I have done 3 drain and fills of tranny, 3.7 qts. each time. well this time I checked level on a 75 degree day after driving up the corner and back, and level was 1/4in above minimal mark. so it got me wondering if there is a way to say, drive the car 10 min on a 60 degree day and it should be halfway between min. and max mark, etc. so how are you supposed to get a good check of the tranny fluid level?

 

Drive it a good 20 minutes, ensuring that you have gone through all the gears (and locked the converter at some point), then leave the engine running and in park. You should get a solid fluid reading.

 

Yes, either you check it dead cold (bottom mark) or HOT (top mark).

Either should work, I prefer HOT.

 

Read your owner's manual. It tells you how to check fluid level.

 

I checked after my wife came back from church, and it was in the middle at 77 degrees. here's the gasket:
http://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volv...s80-v50-v70-xc

takes a 10mm hex for the drain plug, and what I did was leave about 283 mL left in the first bottle of T4 to get the 0.7 qt in, and then 3 more qts.

my owner's manual had zippo in it.