The Volvo S60R is a lot of fun to drive. The 5-speed automatic transmission however, sucks ass. I mean, when it’s brand new I’m sure it’s pretty good. But over time they turn to shit and the maintenance is retarded. Years ago mine developed the common 2-3 shift flare problem. For those baller mofos who’ve only ever driven M66, basically the magic box under the hood that thinks it knows how to shift fucks itself in the face and forgets how shit works. When it comes time to go from 2 to 3, it really goes from 2 to Neutral. Then it waits until you rev really high before suddenly going into 3, which it does with a really hard slam. Every time. So driving through a residential area with a lot of stop signs basically destroys your transmission.

I was able to fix this problem myself, in my driveway, following a lot of really annoying online guides. Long story short, I did two complete fluid changes, then I drained the transmission, lowered the subframe while supporting the engine, removed the valve body cover and pulled out the solenoids, took those apart and cleaned the shit out of them, then put the whole thing back together and put another round of new fluid. This solved the problem, no software updates, no B4 servo cover update, just the ability to drive normally again. The only unknown variable here is how long it will last. The moment I knew the transmission had issues I began planning the M66 swap. Stick is more fun to drive anyway, right? And all the guides I’ve seen online make it seem like it won’t be THAT difficult, just collecting parts. WHICH TURNS OUT is a lot more difficult than it sounds in Canada given how rare these cars are up here. Nearly every volvo up here is automatic, and anything but 2004 is basically non-existent. Sure there are base models and T5s and whatnot everywhere, but I get unreasonably excited whenever I see an R driving around.

So over time, not putting priority on this project, I grabbed the occasional part wherever I came across one, usually whenever I had to visit a scrapyard to get a part I needed. An axle here, a whole engine with a manual transmission already attached there, but I never could get my hands on a pedal set or a shift assembly. Not to mention the tuning that’s also required, which up until just right now required paying someone in another country a thousand bucks to remotely connect to your car and doing some mixed-review changes. Last winter though I came across a car for sale not too far from me, an S60R parts car with a manual transmission for a decent price I couldn’t refuse. So just like that I had nearly all the parts I needed, and some extra. Now, to be fair, the parts car is a 2004, so while most of the mechanical parts are compatible with mine, most of the electrical and aesthetic components are not. This is because for some reason Volvo decided the shape of everything and the way the modules communicate would change slightly for the 2005 model year. How fun! Anyway I set myself a time limit for the swap to be finished by the end of July 2022. With all the right tools, all the right parts, no lift, and no help, it’s a 4-5 day job at 5-6 hours per day, allowing for a few things going wrong and taking extra time to correct. In April 2022 I fell from a ladder (rather, the ladder slid out from under me) and injured myself pretty badly. After 6 weeks I was able to move my right arm again, but the frozen shoulder persisted until mid-August. By then we were gearing up for my daughters first birthday, work became really busy, and then working on my other, more important vehicles became a priority (protip: don’t let just anyone tune your procharged tacoma, especially if its a work truck you rely on). I ended up waiting until xmas vacation, where I would have a week off and an empty garage, before I could do the swap.

Now, if you’re reading this I have to assume you’ve read M66 swap guides elsewhere already, and are feeling underwhelmed by the lack of detail or how the guide just ends half way through with no further information on what to do when the mechanical stuff is done. I’m not going to attempt to be any better, I’m not going to make a step-by-step guide or load up a hundred pictures and diagrams of whats what. This is my rant blog and this post is just an outline of what I learned doing the swap that online guides never mentioned. So lets get started.

First of all, expectations. If you’re doing this to your car, you have to understand there’s going to be some down time, some troubleshooting, a real risk of your car never driving again (or at least, not until some very expensive replacement parts can be found), and depending on your mechanical skills and your attention to detail, a certain loss of vehicle reliability you will never get back. Don’t do this shit to a car you rely on, don’t do this shit to a car you daily, and don’t do this shit to your car unless you’re willing to accept major fuck-ups. And definitely don’t do this shit to someone else’s car as a favor unless you REALLY know what you’re doing.

