Herb, what I was asking about the mixture was if you flushed the Dexron III (with the goal to add synthetic) is there any issue with the minor amount of Dexron III being left (not every drop of Dexron III is going to be removed?)

As far as it being a new vs. rebuilt. I was told it was a new and that Volvo does not deal with rebuilt parts. It was a "crate" tranny. Whether it's remanufactured vs new (in general most people feel rebuilt is different than remanufactured with respect to specs) I don't know.

No my transmission was flushed at like 20K 40K 60K and 82K all with Dexron III. I had it analyzed by Blackstone Labs at 20K and it was on the high side with aluminum. The old ATF always came out "red" but not bright red like when it was new. The car was always driven normally, never towed anything (did carry about 8-10 5 gallon buckets of sand in the back a number of times.)

Of course there are people that say that my flushing every 20K may have been the cause of my failure. I simply don't know enough about the subject, hence my original question.