my Volvo manual (from earlier year) states that in fact every 40.000 km ATF must be flushed.
Volvo dealers in Holland say that because there is no draining plug on the gearbox oil sump, it does not need to be replaced as long as it works well. That is wrong,
Gearbox is flushed by removal of the draining pipe little mount on the bottom of the gearbox first, then removal of the oil sump.
there is a filter attached on the gearbox, which can be reached once the oil sump is removed and cleaned. It should be a metal filter that needs to be washed and returned in the gearbox (for 1995 model, at least it was on my 1995 LPT car with AW gearbox)
this must be done under strict clean environmental conditions
do not use cloths, or any paper, which can leave particles on the surface of what is being wiped
it is wise to flush the torque converter: for that a helper is needed and other procedure used (disconnection of the ATF cooler, running the engine while adding new oil; collecting what is going out. Do this before removal of the oil sump, it will inflict loss of ~ 5-6 lit of ATF)
ATF is prone to deterioration with heat and normal gearbox wear
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i never managed to have my '95 940 changing gears exactly how I will like when the kick-down cable was attached (it was broken a bit by inproper work earlier, so the geometry was bad). But driving a car without the kickdown cable was superb. Instead of kickdown effect (which is in fact harder for the engine) the pushbutton can be used for overtaking, or 3>2 change on the lever.
