AW55 gurus...

[Roverageous]

I know there’s a couple of chaps on here who have run cars with AW55 ‘boxes. I have one in my Volvo, but I have absolutely no experience of how a ‘normal’ AW55 box drives.

 

A few questions, if I may...

 

1. Colour of the fluid wiped off the dipstick is light beige colour. Certainly not red, but it doesn’t look dirty or anything. I presume the fact that it’s not red means it needs flushing / changing? It doesn’t smell at all either.

 

2. Any particular symptoms of impending doom? The gearbox is smooth and there’s nothing that makes me think it’s going to bork itself. HOWEVER there are a couple of little things it does that do make me wonder if it could do with the fluid changing... If you’re slowing with your foot off the accelerator, and then go to accelerate without actually stopping (say for traffic lights or a roundabout), occasionally it will give a little jiggle as it takes up drive, and very occasionally will select a gear but then as you begin to accelerate away it’ll drop another gear.

 

Of course these may be completely normal and I’m just over thinking. Any insights would be interesting though!

[Kiltox]

SiC knows how to revive these shit houses

[Stanky]

I've got one in my Saab 9-3, it seems happy and is on 145k now. I'm getting the ATF changed as its overdue and is a bit grumpy on changes when cold.

 

On the Saab, the interval is every 72k I think. They need a lot of ATF when doing a full flush, about 12 litres of the stuff apparently to flush out ~90% of the old stuff.

 

Changes in mine have been very smooth whole time I've had the car, kicks down as it should, no bangs or other untoward noises. I'm hoping that changing the ATF will help preserve this state of affairs, rather than having it changed to improve matters.

[Guest Hooli]

That 'confusion' on picking up drive sounds like a much less worse version of what my Saab does. Deffo worth a fluid change to stop it getting worse.

 

Mine gets hot (I think SiC said 95c oil temp) and starts to bang & slip when in 1st, 2nd or changing down to 2nd. Since SiC did a fluid change before I got it & a small leak on the oil cooler joint meant I had to put another 4 ltrs in a few months later, I know it's got clean fluid in. It's never got worse so I've never fixed it.

 

However this summer I intend to get the control unit off to strip & clean, maybe replace with the lower mileage one SiC left in the boot when I got the car. From what I've read (mostly from SiC) it's the solenoids in the control unit that stick and cause the poor changing rather than the gearbox itself.

 

Oh & it's done about 11-12k since SiC's fluid change, so as long as you get that done any problems shouldn't be an issue until you can be bothered to fix it.

[Roverageous]

That’s useful info. I’m not sure if it gets confused or just decides that actually i’m accelerating harder than it thought I was and drops another gear? Certainly doesn’t act any differently whether it’s hot or cold.

 

Trouble is, it’s a cheap car and I have to pay labour on all these jobs! I could run it as is, cross my fingers & bin it when it goes bang, or I could easily spend on:

 

Gearbox flush

Damaged bodywork

Tired rear shocks

Various suspension bushes

Brakes (they wobble)

New driver’s seat

Interior odds and sods

 

And that’s probably the best part of £1500 - more than it cost to buy. And that’s on the best example I could find for sale!

[Guest Hooli]

Just dump n replace the fluid a few times. The trick is to put the right amount back in, so measure what comes out.

 

From memory the oil has to be about 80c to get it right on the dipstick, the workshop manual says drive it for 20miles to get warm & then check. So I just drove it that far and checked the stick without checking the oil temp. Daft really as I bought a temp probe but I've never put a battery in it.

[25v6turbo]

I have the AW55 box in my 2005 Laguna V6,they are a good box but can suffer from "shunt"from standstill,i changed the oil in mine although it was a bit of a mission but worth doing,just be sure the exact amount you drain is added,you will have to do it a few times to be honest,they remember your driving style for gearchanges.

[Squirrel2]

I have the same ‘box in my XC70 and it drives nice and smooth with no ‘slips or bangs’ luckily. There can be a jolt when decelerating and the speed drops to that at which the converter ‘unlocks’ and then I immediately accelerate. A flush was done just after I bought it as it had not been done since new and it had covered 79k in twelve years.

