2004 Volvo V70 XC transmission is "sweating" transmission fluid according to dealer mechanic

I'm looking at buying a certified pre-owned from Volvo and my mechanic
noticed a very small leak in the transmission. I asked him to replace
the gasket and he said there is no gasket and that the entire
transmission would have to be replaced and that the leak is too small
for Volvo to do anything about it. Should I pass on this car or deal
with the leak later since the car is certified for another 2 years.
Any other Volvo owners have dealt with this type of leak? Is it a big
thing or normal?

 

I'm confused here. Why are you asking your mechanic to fix a leak on
a car warranted by Volvo that you have not even purchased yet?

Additionally, rather than asking your mechanic what Volvo will or will
not pay for under the warranty why not ask Volvo?

 

I'm sorry, I don't think I was clear. I had my mechanic check out the
car and he found a small leak coming from the transmission that he
though was just a gasket that needed to be replaced. The Volvo
mechanic looked at it and told me it was normal leakage and there is
no gasket to replace and that Volvo wouldn't pay for the repair
because the only fix for it is to replace the entire transmission. I'm
a little worried about buying a car that could develop a major leak 2
days after my certified pre-owned warranty expires in 2 years. My
mechanic and my transmission guy have never heard of "normal" leakage
so that's why I thought I'd post here to see if any other Volvo owners
have dealt with this problem and if it neccessitated any repairs.

 

The leak is normally caused by a seal leaking, not a gasket. A seal is
around a rotating shaft, while a gasket is between two housings. The
transmission does need to be pulled to replace the seal, but my 2001
XC70 had a seal replaced under warranty when the car was brand new. It
had gotten to the point where it was leaving a couple drops on the
garage floor. Volvo fixed it with no questions asked. Apparently some
original equipment seals are bad. The replacement seals seem to last
forever.

 

Hmmmm, so should I demand that the Volvo dealer pull the transmission
and replace the seal before I purchase? They told me yesterday that
they couldn't do it outside of replacing the transmission and that
Volvo wouldn't pay for it unless it got worse. Could you email me the
dealer that did this fix for you so I can have my dealer contact them.
My email is joe5345 at gmail.com, thanks

 

I'm sorry I didn't read your post carefully. You say that the tranny
doesn't need to be pulled to replace this seal so I wonder why the
mechanic is pushing back so hard on not fixing it.

 

There is no such thing as normal leakage - you should get another
mechanic. Once again, you should ask Volvo whether this leak is
covered under the warranty. It should be. Indeed you might make repair
of the leak a condition of your purchase.

 

I just called the Volvo dealer again and asked him to fix the seal and
he said that there is no problem that the seal around the joint in
question "sweats" and that is normal so Volvo will not fix it. He's
saying that my mechanic is not a certified Volvo mechanic so he
doesn't know that the sweating around the joint is normal. I'm going
to walk in there (without my checkbook) and see the leak for myself
but I don't know why I have to when my trusted mechanic and
transmission person said the same is you that no leak is normal. I'm
pretty close to walking away from this one so thanks for the input.

 

OK, so I found out why they won't fix the leak - because they don't
fix transmission, they just take them out and send them back to Volvo.
They feel that Volvo won't fix the leak at this point because it's too
small. So they offered to take the amount of money a transmission shop
would charge off the price of the car. Should I get an estimate and
then buy the car or could this seepage mean there are other more
serious problems?

 

It's probably not a big deal, I wouldn't expect a bit of seepage to indicate
bigger problems, but that said, if I were buying a car that new from a
dealer I would expect the problem to be fixed.

 

Well, they offered me another year on the warranty for free so now I
have 3 years for the transmission to go into full leak mode and he's
also sending the car to my transmission specialist to get an estimate
on what it would cost to repair and they are going to take that off
the negotiated price. That sounds fair enough to me as long as the
leak isn't a harbinger of bigger problems to come. What I'm really
worried about is that the guys working the shift at the plant that day
the car was made were preoccupied or that the car has had some kind of
flood damage that compromised the seal. There were some major floods
in NY State last year.

 

The seal itself is likely the problem, not anything that would affect the
entire transmission. This is not the sort of problem I'd associate with
flood damage either. That often shows up in hidden places in the interior or
weird electrical gremlins.

 

" I'm looking at buying a certified pre-owned from Volvo "

what year, mdl, miles and how much $$ ??

 

2004 Volvo XC70 AWD 42K Price:$22,800

 

You read it right the first time:
"The transmission does need to be pulled to replace the seal"

My dealer sold out to another dealer.

 

What dealer ? This does not sound right @ all also what do they say is
exactly leaking ? if you can post the information I may be able to help you
Glenn K
Volvo Certified Technician
ASE Certified Technician

 

Glenn I emailed you the info. I don't want to post the dealer's name
just in case what they are telling me is the truth