S40 (New) Engine Turbo : Coolant and g/box oil changed at 26K miles/4 yrs

[Welton]

Yesterday I had the coolant changed at my independant garage and the old stuff that came out was terrible! it had deposits of soft scale-like stuff which couldn't be seen in the expansion bottle and was generally past it's best at exactly 4 years and 26K miles (it's just had a Volvo service costing £380.00 where the coolant was reported as being 'ok').

The old coolant was flushed with a Forte flushing agent, ran up to temp, drained, cooled, flushed again, then filled with new long life coolant with a Forte conditioner added and now it's great - well worth it and the new stuff will look after the water pump, rad, head, seals, etc.

On the gearbox (6-speed manual) I'd been having some issues selecting 1st and reverse gears so the old fluid was drained and 2.1ltrs of Genuine Volvo gear oil (3 x 1ltr bottles @ £13.00) added and now the box feels fantastic - really slick and a pleasure to use. This morning 1st gear had a *slight* resistance to it but 100% better than it was. The old oil that came out had gone much darker in colour than the new stuff but otherwise appeared ok to look at.

Just to note the garage showed me how difficult it was to get access to the level plug on the box requiring the gearbox mount to come off and the engine pushing forward a bit to get a 24mm socket onto it - he said you'd struggle like mad tryng to do it without garage ramps and I can believe it.

Anyway I'm £140.00 lighter but very happy with the job.

Thanks for listening,

Welton

[wsam7]

How do i know its time to check and change?

i got a used S40, 55 REG at beginning of May from Volvo dealer
he said everything is done and fix and service

but i am not a car expert, i never know people in garage tell lies or not

so is there a simple test i can DIY from time to time and so i know what is new or not?

[Welton]

No-one seems that bothered about coolant in my opinion if it 'looks' ok to the eye but that's not good enough for me as I want everything to be perfect so I can enjoy the car with peace of mind.

My car has a full dealer history and all I can say is that the coolant was far from 'ok' when it was drained out of the radiator.

I should add that the car only covered 500 miles over 10 months or so last year before I bought it so this could have contaminated the coolant BUT I did ask the supplying deler to check it and even offered to pay in full for it to be changed but they insisted it was ok. I had other thoughts about it hence this thread.

[Penguinistics]

Draining the coolant system is relatively time consuming to do properly due to the many "legs" of the system that quite happily retain old coolant when you're trying to cut corners and do things fast, like garages tend to be inclined to do.

Last time I changed my coolant I was also doing the cambelt. I pretty much always change the water pump with the cam belt off out of convenience (it doesn't cost a lot and to pre-emptively change before it fails potentially saves alot) so I end up with a hole in the side of the engine and have to change the coolant anyway. Even then the radiator and heater matrix aren't drained and you have to mess around disconnecting other hoses and washing through one by one. Then you're potentially left with a head of water without any coolant in it.......so you end up adding a litre or two of neat coolant to regain the balance and mix up the rest......it's a pain and somehow there's always some of the old coolant left so your header tank ends up a mixture of pink and blue.

I would guess in a garage they would at most disconnect the lower radiator hose or water pump if they're changing it (probably not), wait until it stops coming out the hose, reconnnect and then fill up. That's assuming that they actually change the coolant!

[HEAVY747]

Originally Posted by Welton

Yesterday I had the coolant changed at my independant garage and the old stuff that came out was terrible! it had deposits of soft scale-like stuff which couldn't be seen in the expansion bottle and was generally past it's best at exactly 4 years and 26K miles (it's just had a Volvo service costing £380.00 where the coolant was reported as being 'ok').

The old coolant was flushed with a Forte flushing agent, ran up to temp, drained, cooled, flushed again, then filled with new long life coolant with a Forte conditioner added and now it's great - well worth it and the new stuff will look after the water pump, rad, head, seals, etc.

On the gearbox (6-speed manual) I'd been having some issues selecting 1st and reverse gears so the old fluid was drained and 2.1ltrs of Genuine Volvo gear oil (3 x 1ltr bottles @ £13.00) added and now the box feels fantastic - really slick and a pleasure to use. This morning 1st gear had a *slight* resistance to it but 100% better than it was. The old oil that came out had gone much darker in colour than the new stuff but otherwise appeared ok to look at.

Just to note the garage showed me how difficult it was to get access to the level plug on the box requiring the gearbox mount to come off and the engine pushing forward a bit to get a 24mm socket onto it - he said you'd struggle like mad tryng to do it without garage ramps and I can believe it.

Anyway I'm £140.00 lighter but very happy with the job.

Thanks for listening,

Welton

Sorry but nonsense - the drain and filler plugs for the gearbox is readily accessible I had no problem!! Your garage is having you on!!

[Guru]

Originally Posted by HEAVY747

Sorry but nonsense - the drain and filler plugs for the gearbox is readily accessible I had no problem!! Your garage is having you on!!

Hi there Heavy, for our MMT6 trany the plugs are easily accessible, but the M66 trany of the T5 that Welton has may be differently located?

[Welton]

Originally Posted by HEAVY747

Sorry but nonsense - the drain and filler plugs for the gearbox is readily accessible I had no problem!! Your garage is having you on!!

I have been using this garage for 10 years and know the owner very well - he showed me the problem, the 'level' plug is not accessible without doing what I said.