Hello All,
I just bought a 1986 740 GLE Station Wagon and my mom's boyfriend checked it out for me before we did. He noticed that the transmission fluid was milky white and said that meant there was water in it. He didn't know what could have caused it but knew it means trouble. I looked on here while I was still trying to decide if I was going to buy the car and found some other posts for a newer year suggesting that it was a problem with the radiator. Something about the way they are put together has the coolant and trans fluid both running into it and that if there was water in the trans fluid it was likely to be a radiator problem. I am not sure if that is what is the case here, we put some new trans fluid in and it stayed the rust color it should be but I havent driven it very far yet so the car hasnt really had a chance to run overmuch for me to find out if it will STAY the right color. If anyone could suggest some possible solutions for what would cause the trans fluid to turn milky white, and some possible solutions for those problems I would greatly appreciate it. Right now he is trying to look for a used radiator to go ahead and replace it but I didnt want to do that without posting my own message and seeing if the consensus was still the same with my specific problem. If it is the radiator if anyone knows where I could buy a used one or get a decent price on one in Northern Va that would also be greatly appreciated information. Thanks so much in advance!
Amy

Hello Amy:

You have replies from two persons who know Volvos very well, Steve and Robert. Keep in touch with them and Brickboard because you will need them. To start, here at Brickboard click on Features menu, 700/900 FAQ, "Cooling System" and "Transmission: Automatic". Read also "Buying a Used 7xx/9xx" and "High Mileage Vehicles Preventive Maintenance". You will find you have probably bought a car with a ruptured automatic transmission fluid (ATF) coolant tank. This tank is inside the radiator. When this tank ruptures, coolant and ATF mix inside the cooling system and transmission. Symptoms are the milky ATF you describe and oily and discolored coolant in the reservoir. Coolant in the transmission will ruin it even without driving the car. I do not know why anyone let you buy a car in that condition. If you cannot or will not get back the money you paid for the car, put in a new radiator and THOROUGHLY flush that transmission right away with new ATF. You will find instructions in 700/900 FAQ. For parts like a radiator, get in touch with Nick Bauer at www.fcpgroton.com Explain the situation and trust him to send you right away the parts you need at the lowest prices I know about. Still, you will likely have to put in another transmission. In this case, flush the new transmission, not the old. Transmissions for your can can be found for not too much money. For a used transmission, you can get in touch with a trusted and well liked person here at Brickboard, Brian Leppin at www.usedvolvoparts.com For a remanufactured transmission, you can get in touch with Nick Bauer. Both Brian and Nick are competent, honest and well like persons many of us I have dealt with many times. Explain your situation and they will find what you need for a fair price. Ask here at Brickboard for a reputable shop that can either rebuild the transmission in your car or put in another, if need be. Best of luck and post how you do. You will get help.

Thank you all so much for your time and information I really appreciate it! This website is so helpfull I am so glad my aunt told me about it! I am going to check out those web sites for the radiator part and I will let you know how it goes, I just wanted to say thank you all very much in the meantime!

If the general consensus is that the transmission is going to go on this, even if I do replace the radiator, then I am going to indebt myself to you again and ask for some educated opinions on another situation I could invest in.

To give you a little background on my previous car situation I had a '96 jeep grand cherokee limited,the transmission went out on that after I had just paid an arm and a leg to fix it because someone who only had uninsured motorist's insurance hit me right smack in the front grill enough to do a good bit of damage to all those expensive parts right up front there, as you can imagine it was QUITE costly and I just couldn't afford to put the money into a jeep transmission after that. So I had to pretty much take that at a loss and now I have virtually NO money to invest in a car and need transportation desperately. Am also not crazy to keep investing money in a car that will probably end up with the same problem I just had re: the transmission.

My mother's boyfriend warned me about the volvo I posted about for the ATF fluid (I had the year wrong in the first post it is actually an 87 but that is a moot point) anyway, he knew the guy who was selling it so he sold it to me for $300 and I figured even if it was a bust and turned out to be a terribly unreliable car that I could at least make that back off the parts on it.

What I wanted to run by you was another car that seems like it could be a good deal and get some advice on it this time BEFORE I go ahead and pay the $$ :o) -

A girl my sister works with is selling her 1990 740 GLE (140K mileage) it is in perfect condition cosmetically - she has all the records for it since new (it has been meticulously maintained) and her aunt owned it before her (so it has been in one family). She got a promotion and bought herself a new car but here is the catch with THIS volvo. She said that it has an external head gasket leak which she was quoted $1200 to fix. She also said that she has recently replaced the water pump and radiator because her mechanic misdiagnosed the problem at first but since she doesnt NEED to fix it and doesnt NEED to sell the car what she is offering me is the car for $1000 (she said that was negotiable since she is friends with my sister) but she doesnt want to pay to fix it. So I would have to buy the car from her and then immediately invest another 1,000 to get it running. I can afford that but I cant afford much else aside from that in parts to get it running so do you know what else typically goes with the head gasket and needs replacing? And what would cause an "external head gasket leak" (I am not even sure what that is specifically or what function the head gasket performs I should say - I will do some research on here, and I am sure I can put that one together as far as its function, but just wanted to fully explain to you how naieve I feel when it comes to things like this!

