Wife's S70 (1998 non-turbo) will be getting routine maintenence from me from now on except for major items like timing belt.

1) In the service/warranty manual every 10,000 miles it calls for "check/adjust transmission function" or something worded very similar. What is meant by that? I suppose I can sign up for AlldataDIY.com to see what's involved but was hoping someone here could help. "Check" to me suggests a driveability test, but I've no idea how one would "adjust" an automatic transmission casually. This is not regarding the fluid in the tranny, since that is a completely separate line item reading something like "check and adjust fluid level" and that's pretty straight forward.

2) The service/warranty manual does not call for routine transmission fluid changes, but I see from the previous owner receipts it was done a few times. Thoughts?

All the rest of the scheduled maintenence looks pretty easy, except of course for that pesky 1998 reset tool. I'm tempted to take the dash apart and disable the bulb instead of paying $150 for the tool.

I'm not sure there is anything to adjust in the transmission. Maybe
just check that all transmission gear selector ranges work, and
winter mode working. As the driver/owner, you probably have a good
idea if it is working well.

General view here seems to be that tranny fluid should be flushed.
You are probably doing well to find a used one that has had this done.

Timing belt is reported to be rather easy. But, beware that in later
part of the 98 production run they switched to a different type.
Earlier types are easier and the procedure is documented at
http://volvospeed.com/bay13.htm. Newer design is best left to the
pros. See http://www.brickboard.com/AWD/?id=571459 for details

You might consider a subscription to www.alldatadiy.com. You get
the service info and technical service bulletins. $25/year first
year then $15/year I'd also get
a OBDII code reader (I have a 98, and I did) but they also go for
around $150 and won't reset the service light (they do tell you
of any problems and reset the check engine light).

I have a subscription for my other car (1998 Jaguar XJ8) and the info is spotty. Some stuff is in great detail, other stuff is so haphazard as to look like pages were left out. It's also nice to have a book where you can lay it out and flip pages, computer is not as friendly. I can say that it's nice having all the TSBs in detail, because the guys at the dealership tend to NOT be up to date on them (all dealerships I've experienced recently including Acura, Jaguar and BMW). I had a CD-ROM factory service manual for my last car (1998 BMW 528i/5) and it was amazingly detailed, so much so as to be pretty intimidating.

As for the tranny "adjustment" I'll be interested to find out what this actually entails, if anything. Seems dubious but you never know. It seems to shift well so far at about 49,000 miles.

After much hard use, I had the ATF self-flushed (supply fresh ATF and let the old escape with the engine idling) at 61K mi.

Now it's past 140K mi and due for another timing belt. I'll likely have the self-flush done again at that time, but the AT is still behaving itself perfectly.

Volvo's "leave it the hell alone" (ie, treat it as a sealed system) recommendation is not as far-fetched as it sounds to some people. As I 'always' say, the Dexron II ATF is the most over-engineered fluid in your car; there is no way to realize the same levels of benefit by going to synthetic ATF as there is in going to synthetic engine oil (which leads a much tougher life).

If, however, you do a lot of gridlocked stop-and-go 1st-gear heavily-loaded 'driving' in heat-soaked conditions, it might be of some benefit, though it still might be more cost-effective in dealing with extreme use to just change Dexron a bit more frequently (because I've yet to meet anyone who worries about this stuff that has such supreme confidence in synthetic ATF that, unlike Dexron, they'll just put it in and leave it in forever -- and that stuff is expensive...).

- Dave; '95 854T, 143K mi; K+N, DurAlt, Mobil1, Bosch Platinums