I have 107K on my V70 XC and I finally got around to using the tranny flush kit I bought. It was a very simple process and I finished in under an hour.

I used the Amsoil ATF Dextron III fluid as a replacement. It was a little on the pricey side but boy, what a different in the tranny after. It shifted as smooth as new and that delay when I put in reverse was completely gone. All this improvement with just a tranny flush.

I wish some of the other maintenance jobs were this easy!

RGW

Your transmission could not tell the color of the fluid, even though your eyes can. It's nice to hear that your service improved things, but why was it in need of improvement in the first place? Does your transmission 'cook' its ATF?

If so, then synthetic should improve longevity (so now you won't have to flush it again for, say, 5X as long?).

But they're not supposed to 'cook' their ATF. Dexron is the most over-engineered fluid in most cars. I don't race my car up Pikes Peak these days, but it once spun its front tires virtually all the way from Glen Cove to the Summit (it needed a new upper engine mount bushing not long after that), and the transmission's never missed a beat. IOW, my car has always been seemingly incapable of 'cooking' its ATF (though it never spent day after day in Houston Summer gridlock...).

I have, preventively, when the car was removed from service (for periodic timing belt replacement) anyway, changed the Dexron in my car's Aisin-Warner 4-spd transmission, and never noted any significant (room for) improvement. So I've never been inclined to spend (waste?) my money on synthetic ATF (even though I always use synthetic oil in the engine), including reasons beyond cost: unlike engine oil, tranny fluid is not exposed/subjected to combustion temps/byproducts/contaminants, nor do we want tranny fluid to be as frictionless as possible (it must retain some 'grabbiness').

Remember, if there's something wrong with your transmission (or car['s design]), that's causing it to damage the most over-engineered fluid in your car, then changing the fluid will only treat the symptom, not the cause (any more than blood transfusions can cure, or prevent, leukemia).

Where did you buy the flush kit? I'll give this a go myself!

It is so easy, I always wonder why others don't do it. I can under stand the dealers reluctance, they would rather sell a $3500 tranny than do a $100 flush.

Question: Isn't your car a 5 speed? Or was that in 2001? My gray cells are failing faster than I thought, because I thought the 5 speed required Mobil 1 3309 fluid.

Klaus
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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)

It turns out I have the 4spd automatic version which makes my transmission fluid much cheaper :)

i flushed/refilled the tranny on my 1995 850 recently and it is certainly better behaved and shifts more confidently than before. good riddance to brown fluid!
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-woodsytf '95 850 wagon 160k

Good to read of a success story. There has been a lot of controversy in BMW circles about "lifetime" transmission oil in their automatic transmissions, and even BMW has, since 2002, recommended 100,000 mile oil change. Smart owners change it more frequently.

Fit an inline tranny filter and get permanent "as new" operation.

http://www.emergingent.com/subpage1Magnefine.htm
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Tek