I have a 1995 850 Wagon with the manual tranny. It has 120,000. Tranny was replaced at 60K (Don't know why, I bought the car used, has been great since)


I would like to change the manual transmission oil. What should I use, I would prefer synthetic? Where is the drain/fill plug?

Thanks

Nate

There's no change interval from Volvo nor is there a really good reason to change yours at only 60K miles (or even 120K). I've seen several 850 MT cars with over 200K miles and original trans fluid. It's synthetic from Volvo and if you still want to do a drain and fill, I'd highly advise getting the same stuff that Volvo recommends as it's obviously good stuff.
I'd call a local dealers parts department first to see if they even stock it because it's doubtfull that they will as most people never ask. They'll probably have to special order some for you.
Now, will another type synthetic be OK? Dunno (reason why I wouldn't gamble).

I can tell you this much: the Volvo synthetic fluid is known to be the appropriate weight for the car. Other synthetics won't necessarily be the same. For example, I tried Valvoline synthetic in my S70 T5M, and the shift quality was abysmal. (Synchros seemed to take FOREVER to mesh and allow the shifter to drop into place.) A switch to Redline MTL cured the problem, and MAY have contributed to slightly better shifting than with the original Volvo fluid.

Fill and drain plugs are both on the left side of the tranny, easily visible from under the car and after you pull the LF tire. 22 or 26 mm comes to mind.

--
James Rothe, '99 S70 T5M, http://www.monmouth.com/~rothe/carstuff.html#Volvo

On the '93 850 the 5 sp drain plugs are 24mm. You need a box or open ended wrench to get at the drain (I did it all on rhino ramps). To get to the upper fill point I used a 8" extension and a 24mm bit (actually i used the 25mm box wrench that I had for changin oil in the now gone 240 - not perfect but at that size no chance of rounding it off).

Just put MTL in and now my wife is reporting issues with going into 3rd and 4th . . . could be clutch maybe - it engages all the way down . . . either way she's not super happy - athough my test drive after filling was fine. I need to drive it I guess . . . .

Hi Guys,

As i had my tranny fluid done at the dealer i would prefer to do it myself.

What is the exact procedure for a dummy who is still learning ?

I have the formentioned tools to check gearbox level, but i don't know how to do that properally.

Do you fully drain first followed by filling into the top and wait for it to gush out the bottom ?

I agree on the point about the Volvo viscosity it smell awefull but it must do the job. I change mine out of interest every Cambelt change.

Mark
UK/Leeds. 94 850glt 2l 20v 189k miles.

A suggestion about procedure:

Do not open the drain plug and drain the transmission until you have opened the fill plug. You do not want to have drained it and then find out that for whatever reason you cannot open the fill plug.

Andy
98 V70-T5