"96 960- Anybody changed out the solenoids in the valve body

dm635 · Post by **dm635** » 07 Jan 2020, 11:46

History, installed a replacement transmission last summer from a car I drove 100 miles before pulling for mine. Felt good about it. After install I soon learned the pan was packed wit a couple inch's of very nasty sludge. Quickly followed by 4 or 5 filters and over 30 gallons of ATF doing drain and fills.

Trans has been and still is shifting fine for the moment. A couple months the flashing arrow on the dash came on and its driving me crazy. I cant stand a light on the dash much less a flashing one and the engine light came at the same time and neither can be cleared.

My cheap code reader pulled a solenoid B fault. Went and pulled a valve body and going to swap all 4 solenoids into mine. was going to just swap valve bodies but had a check valve ball fell out and I can't find where it goes.

I feel I'm driving a hurt transmission that can go at any time or go into limp home mode which takes off in 3rd gear. Driving like that it will overheat quickly in normal driving. So going to swap the solenoids for now and have me another transmission to have on standby for $150 as I don't trust what's in the car now. Had I known of the crud in what I installed it would never had happened. Bummer for me. For the 8 years I've been driving this 960 I just can't let her go for another trans swap. I've got way to much love that has gone into it, parts , money and time.

So if you've replaced the solenoids did it help and finally extinguish the flashing lights? I'll probably have to go to the shop and have all codes cleared as mine won't do it.

Edit, For the flashing light I've already tried 2 PNP switchs that I disassembled and cleaned before testing.

Thanks Dave

Post by **RickHaleParker** » 07 Jan 2020, 13:12

dm635 wrote: ↑07 Jan 2020, 11:46 I'll probably have to go to the shop and have all codes cleared as mine won't do it.

VOL-FCR 1.3 and a FTDI VAG cable will clear the transmission codes.

There is no way to get a copy of version 1.7 to work unless you pay £126.00 ($165.00) for it.

I would try this first. The flashing transmission light on my '97 S90 was just a communication cable. Fixed by cleaning the electrical connector and clearing the code with VOL-FCR 1.3.