|
ICQ>
Well, after almost 22,000 miles, I took the plunge and performed that controversial (for Volvo 850s) service of draining and refilling my ATF! I replaced that portion of the factory fill which I could drain out, which was about 4 qts, with Mobil 1 synthetic Dexron III. And the results are excellent. There is a noticeable increase in shift smoothness, both when I manually shift the gears, and when the automatic does it. The color of the discarded fluid was a dark redish brown. And was obviously visually quite different from the new stuff.. .Now, Volvo does say in their literature that the 3 cases where they *do* recommend fluid renewal are: if the fluid burns as noted by the logging of a fault code, if the fluid has been discolored signifying hard useage, or if the vehicle has been used for taxiying. It seems to me that most Volvos with over 20K miles will have fluid which at least, to some degree, is discolored, relative to the new stuff.
Anyway, the hardest part, if you can call it that, is determining when you have added the correct amount! My yellow dip stick does not easily show you the current level, as it seems it scrapes some fluid off the sides of the very-skinny tube, so its hard to tell....Of course, its crucial that you turn the motor on, and manually move the shifter through the gears, stopping at park to take the reading....Before doing this, after adding just 2 qts, the dip stick appeared to show max level, which quickly dropped after turning it on and moving through the gears.
Anyway, I'm pretty confident that the right amount is in there. If anything, I think there might be .5 qt too much, as after 15 minutes of idling, the level appeared to be near the max mark of the Hot range. It should probably be at the min mark for 'hot' at this temp, but I think its close enough, and really wouldnt qualify as over filling.
|
