2003 xc70 how complicated is it to replace selenoids

lowufo777 · Post by **lowufo777** » 31 Dec 2014, 09:21

Transmission solenoid replacement may be in the future for the car.????? I get , I guess what is called flaring sometimes between 2nd and third . Flushed tranny with new magnetic filter and 12 qts . of fluid. Seems to shift fine most of the time but I would like to try to improve on the shift quality if possible. Never replaced any of these on a tranny before but I was hoping it wasn't to complicated . videos and pics really help .car has 120K on it. been reading that solenoids can be the fix. fluid had never been changed before we got it at 118 K (brown ) Thanks in advance !!

Post by **jimmy57** » 31 Dec 2014, 09:35

The best way is a reman'd valve body.
The critical solenoid has to be calibrated. ReamMan valve bodies (and others I would think) have a test bench and they check and adjust preload spring while supplying a PWM control signal and fluid pressure to solenoids to get the correct output pressure. If you google the process you'll find stories of solenoid replacement and repeated pan removal to turn the adjust screw on end of the STH solenoid

reamman.com the one for your AW 50-55 is $571.23

Post by **vtl** » 31 Dec 2014, 09:55

Very painful. And often pointless.

It took me 10 hours only to remove valve body cover for the first time (and clean that darn pink RTV). I used the mask to drill 3 holes in cover to adjust new solenoids without removing cover again (and you do need to adjust them a lot, because you can't precalibrate them for your VB without special stand), but new solenoids alone never worked well. At the end I turned adjustment screw of one solenoid too much and the preload spring disengaged being inside valve body. What a PITA... Seconds VB cover removal took me only 2.5 hours. I put old solenoids back, transmission still kicked itself to the moon. After 3 days spent in garage, I felt pretty much sick of it, and drove the car in 3d gear to transmission shop, where had VB replaced for $1200.

If you go the wrenching way, fix the whole valve body. It has a few wear points, which need to be taken care of. Solenoids alone usually do not help.

Post by **precopster** » 31 Dec 2014, 14:55

After performing 3 valve body kits and knowing results from 2 of them (3rd one is still on bench) I can say that if car has super low miles it can work however my wife's 2002 XC70 with over 300, 000kms still has poor shifts and seems to be affected by heat which points back to the solenoids. I must point out however that the car was undriveable before the valve body work so there was a marked improvement.

The $90 VB kits are good however Sonnax now has a comprehensive kit involving at least 15 new parts and solves higher mileage VBs. Check their site.

In all my VB refurbishment jobs I reamed the solenoid bushings and didn't touch the factory set adjustment.

2008XC70 · Post by **2008XC70** » 01 Jan 2015, 22:32

I've had good luck with rostra solenoids, about a $250 fix, plus new fluid and inline magnefine filter. It's very important to do the transmission adaptation procedure.

Once you've done it once, it's pretty straight-forward. There are a few different pdf's with instructions.

quietcoolone · Post by **quietcoolone** » 22 Jan 2015, 02:34

Not very difficult -- you will need to support the engine and lower the chassis a bit in order to get the pan out. This thread documents my experience.

Post by **SuperHerman** » 28 Jan 2015, 22:49

I just did this on my 2001 XC70 with 180k plus. I used the TransPro kit and grinded off the bottoms of the solenoids per instructions. I also changed all the parts that were included in the kit. I measured and counted turns on the Solenoids, the adjustments you mention, and they matched the turns mentioned by others. This is what I used. After a mix up on check balls/valve placement which I corrected, the second install worked without problem. It is not a quick repair, but not difficult. Just follow the directions. My shits are perfect and all prior slight issues are gone. I did not need to adjust anything. I would say based on what I saw, that if you have changed your tranny fluid you most likely can get by with just doing the solenoids, but for the extra time, since everything is basically apart I would do it all. You do not need a lift. You do need to support the engine as you are partially dropping the cradle, this is done to get the valve body cover off. Take out the cooling fan so you can move the valve body from the top. It is fairly straight forward - taking apart the valve body is the most time consuming part, but not difficult. One more thing, all the bad talk about the 2001 and 2002 transmissions is garbage. They are all basically the same. The weak link, if any, is the gumming up of the solenoids due to their magnetic properties.