Tonyy

I found this forum via the Land Rover section, however my wife has just bought a Volvo 740. I had a look at the transmission fluid dipstick the other day and the level seems a little low. I have absolutely no experience with auto boxes so

1.Do you have to have the engine running to check the level?

2.Can you simply pour fluid down the dipstick hole??

Cheers Tony.

HSE2

Hello Tony

Firstly welcome to the site. I hope and trust that you will have many hours of enjoyment

I am not familiar with the model you talk of but here are some hints.

Yes you can top the level via the dipstick tube. Get yourself a small funnel and hose. Both must be very clean.

Now I have seen a few different ways of checking the level and you must take care not to over fill. This is worse than being slightly low.

Pull the dipstick and see if there are any instructions printed on the stick itself. Some require the car to be running with the auto selected in neutral, and then some require it to be cold and other hot. I assume that this isn't mentioned in the owner’s book.

As a suggestion. What I would do is take the following readings

Car parked nothing running and cold. Check and note level
Car running in park and cold. Check and record level
Car running but at temp and in park. (Wait 5 minutes) check and record level.

See what the difference is and use the one that says the highest level. Assuming there won't be too much difference between the lot.