me out with this! What a great site and great members helping others out!

Rai · Post by **Rai** » 03 May 2025, 20:17

Hola, ¿solucionó el problema el cambio del atf?