 

Reading on the Volvo forums seems to indicate that these transmissions ‘learn’ or ‘adapt’ to one’s driving style. I think that this can be ‘reset’ using the Volvo diagnostic tool (Vida dice).May be worth a web search?

 

An oil change/flush would be the best first move together with a ‘fluid counter reset’.

 

Squirrel2

[Guest Hooli]

That rings a bell, I believe SiC reset mine when he had it.

[Squirrel2]

1. Colour of the fluid wiped off the dipstick is light beige colour. Certainly not red, but it doesn’t look dirty or anything. I presume the fact that it’s not red means it needs flushing / changing? It doesn’t smell at all either.

 

Re-reading your first question regarding the fluid colour; is there any coolant getting into the oil? Is the engine losing coolant? Failed trans oil cooler is not unheard of.

 

Squirrel2

[Roverageous]

Re-reading your first question regarding the fluid colour; is there any coolant getting into the oil? Is the engine losing coolant? Failed trans oil cooler is not unheard of.

 

Squirrel2

Not losing any coolant at all. I found a chart online of fluid colours. What I would describe mine as was headed "ready for change" but nowhere near as dark as the "overdue" example.

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[SiC]

Have you got a picture of the fluid? Beige doesn't sound good. But then different people have different interpretations of beige.

 

So is beige the colour of this forum?

[SiC]

Does yours drop into neutral when stationary? If so it may need a software update. What year is the car?

[beko1987]

Mine dropped into neutral when coasting below 50mph...

[25v6turbo]

They should drop into neutral at a standstill all 4 of mine I have owned(2xV6 lags,2x 3.5 Vel satis)but as soon as you release the brake pedal they drop into D,but often the case it can be with a delay and a thud(shunt)the colour of the oil does sound a bit strange though.

[Roverageous]

No it doesn't drop into neutral, so think that update's been done. Beige probably wasn't the right way to describe it!

 

In the image below, it is a couple of shades lighter / more see through than the middle sample.

 

[Guest Hooli]

Mine dropped into neutral when coasting below 50mph...

 

Nah that was just the torque convertor unlocking, it'd still have sat just over 1,000rpm right?

[beko1987]

Nah that was just the torque convertor unlocking, it'd still have sat just over 1,000rpm right?

Probably, I got used to it and ignored it in the end! Used to make a really big jolt when being a bit quick to accelerate from a standstill too, as mentioned earlier, and hang onto gears, but that could be because other parts of the engine were fucked...

[Guest Hooli]

Mine got surprisingly smoother when I found a leak on a boost control pipe, I guess the software was expecting more power & selecting gears for that.

[Roverageous]

Well I’ve had it flushed through to change all the fluid & had the ECU reset & updated. Definitely drives better already, although Mr Mechanic did say it might give a few rough changes while it relearn everything over the next few days.

[Stanky]

Did you do it yourself or farm it out to a garage? Do you mind me asking how much it cost if you farmed it out?

[MorrisItalSLX]

This vehicle was registered in Ipswich in the second half of 2005...

 

Oh, Gearboxes!

[Roverageous]

Did you do it yourself or farm it out to a garage? Do you mind me asking how much it cost if you farmed it out?

Farmed it out - I really don’t have the competence to start messing around with gearboxes!

 

It cost me £170 which is a set price for the job from this garage. I’m sure it would have been half the price if I’d done it myself, but I know it’s been done by someone proper.

[Stanky]

Thanks, broadly what I'm looking at for the local Saab Indie doing it. Apparently most of the cost is for industrial quantities of magic ATF which is fair enough.

[SiC]

Farmed it out - I really don’t have the competence to start messing around with gearboxes!

 

It cost me £170 which is a set price for the job from this garage. I’m sure it would have been half the price if I’d done it myself, but I know it’s been done by someone proper.

Not a bad price to basically futureproof the gearbox. They do last a long time if the fluid is changed in them. Unfortunately Volvo/Renault stated sealed for life, while everyone else (including Aisin Warner) didn't.