God bless you all at Brickboard.

I dropped the AT pan, cleaned it, put in new filter and gasket (Purolator P1250), flushed AT with 15 quarts of ATF, and put in a Magnefine 3/8 inch internal diameter filter in the ATF return line. I also overhauled the PNP switch and packed it with dielectric grease.

ATF drained from the pan was opaque. Put in a clear gallon contained, light from a flashlight would not shine through ATF, even at night. Likewise, ATF that came out the return line during flush. At the bottom of the pan there were no metal particles at all, but there was a small amount of grease like very fine metal dust attached to magnets. What little sediment there was at the bottom of the pan, and what seemed to make ATF opaque, looked like fine dust, like soot or even flour. I found no sign of water contamination.

Good news is AT is running. Still, there is a short delay of a second or two after I shift into D and before I feel drive engage. I wonder whether it is the dielectric grease I put in the PNP switch, or some internal slippage in AT. Any thoughts? I have driven the car around town and AT feels OK. I have not driven the car in the mountains or at speed yet. I am still trying to find who rebuilds AT locally for Lexus, if anyone, just in case. Volvo AT comes new from Sweden or rebuilt from US, $6,000 and three months wait for the former, $5,000 and two months wait for the latter. I am also reading Volvo manuals. After seeing ATF pickup in the AT filter behind the pan, I wonder whether I let ATF level fall low enough that running at speed uphill and accelerating ATF fell to the back of the pan, and AT momentarily sucked air instead of ATF, which lead top all the rest. I also wonder whether a momentary PNP failure and that I continued to drive the car home caused problems.

Happy Holidays!