Volvo 480 Club Europe

Just to clarify, the gearbox isn’t really different in the 2.0, it just has a different part number implying that there is a subtle difference probably with shift points or final drive ratios. The torque converter having the same part number is encouraging.

Beggars can’t be choosers so I’d be fitting the 2.0 auto box if that’s all I could find. ANY 440, 460 or 480 auto box will fit your car but a Turbo or 2.0 would be preferable. To retain the speedometer and Info Centre you need a box with electronic speedo output, e.g most 480s, very few 440/460s.

I see you’ve dropped the fluid. You correctly mentioned that you will only have gotten 3.2-3.3L of the 5.5L contained within out. If the problem is fluid contaminated with coolant then one change may not be enough. If you have enough fluid spare, it might be worth trying this one or two times more? Make sure you take note of the part in the Green Book A5 about filling it up and taking your time to avoid foaming to get the level right.

The change interval for this is 40,000km (24,845 miles) so if this has been neglected and also running on a nasty mix of coolant and oil it could be very dead inside short of a rebuild.

Are you able to take the transmission cooler out of the equation by bridging it with some pipe and observing if any oil seeps out of the coolant hose connectors?


Also, and I’m sorry if this sounds rude as you may have plans for rectification, but are you sure that this car is worth spending any money on and will pass an MOT with that rust up front on the crossmember and subframe plus all the other stuff it failed on in April 2020?

jamescarruthers wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:53 am

Also, and I’m sorry if this sounds rude as you may have plans for rectification, but are you sure that this car is worth spending any money on and will pass an MOT with that rust up front on the crossmember and subframe plus all the other stuff it failed on in April 2020?

Aha ha no, you are right to think that, I have often thought it myself!! Especially when ray-le-otter throws out these glorious problems!! But I'm hoping to get enjoyment out of driving something I have essentially bought back from the dead.

The stuff on the April MOT has been addressed appart from the front subframe and crossmember, they where both advisory and I hope that they still are. I plan to go to that fabled volvo specialist breaker on the A1M1 somewhere and get the crossmember or get one from the Facebook 480 UK group once she's on the road and legal.

The other thing I am thinking about doing is pulling the engine and getting some poly engine mounts made, and treating the rust then; so taking the gearbox out/off at the same time would make sense.

The oil cooler was bypassed (left open) nothing came out of it and if water was in there I would expect it to separate out in some way in the old trans fluid (either by milk or a layer under the oil) but no signs of it.

Previous owner experienced similar condition fluid when he did the SUMP dump too. I don't know when that was and that was before I took ownership 5/6 years ago.

There are two auto boxes:
- non-turbo with 4.405:1 final drive
- turbo with 4.225:1 final drive

So changing from a turbo auto to non-turbo has some ramifications for top speed (4% lower), but will improve acceleration. You can counter this slightly by fitting 195/50-15 instead of 195/55-15 tyres.