View Full Version : 105,000 miles and going strong
I have a 03 XC70 that just had its 105,000 mile service. FYI the 105,000 mile service is a major service, timing belts and etc. The dealer charge was just a little over $725.00.
My wife and I purchased the car new on the OSD program and have enjoyed it tremendously. It has been very reliable and has been joy to drive and own.
What more can I say about this car?
To sum it up it has been one of the most enjoyable cars that I have owned and look forward to driving it another 60,000 to 100,000 miles.
MGC
kersti
12-28-2006, 04:51 PM
I have also been very pleased with my 2003 XC70 that I got on the Overseas Purchase about the same time as you did. Obviously you drive the car as much as I do. I am now about 600 miles from 100K and have had no serious problems, I bought the extented warranty because this was my first Volvo and I was unsure of the reliablility. I made one repair under warranty and I believe it was an engine bolt and a new radiator so I could have saved money not having it. The warranty expires at 100K miles, so I will be back on my own. The 105K service is next. I have been going back to the dealer for regular service, hopefully they have been doing the tranny flush I was reading about every 30K miles. My biggest worry has been the expense of tranny problems. Hopefully this car will last me many more miles.
volvoshad
12-28-2006, 08:50 PM
I'll bet your dealer has not been doing ATF changes every 30K unless you requested it. Volvo does not recommend changing the fluid:eek: so unless you have an unusual dealer, they won't perform a change without a customer request or a tranny problem. The $400 charge would probably be a noticeable item on a bill, and would not be covered under warranty unless you were having a transmission problem the dealer attributed to the ATF. I would check the fluid's appearance, but plan a flush and fill soon.
Congratulations to both of you on your high mileage Volvos.
philosophicaldreamer
12-28-2006, 11:00 PM
The $400 charge would probably be a noticeable item on a bill, and would not be covered under warranty unless you were having a transmission problem the dealer attributed to the ATF. Why $400?:eek: So far I have paid $260 at a local volvo dealer.
Ta-ta,
janusz
XCscott
12-29-2006, 02:16 AM
Welcome to the high mileage club...I went through 200,000km on my '03 just before the holidays. Must say it has been a good experience. The safety, comfort and confidence of driving the XC has been the most enjoyable. I did not opt for the ext warranty and have cruised through $1000 maintenance bills for the regular maintenance upkeep probably twice per year. It is not an inexpensive vehicle to maintain by the numbers. This year I actually opted into a set of Gislaved Nordfrost's for the winter...of course it has been above zero for the last 2 months...but the one day we got 26" of snow, it was a treat to drive with them.
volvoshad
12-29-2006, 03:43 AM
Why $400?:eek: So far I have paid $260 at a local volvo dealer.
Ta-ta,
janusz
The charges reported vary considerably. You are at the low end of what I've seen; others have paid $300-400.
The dealer I take my car too is recommending a transmission flush every 60,000 miles. If I remember correctly it was flushed at 60,000 miles and I plan on doing it again at 120,000 miles.
The only warranty work that has been done on this car was to change the engine mount bushings. They were cracked. Other than regular oil changes, brakes and tires the car has lived up to my expectations.
MGC
MGC, you may want to consider flushing your transmission more often. I had fluid analysis done on ours at 46k miles and it was ugly. Granted, the fluid contained all the break-in junk and was subjected to the stop-neutral torture the whole time, but the wear levels were still many times higher than typical. Also keep in mind that these units have no filters. You can see the analysis results here (http://home.comcast.net/~moebdick/ATanalysis.jpg).
MGC, you may want to consider flushing your transmission more often. I had fluid analysis done on ours at 46k miles and it was ugly. Granted, the fluid contained all the break-in junk and was subjected to the stop-neutral torture the whole time, but the wear levels were still many times higher than typical. Also keep in mind that these units have no filters. You can see the analysis results here (http://home.comcast.net/~moebdick/ATanalysis.jpg).
MoeB
I appreciate the suggestion and will have the transmission oil change in couple thousand miles.
MGC
funglenn
01-02-2007, 12:31 PM
When you guys say flush, what exactly do you mean by that? Do you mean changing the 4 quarts when they drop the pan? Or do you mean a power flush?
If all I can get is the 4 quart job, do you all consider that worth it? Unfortunately in Europe the stuff is really really really expensive, almost 3x what the US cost is for lubricants, and I am NOT willing to do 12 quarts at their price. The car has 52 thousand miles and I will not be back in teh US until roughly 65-70 thousand miles, which may be a bit late to do it.
Thoughts?
doublecheese
01-02-2007, 01:18 PM
Last week I took my 2001 XC70 into the garage to check for the tranny fluid. The chief mechanic inspected the tranny fluid with his eyes, he smelt it and he rub it into his fingers and he told me my tranny fluid was still good although I have 77.000km (48.000miles) on the clock.
