Am I playing with fire?

[al dm]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

With modern oils. And with that box I would not see any advantage to taking off from the bottom really as I would not expect there to be any dwarf, filings and such like. Any contaminants will be suspended in the fluid, just run the box first.

I would probably still level it myself at the conclusion of the changes because you don’t know that the initial level was accurate, however it’s much easier to do if taking from the top.

Never an issue for me as I have an xc90 so don’t need to jack the vehicle as I can get underneath it.

Good find!

You are probably correct - and I haven't seen any swarf or other such ****e in the 3 drainings I have done so far, If I wanted to be really anal about it, I would tale a rare earth magnet and wiggle it about in the sump pan on the end of a bit of wire, but I see no need. The fluid removed so far seems to have no visible particles.

I will definitely level the fluid properly at the end of this process.

I bought the vacuum fluid drainer more for use on my motorcycles where it can be very messy to do an oil change (yes, Harley Davidson, we are looking at you), so being able to use it for the tranny drain on the Volvo is a bonus.

[Tatsfield]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

I would not expect there to be any dwarf and such like.

On the earlier boxes, all the gear changing was done by dwarves but they've phased them out on the more recent models.

[bananarama]

Originally Posted by al dm

I think the only possible issue is that it might be better to do a drain and refill cycle from the bottom first to catch any metallic crud at the bottom of the sump that comes out. Sucking from the top probably wont get as much.

There are magnets somewhere inside the box, along with a filter, so I wouldn't expect there to me much metallic crud at the bottom of the sump.

magnet_dirty.jpg magnet_clean.jpg auto_filter.jpg

[al dm]

Originally Posted by bananarama

There are magnets somewhere inside the box, along with a filter, so I wouldn't expect there to me much metallic crud at the bottom of the sump.

Attachment 143862 Attachment 143863 Attachment 143864

Interesting. As I said above, I haven't seen any metallic particles in the drained fluid anyway. I just like thinking about things like that.

It's kind of strange to me that Volvo wouldn't put the magnets on the drain plug itself. That way, any crud could be easily cleaned off when doing a fluid drain.

But hey...."sealed for life" I guess...

[bananarama]

Originally Posted by al dm

But hey...."sealed for life" I guess...

Apparently!

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

On the earlier boxes, all the gear changing was done by dwarves but they've phased them out on the more recent models.

I need to get hotter in my auto correct don’t I!

Swarf…. Lol!

[bananarama]

Originally Posted by al dm

I will definitely level the fluid properly at the end of this process.

Hmmmm I get around 3.2L whereas I think you're getting 3.5L? Maybe mine is running a tad dry? I'll have do the same as you then: on my last change will overfill by 0.5L, get it up to 60-70C, and level the fluid. I don't have Vida or anything like that, but I do have a Bluetooth OBDII Reader which will show me the ATF temperature on the phone - lovely jubbly!

[al dm]

Originally Posted by bananarama

Hmmmm I get around 3.2L whereas I think you're getting 3.5L? Maybe mine is running a tad dry? I'll have do the same as you then: on my last change will overfill by 0.5L, get it up to 60-70C, and level the fluid. I don't have Vida or anything like that, but I do have a Bluetooth OBDII Reader which will show me the ATF temperature on the phone - lovely jubbly!

Bear in mind that I have no idea if my box was correctly filled when I started the process. I have just been replacing what I measured that I took out and will only do a flat ground levelling once I have finished up the rest of the fluid that I have.

But the difference could be something as simple as the height of the ramps we put our cars up on to do the drain. I drive mine up on a set of ramps about a foot tall. Not sure if you even lift yours up or not.

No VIDA here either - I only have an M1 silicon MacBook and there's no way to run VIDA on these right now. But it's interesting to note that an ODB2 reader will show the ATF temperature. I didn't know that and will now need to buy one....

[bananarama]

Originally Posted by al dm

But the difference could be something as simple as the height of the ramps we put our cars up on to do the drain. I drive mine up on a set of ramps about a foot tall. Not sure if you even lift yours up or not.

AH! Good point, my ramps are homemade, around 20cm high. Whatever level it had and still has is from factory, no obvious leaks, so I assume it's fine. Either way will give the levelling off a go.

Originally Posted by al dm

No VIDA here either - I only have an M1 silicon MacBook and there's no way to run VIDA on these right now. But it's interesting to note that an ODB2 reader will show the ATF temperature. I didn't know that and will now need to buy one....

The guy on the DriveLife YouTube channel uses this reader, and he seems happy enough so I got it too. I don't use the same app as him, and I forget the name of what I use. I think it may be called car scanner or something simple like that.

[al dm]

Originally Posted by bananarama

The guy on the DriveLife YouTube channel uses this reader, and he seems happy enough so I got it too. I don't use the same app as him, and I forget the name of what I use. I think it may be called car scanner or something simple like that.

So I bought one of those yesterday, it arrived today and I found out I already had "Car Scanner Pro" on my phone from mucking about with one of my kid's cars a few years ago using a cheap Chinese OBDII scanner (which was a pain in the arse to even get connected).

I am amazed. The VEEPEAK unit plus the app is an excellent bit of kit. I am really surprised how many parameters you can read with it.

The good news is all the fault codes it read were historic, I cleared them all and went out for a bit of a drive. Came back and read them again. Zero DTCs. Nice!