decades in the car industry, eh? Well, guess what, your transmission is

not that old! Lots has changed since then, primarily electronic control

AND lockup torque converters. Modern ATs no longer constantly shear the

ATF molecules in the TC. And modern Dexron is much better than it was in

the 1960s/1970s.

There are a lot of worry-warts in this forum who will tell you how and why

to change it*. Some of them seem to have a red fetish (even though your

transmission can't see color).

You should definitely leave it the hell alone. If it doesn't make it 50K

miles without an ATF change, it was a defective transmission and you should

welcome the free warranty replacement. If your transmission is defective

and chewing up its fluid at at accelerated pace, that's Volvo's problem,

not yours, unless you obscure the problem just long enough to make it out

of warranty. Why would you pay good money to effectively vitiate your

expensive and potential valuable warranty coverage?

Think about it: even if you are cynical enough to believe that Volvo

malevelently recommended leaving the ATF alone so that they would all fail

and Volvo would get rich on repairs (at the expense of customer loyalty),

they couldn't even hope to pull this stunt off without risk of bankruptcy

unless they'd virtually all make it out of the 50K warranty period alive!

I had mine flushed prematurely at 61K mi. I now wish I'd waited at least

until the 70K preventive out-of-service-anyway timing belt maintenance.

I'm at 120K miles now and not even thinking about the ATF. It's still

fine. And that is Dexron (the most over-engineered fluid in your car!).

But I'm sure plenty/most of those who will encourage you to get that

imperfectly red fluid out of your AT ASAP will also tell you how superior

synthetic ATF is (but they're all wet about that, too).

Unlike engine oil, ATF is exposed to neither high temps nor chemical

pollution, nor is it desirable for it to be as slippery as possible. Save

the snythetic for your crankcase, and save your money for something

worthwhile (ie, not synthetic ATF).

As long as the ATF is neither dark nor thick nor burnt-smelling, leave it

the hell alone, stop worrying, and enjoy your car and your money and your

life.

If 2 years / 25K miles was good enough for old ATs and old ATF decades

ago (and it was), and modern ATs can easily go 5X-10X longer without

wearing out their ATF (and they can)...

- Dave; '95 854T, 120K mi

* amazingly, some of the same ATF worry-warts will tell you how to extend

your engine oil drain interval. Now THAT's asking for trouble. The best

and cheapest insurance for expensive underhood component longevity is to

keep changing your polluted engine oil, but to treat the AT as if it were a

sealed system and leave it alone!