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 :)- posted
19 years ago