From what I saw, the fluid was brownish color with some lighter dots.
Anyway I told the guy I want to flush the fluid, he said there was no need, I insisted and I made a reservation for next week to have the fluid flashed.
He told me that it will take him about and 1hour, and he can not flush the fluid at once, he told me he has to put new fluid step by step. He also told me he has to run the engine for some time then add some more fluid then run the engine again, something like that. Is his method correct ?
Also the estimated cost is around USD 250-300 depending on the hours they work with my car.
tgrumaj
01-02-2007, 01:54 PM
The cost estimate seems in the range of what your model year would cost. I have a 99 and can use the Dexron III fluid...much cheaper than the Volvo special fluid needed for the later models 2000+. My cost was a bit over 125 US but some of the feedback here says costs up to 400US for the full flush on 2000+ model year XCs.
mbsl98
01-02-2007, 03:15 PM
My long standing approach to transmission fluid changing is to use a vacuum pump (about $40 at any marine store) and suck out the 3 1/2 quarts or so that can be drained without accessing teh torque converter, by simply slipping teh plastic tube down teh tranny fill tube in front of engine bay. I do this about every other oil change (about 10k intervals) with the Dextron III cars, and refill with standard dextron III bought by the case for about $1.50/quart (for brand name stuff). Doing that, it is always a fresh looking pink and smells new even at 150k. I plan on the same approach with the '07, and will keep a case of 3309 on theshelf that will cost about $5/qt including shipping, or about $20 every 10k miles. It is so easy to do it this way that is seems foolish to let it go.
When you guys say flush, what exactly do you mean by that? Do you mean changing the 4 quarts when they drop the pan? Or do you mean a power flush?
No, not power flush. Like Click and Clack once said, shops that recommend power flushes are usually making payments on power flushing machines. :) "Flush" is maybe a little confusing, but it's the term most people use even when the procedure is really more of a fluid exchange than a flush. The pan drop method does a partial change and has the advantage of letting you clean out any goo that collected in the pan, but a complete fluid change is best. Read this (http://www.volvoxc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5668&highlight=transmission+flush) thread for more info. I haven't seen the official tech notes, but I've heard that this method is more or less equivalent to Volvo's official method.
volvoshad
01-02-2007, 08:04 PM
When you guys say flush, what exactly do you mean by that? Do you mean changing the 4 quarts when they drop the pan? Or do you mean a power flush?
If all I can get is the 4 quart job, do you all consider that worth it? Unfortunately in Europe the stuff is really really really expensive, almost 3x what the US cost is for lubricants, and I am NOT willing to do 12 quarts at their price. The car has 52 thousand miles and I will not be back in teh US until roughly 65-70 thousand miles, which may be a bit late to do it.
Thoughts?
Your tranny holds 7.5L, and I have found to really get clean looking fluid, you have to exchange (as MoeB says) about double that. You can mail order Mobil 3309 from avlube.com for about $50 a case. Even with shipping to Germany, this should be cheaper than the OEM Volvo fluid, which is over $200 a case in the US.:eek:
Oh, and doublecheese, any mechanic that thinks he can fully analyze transmission fluid visually and by smell is a quack. Burnt fluid is obvious, but by then your tranny is probably toast anyway. Lesser degrees of ATF degradation are not necessarily obvious. Check out MoeB's ATF analysis.
doublecheese
01-04-2007, 03:51 PM
Oh, and doublecheese, any mechanic that thinks he can fully analyze transmission fluid visually and by smell is a quack. Burnt fluid is obvious, but by then your tranny is probably toast anyway. Lesser degrees of ATF degradation are not necessarily obvious. Check out MoeB's ATF analysis.
Hey Guys,
Tomorrow morning ( in about 9 hours time) I'm driving to my local Volvo Service to have my Tranny Flushed, I'm gonna do it with the original Volvo oil.
Any suggestions or any tips you can offer that I should do or tell my chief mechanic ?
Take a clean plastic bottle (old oil bottle or some such) and have your tech collect some of the old fluid, then find a lab that does oil analysis and have the old fluid tested to see how your tranny is wearing.
doublecheese
01-04-2007, 04:24 PM
Hmmmmm
A good idea, I will take a plastic water bottle with me and have it analysed in the lab.
We produce steel tubing and we have all our mineral and synthetic oils analysed every week anyway ;)
Just be sure it's dry! ;)
doublecheese
01-05-2007, 03:48 PM
Take a clean plastic bottle (old oil bottle or some such) and have your tech collect some of the old fluid, then find a lab that does oil analysis and have the old fluid tested to see how your tranny is wearing.
