DAMN DIRTY TRANS FLUID!!

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J

jd

hello all. i've got a '91 740 non-turbo with auto trans and overdrive.
the car has 70,000 om's and i've had it since it had 38,000m. since
getting it three years ago i've noticed the trans fluid gets
dark(perhaps dirty)very quickly after a service. complete flush and
all. no more then a couple thousand miles afterward and it's pretty
much brown, and not even nearly as fresh looking as the fluid in my 240
wagon after running that car for say, oh, 15,000-20,000m after service.
and the 240's trans has 225,000m on it!! i don't think the trans is
overheating. and even after a long hard day of los angeles city driving
the fluid isn't hot on the dipstick, nor does it smell burned. the car
shifts great and never struggles to do it's duties. and this is the
original trans. so what can be the cause of this seemingly quickly
degrading trans fluid? and why if it's in such apparent bad shape has
it continued on for three years and 32,000 tough city miles? with no
mechanical/performance problem, to boot. i get my oil changed every
3,500 miles, and i always here the same thing from whoever changes it.
they say "you need trans service. badly!" or "your trans fluid is in
awful shape". when i tell them it's done that for tens of thousands of
miles and i've had no problems, they just kind of scratch thier heads.
so tell me somebody, am i just lucky thus far or might this be normal
somehow? 'cause i'm a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of guy
when it comes to my volvos. but this situation begs the question of
why it ain't broke yet! and might it break anytime soon? any replys
would be appreciated :)
 
jd said:
hello all. i've got a '91 740 non-turbo with auto trans and overdrive.
the car has 70,000 om's and i've had it since it had 38,000m. since
getting it three years ago i've noticed the trans fluid gets
dark(perhaps dirty)very quickly after a service. complete flush and
all. no more then a couple thousand miles afterward and it's pretty
much brown, and not even nearly as fresh looking as the fluid in my 240
wagon after running that car for say, oh, 15,000-20,000m after service.
and the 240's trans has 225,000m on it!! i don't think the trans is
overheating. and even after a long hard day of los angeles city driving
the fluid isn't hot on the dipstick, nor does it smell burned. the car
shifts great and never struggles to do it's duties. and this is the
original trans. so what can be the cause of this seemingly quickly
degrading trans fluid? and why if it's in such apparent bad shape has
it continued on for three years and 32,000 tough city miles? with no
mechanical/performance problem, to boot. i get my oil changed every
3,500 miles, and i always here the same thing from whoever changes it.
they say "you need trans service. badly!" or "your trans fluid is in
awful shape". when i tell them it's done that for tens of thousands of
miles and i've had no problems, they just kind of scratch thier heads.
so tell me somebody, am i just lucky thus far or might this be normal
somehow? 'cause i'm a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind of guy
when it comes to my volvos. but this situation begs the question of
why it ain't broke yet! and might it break anytime soon? any replys
would be appreciated :)

Well, I guess your next step would be oil analysis, to see just what is
in there.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)
 
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