Flush or just oil change at 150k
 

hi
On Monday i am meeting with the seller of XC60 2012 215hrs for the final checks at my local garage. It is ex company car (so 0 owners on V5 which i found bizarre) and during 40min drive gearbox worked properly and car was powerful.
To my shock and disbelieve Volvo confirmed what i heard on forum that they do not normally change gearbox oil at 40-50k intervals so its impossible to say if the oil was ever changed!!! The good thing the car does not have a tow bar so no caravan was ever towed and most mileage are hopefully motorway mileage.

Hence my question - what would you do - just normal oil change or full flush.
I got advice on previous threads that there is company hortoncars that adds LUCAS Oil during oil change which i am also considering.
https://hortoncars.co.uk/latest-news...arbox-repairs/

Please advise me if you can. I find volvo forum amazing and very helpful.

It is extremly easy to do in the drive. You don’t even need to hack the vehicle up.

at those miles you don’t really want a ‘proper’ flush as you will be going from highly degraded fluid to brand new. My suggestion is to change out 2.7l (normal drain volume) each month or two.

How many times shall i change it?
Straight away after purchase or maybe a week when i really know how the car is driving to spot the difference later?
Then once more after month or two ? or untill the colour of the break fluid is fresh?
Does my garage need any special funnels ? Would you add lucal oil as well?
Thanks for help!

There have been many threads on this and I'm not sure there's an awful lot more to say. You've done the right thing and had an extended test drive, so buy the car and take a view as to how you want to proceed - you will get different opinions on here, but the info's all there to make a decision in your circumstances.
AIUI Horton uses Lucas when indicated by previous harsh shifting, as opposed to routinely adding it.
Quoting a mileage would be helpful for others.

thanks for help i am bit stressed as the car is for my wife :) the volvo we are thinking of buying has 150k and 215hrs and during drive gears did shift properly. When i stopped the car and switched from rear to forward i could hear some thump but but when i pressed the brake more firmly i could not hear it any more when changing. Also i did this test on some slope which might invalidates the test :(
The car was really powerful and was really impressed how it pulls when i put foot down. A lot faster than my s60 2002 D5

If thumping into Drive, then that is symptomatic, as indeed Horton's article states.
I personally would get a full change done as a matter of course - as I did buying exactly the same model with 110K miles on it, and which was giving exactly the same thump from time to time when moving into drive (and fortunately when Graham from Horton was driving it, too).
Technique is your call - I went to Horton for a machine change.
The gearbox settled down in the week after the change and is now fine afterwards.

You will need a torx head drive socket. Do the TOP fill plug removal first so you don’t find you drain fluid then have an issue with the fill plug.

Under the level plug on the sump (torx) then the main drain head (hex head).

You will get approximately 2.7l of fluid out. It will be finished, black and toast. Then refil with 2.7 or what ever qty you remove. Wait a month and repeat. 4 times in total.

The gearbox has short adaptations and if you pull all the old stuff out and replace with new it may not work.

After 4th change of oil shall i change it then every 40k as normal?
There is no towbar.

Normal is c60K for these boxes, unless you want to do it earlier. You broadly have a couple of choices - either drain & refill c2.5L at every annual service, or leave it and do a complete change on the above schedule.

These are reliable gearboxes if treated as the manufacturer intended - if not, they are sealed for (a shorter) life like Volvo claims :)

That’s my feeling also. I did mine at 68k and am now on 110k. I will start doing it each service now. Little and often is the way forward here.