I just had my tranny oil flushed at Volvo Service. First of all I realised they only replaced 4 liters of oil I asked them why ? I wasn't happy with their answer and I made them add 8 liters more oil. Total 12 liters.
The old oil was dark brown color, I collected some for analysing in the lab. I put it in a plastic water bottle, I shined a xenon flash light but I couldn't see thru. I guess I made a good job flushing the oil. I'm sending the sample to the lab on monday.
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/2382/dsc01127uw8.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9128/resizeofdsc01128nt2.jpg
This is the color of the fluid after 8 liters of fluid.
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/6505/resizeofdsc01131di9.jpg
After this one, we added 4 more liters of fluid, then we connected my car to the Volvo's computer programme (what is it called anybody knows? ) everything was OK.
I guess my tranny is flushed well now....
barrysharp
01-07-2007, 12:00 AM
MGC & Kersti:
Congratulations for the 100K mark.
We all bought our OSD cars at same time if I recall. We're at 51K miles currently and car is running smoothly. Had a set of electronic modules replaced under warranty to fix a weird dashboard display issue but apart from this no real issuses.
Have had it serviced per Volvo's maintenance schedule and change oil every 5K miles (don't use synthetics). Oh, and I've been running 89 octane for about 2 years now.
New set of tires at the 49.5K mile mark - bought same as OEM tires as I like them.
My main complaint really is the poor MPG around town. :(
Car is now out of factory warranty so finger crossed at this time - but from your two reports I shouldn't have any worries, right ?
Take care fellow OSDers.
MGC,
Congrats on the high mileage! We too have an '03, but only with half as many miles as you (circa 48K) that we purchased in Germany via Volvo Military Car Sales (so kinda pseudo OSD, I guess :) ). Our '03 has, quite frankly, been the most reliable vehicle we have ever owned. In fact, we were/are so pleased with the '03 that we bought an '07 model and picked it up last month. I hope both make it to the 100K mile mark. Congrats again!
Barry
We both took delivery of our cars on the OSD program the same day. Our 03 has been everything I had hoped it would be and more. It has seen a lot of freeway miles, carried large loads and at times has towed a 17' boat.
It's true the in city mileage could be better but I really can not complain. On long trips if I use cruse control I will get a consistent 26 mpg. With a mix of city and highway driving it is usually around 20 mpg. During the winter the mpg seems to be a little less.
I'm sure your car as well as Gary's and any XC70 will make it to 100k with few problems. I'm now looking forward to the 200k mark.
If I like the new body style on 08 XC70 I will probably wait until 09 and order another XC70 on the OSD program. We had such a good experience with the OSD program that in my opinion it was the best buying experience I had ever had with a car purchase.
Morrie (MGC)
barrysharp
01-13-2007, 09:17 PM
Barry
We both took delivery of our cars on the OSD program the same day. Our 03 has been everything I had hoped it would be and more. It has seen a lot of freeway miles, carried large loads and at times has towed a 17' boat.
It's true the in city mileage could be better but I really can not complain. On long trips if I use cruse control I will get a consistent 26 mpg. With a mix of city and highway driving it is usually around 20 mpg. During the winter the mpg seems to be a little less.
I'm sure your car as well as Gary's and any XC70 will make it to 100k with few problems. I'm now looking forward to the 200k mark.
If I like the new body style on 08 XC70 I will probably wait until 09 and order another XC70 on the OSD program. We had such a good experience with the OSD program that in my opinion it was the best buying experience I had ever had with a car purchase.
Morrie (MGC)
How's the rope business going. ;)
Here's to your 200K mark. :)
...and good luck with that '09 XC70. I'm holding judgement on it until I get to see it up front. It does sound it will have plenty of options and for the really adventurous types a big ole V8. I suspect it will have a large price overlap with the XC90 but then again it has a totally different look and more streamlined than today's XC70. The rear lights do look very intimidating as does the front end. ;)
How's the rope business going. ;)
...and good luck with that '09 XC70. I'm holding judgement on it until I get to see it up front. It does sound it will have plenty of options and for the really adventurous types a big ole V8. I suspect it will have a large price overlap with the XC90 but then again it has a totally different look and more streamlined than today's XC70. The rear lights do look very intimidating as does the front end. ;)
Berry
You bring up some good points and I agree this will be a car that needs to be seen in person before making a decision. If they are using the front end off the new 80 I think the smoother edges of the hood and lights will look great but I'm not sure if I like the bumper, grill and body cladding.
The 08 XC70 must have blue tooth as a standard feature as well as Ipod connections.
The engines options should be a great improvement for this car. This is one area I have felt our 03 has lacked. It just needs more power on the low end.
In the end it really comes down to price. If the new version is pushing the price range of a 90 then it might be time to shop around. There are a lot of very nice cars in that price range.
Oh by the way. The rope business has been good.
Morrie
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