Autobox on Volvo S80

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Tue 7 Jun 2005 00:42
Autobox on Volvo S80 - Gazza
I am asking on behalf of my friend. He is going to get a 4-5 year-old S80 2.4SE (170ps). The question is how many gears does the autobox have? Who makes the autobox? How reliable is the autobox? Volvo service schedule requires ATF change every 50k. As the car will have near 100k on the clock, can it be reasonable to expect another 100k on its original box?

Many thanks, Gazza
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 7 Jun 2005 00:57
Autobox on Volvo S80 - Aprilia
I posted info on this once before in response to a similar query. They are four-speeders.

The 5-zyl cars have the Aisan-Warner AW55 'box and the 6-zyl cars use the GM 6T45 'box. The GM box is not one of the best and is a bit prone to early failure. I believe it is 'sealed for life', although one can buy a drain plug kit to fit to the oil pan. Personally I wouldn't run any auto more that 25-30k without changing the fluid.

Whether it will last to 200k is difficult to say - if it has been used for towing or driven hard then probably 'no'. I have heard of the GM boxes failing as early as 50k mi. I would think the AW box is a bit more reliable.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 7 Jun 2005 01:04
Autobox on Volvo S80 - Gazza
I see, many thanks Aprilia. I shall suggest him to go for a manual box then.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 7 Jun 2005 01:39
Autobox on Volvo S80 - Aprilia
Well, manual 'boxes aren't guaranteed to be reliable to 200k either! Mind you, when they do go wrong they are usually cheaper to fix (9 times out of 10 its the synchro hubs).
Reply | Report as offensive | Link