When I asked my mother's boyfriend about it he said something about the heads would probably be warped if it has a head gasket leak so that I wasn't just looking at a one time cost of 1200 to get it running. (He seems to know what he is talking about but the explanations on here are much more user-friendly to me. I want to understand my cars and WHY things go wrong etc not just a rattling off of names of parts that I don't know the function for... which is what he tends to do a lot of the time so I really appreciate the detailed explanations you have taken the time to spell out for my mechanically challenged self so far! Since you seem extremely knowledgeable about the layout of brickboard if you don't know about the head gasket could you direct me where to look or post a message on it? (I read and printed out those articles for the FAQs and High Mileage you recommended which I really appreciated also) Thank you again for all of the time you have taken to help me already I really do appreciate it.
Take care!

Amy

The cylinder head gasket is a gasket (imagine that) that fits between the cylinder head (the engine part just below the valve cover) and the main engine block. It serves as a seal, or mating surface if you will, between the head (usually made of aluminum) and the engine block which is cast iron. As these two metals are different and expand at different rates as the engine heats up to normal temp, the CH gasket is crucial in maintaining the combustion cylinder integrity and sealing it tightly. The CH gasket has a hole for each cylinder plus holes for the water passages that allow antifreeze to circulate around the cylinders to cool them.

When a HG failure occurs, it usually “blows” between two adjacent cylinders or between a cylinder and a water passage. The latter situation can allow antifreeze/water to be sucked into the cylinder involved. If the leak is very tiny, you may not notice anything except an unexplained loss of coolant with no evidence of an external leak. A major failure is considerably more impressive (there is no doubt) with steam/antifreeze blowing out the exhaust, overheating and finally a no run situation. Compression from the involved cylinder can also be transmitted backwards through the rupture into the cooling system via the cooling passages blowing the radiator/hoses/water pump seals etc etc. The most common cause of failure is warpage of the CH itself, gasket materal failure or improper tightening of the cylinder head bolts which must be tightened in a specific sequence and to a specific torque..

Two worrisome questions arise when considering a car with a known HG problem. The term “external” HG failure implies that the failure has occurred to the outside of the engine which probably results in antifreeze and or compression being lost to the outside. The classic blown HG is usually an internal engine problem. Cars with HG problems often overheat if the driver doesn’t note the problem right away. If the car in question was driven hot for any length of time, the engine could have sustained major (often terminal) damage that might not be apparent right away. The other major problem is antifreeze contamination of the engine oil similar to what happened to your tranny. A large HG failure between a cylinder/water passage allows the piston to suck large quanties of antifreeze into the cylinder that in turn gets past the piston rings and ends up in the engine oil (not good). This antifreeze in the oil may or may not destroy the internal engine bearings surfaces. If it does, this constitutes a major engine overhaul.

HG repairs aren’t cheap ($1000. is probably close to reasonable) unless you know someone knowledgeable who can do it for you (still may not be cheap). It is SOP for the cylinder head to be taken to a machine shop after removal from the engine to have it “trued” or machined perfectly flat to remove any warpage. If the person doing the repair doesn’t plan to do this, take it somewhere else as it will just fail again. Sadly, there are a lot of jacklegs around looking for a fast $$$. If the job is done properly, it should be as good as new and last indefinately provided the above mentioned problems (overheating didn't occur and no antifreeze in the oil) didn't occur.

Coolant in the tranny is bad: the antifreeze constituents can dissolve clutch material and trash the tranny if left in too long. Avoid this car.
A new radiator may be had on EBay or from Rusty at RPRusa.com, Nick at fcpgroton.com, or other suppliers for as low as $150. Installation is a snap.

usually means the trans cooler that runs through the radiator side tank has ruptures( there should also be oily streaks in the coolant in that case)
If you absoloutly ned a used one , check on ebay, and in the classifieds here on the brickboard.
Better to get a new one . www.gapa.com has them for between $135 and $170( the higher 3-core metal recomended, VA is a little hotter than where the 2 core jobs were designed for.

Also if you can get RPR's website to respond , they may be less on these ( I think its www.rprusa.com.
Groten has them for about the same price http://www.fcpgroton.com/volvo.htm
and shipping would probably be faster.

We had a similiar problem with a 91 740 about 300 miles from home. I was lucky enough to find a guy who put on a new radiator and flushed the system right way. He said ( my mechanic back home concurred) that the transmission was trashed and would fail in the not to distant future as the combination of the antifreeze and steam would destroy the clutches. He was right. It ran fine for about a month ( I flushed it 3 more times after we got home) and then it started slipping in reverse. Your tranny is basically junk living on burrowed time even if it seems "OK" at the moment. I'd start putting the money aside for a rebuild and limit my driving to around town (and keep your cell phone handy)