V70r awd 1999

[John Dexter]

Good afternoon,

I have one of the V70Rs with the 5 speed autobox. I am not a lover of autoboxes and mine has begun to play up.
When cold the autobox engages 1st gear normally when D is selected. Vehicle moves off and changes gear. However, when warmed up the 3rd gear seems to slip before engaging. Rather like driving a manual and pressing the clutch pedal while still pressing the throttle pedal.
Occasionally, changing down there is a moment's delay in engaging third and then it comes in with a thump.
Again, when warmed up, the lever is moved to D and there is a delay before 1st comes in with a thump. The Volvo mechanic where I took the car informed me that this seemed normal and that it was a characteristic of these gearboxes.
I had the fluid changed and used Volvo fluid to make sure the correct fluid was used. £90!!
Is there supposed to be a cartridge to hold the three CDs that are supposed to fit in the CD/wireless unit?
I would be grateful for any information and comments.
Many thanks in advance

[T5frankie]

yes about the cartridge mate, as for the transmission thats the start of the end mate and you won't find a replacement for it.

[siamblue]

You didn't state the mileage, but my 4sp adaptive box failed at 100k, Volvo wanted £3k for the 4sp, the 5sp if available would be even more, I am afraid looks like it is the end of the car and would be better breaking it for spares then reinvest your money into another,
I really liked my Volvo V70R AWD in Cassis, wasn't many of them around, but best thing i ever did was to get an older car one that wouldn't give me any ££££s of worth of problems, hence now i drive a V70R fwd manual.

Gary.

[T5frankie]

there was a bloke on here a while back who looked for months and months for a replacement 5 speed auto box and never found one he sold it with the problem in the end on ebay and made a whopping £1500 which surprised me

[siamblue]

there was a bloke on here a while back who looked for months and months for a replacement 5 speed auto box and never found one he sold it with the problem in the end on ebay and made a whopping £1500 which surprised me

He could've broken it for spare and would've probably got £3k> but if you are not mechanically minded then the latter would seem like a whole lot of trouble.

Gary.

[MrMark]

I searched for a month or so for a replacement box when my phase iii v70 r awd auto box gave up

Closest I got was a company in south scotland somewhere - £1900 to repair but they would only guarantee it for 30 days as the box was "hit and miss to repair"

I broke it for parts in the end

The cartridge you need is about £25 new from Volvo - send Rufe a PM

[Jimcoted]

Why not try this bloke, he is breaking a 70R AWD that was in an accident which seems to indicate that it was driving and the gear selector looks to be an automatic

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showth...=125075&page=4

[John Dexter]

Firstly thanks to all those who replied. It seems this gearbox is the later car's Achilles Heel.
However, I contacted a chap who worked for the local Volvo dealer for 23yrs and who had worked on my car for a few jobs. He suggested a company in Leighton Buzzard called Automan.
I called them this morning and there was none of this teeth sucking that some people perform when asked a question.
It seems that when 3rd gear starts slipping it's the valve body at fault. £600 and that has 7 solenoids. Then the clutches might need to be replaced as well as seals etc etc. However, they could remove the gearbox from the car (apparently a horrendous job), recondition it as necessary and re-fit for £1600 plus VAT. That didn't sound too bad given that the only other option appeared to be breaking the car for spares.
My brother had done some research of his own and contacted a Volvo dealer near his home. They informed him that the gearbox was exchange only, had to come from Sweden with an 8 week wait but no mention was made of whether they would change the gearbox or whether they would hand over a gearbox in exchange for mine. Price was roughly £2000 plus VAT.
Wasn't it clever of Volvo to build a car with what is, essentially, a non-repairable item. Getrag manual gearboxes fitted to some Jaguars were the same and a friend's Daimler Super V8 is the same.
Once again thanks for the responses and I hope this helps some others.

[John Dexter]

Good afternoon,

Just as an addendum to the last post I wrote. I contacted the local Volvo dealership and they have quoted £4088 for supply and fit. The gearbox would be reconditioned and not new. The gearbox alone was £2650 plus VAT. My brother's local dealer quoted £2700 plus VAT but that was for a new gearbox. However, they wanted my original gearbox when I collected the new one after 8 weeks from ordering it from Sweden.
I wrote a post last year and asked if anyone could advise on a manual conversion and had a couple of helpful replies. Basically it's too big a task as the ECU is linked to the gearbox but apparently a brave chap in the US has managed it and in theory the ECU could be re-mapped to help it understand why there are no signals from the manual gearbox that would be sent by the original autobox.

[p fandango]

theirs a few people on here converted 850's from auto to manual without any ECU adjustments for gearbox settings, is the gearbox more integrated into the ECU on V70's. Guessing they've converted motronic 4.3 while the V70 will be 4.4

[siamblue]

But Pedro this car is ME7, You can't fart and the car throws a fault..

[p fandango]

But Pedro this car is ME7, You can't fart and the car throws a fault..

i spotted the 1999 in title later but couldn't be bothered to go back & edit