Next off, is the collection of parts. Every guide out there mentions the basics: the transmission, mount, axles, shift assembly, cables, pedal set, flywheel, clutch, master cylinder……. but nobody talks about the other tidbits you need, or parts you may not need. For example, most guides say you need the manual brake reservoir. Nobody mentions that some automatic reservoirs have the nipple for the master cylinder already there, you just need to cut off the tip and attach the hose. No need to change the whole thing! Another thing nobody mentions is how you need the brackets that bolt to the transmission that hold up the air box. If you source your M66 from a private seller, make sure you get these brackets too, or your air box will rest on the transmissions gear selector lever thingies. A lot of people argue over which years are compatible and which years aren’t, but that’s a total crap shoot. There are two types of shifter cables. A ball-and-socket type, and a through-hole-with-pin type. Make sure your cables match the transmission or you’re going to be on the hunt for discontinued cables. The angle gear is a big one. Yes, the M66 and AW55 angle gears are the same. Yes, the TF80 angle gear is different and will not work no matter what. But what nobody ever mentions is that the COLLAR SLEEVE that connects the angle gear to the transmission can be different based on year, region, etc. There are two kinds: one that’s perfectly cylindrical, and one thats got a cone-ish taper to it. They are absolutely NOT cross-compatible, and everyone who works on these cars knows how impossible they are to remove, so just swap the angle gear too. That’s why its recommended to have an entire parts car for the swap. You may need those parts you didn’t think of. (For example, trying to remove the front motor mount broke the stud clean off, so I had to grab this mount from my parts car instead of waiting a week for a new one to arrive). Everything else should fit just fine, mechanically. Aesthetic things are a different story. The center console is different from 2004 to 2005+, so if you want to use that neat spaceball cover, there’s a chance you’ll be buying a new one anyway. The shift assembly, cables, wires etc all bolt in just fine, very easy.

Tools you will 100% need but may not have because not all kits come with them / not everyone buys these: A TORX T40 for the torque converter bolts and various odds and ends. A TORX T60 for the belt tensioner (if you want to remove the intake you need to remove the power steering pump and thermostat housing). A triple-square socket set to install the manual flywheel (M12 to be exact). A 12-point socket set for removing the automatic flywheel (M17 to be exact). Then your standard garage full of parts. A normal socket set and a mess of extensions, adapters, swivels etc.

Now for the actual work. I strongly recommend doing this properly in a proper garage with a lift. Unbolt everything in the front end and lift the car right off the subframe/engine/transmission assembly, then you can work on the actual swap while standing comfortably. I did this once before on this same car to change the block, and it was a breeze. One 5-hour day to drop the subframe/engine assembly and separate the transmission, and one 5-hour day to assemble everything and put it back in the car. Now, this is not what I did this time around. This time I used the ‘jack up the front of the car and remove the subframe, then remove only the transmission from the bottom’ method, which was an absolute pain in the ass that ended up taking a grand total of 5 casual days. Lots of beer, lots of swearing, and lots of that fantastic orange soap. But most importantly, lots of crawling under a heavy car in puddles of transmission fluid wondering if those jack stands will randomly give out at any moment. If you’re doing this work in-car, you will 100% need to remove the ABS motor, and it’s highly recommended to remove the intake manifold and all charge pipes. It will make life easier. Unbolting the driveshaft from the angle gear is easy if the bolts aren’t seized/stripped, and removing the transmission from the engine is pretty straight forward. The starter has to be removed, and removing the intake makes accessing the torque converter bolts a lot easier. MAKE SURE to remove the flywheel sensor before attempting to remove the flywheel or you’ll break it. Rotate the engine and remove the 6 bolts through the starter hole. New flywheel and clutch go on very simple. M66 gets mounted easy peasy, then put it all back together. The interior work is even more of a pain, but do yourself a big favor and remove the dashboard. Nobody wants to do it, but trust me it will be way easier to reach everything you need to do. If you’re like me you can take the time to re-run some aftermarket wiring, or remove the wiring to the shitty alarm/starter the previous owner complained he paid a fortune for but never worked right. (At this moment I learned that the previous owner had the dealer change the CEM, which was now a 2007 unit from an XC90, this might make programming the car a bit of a headache later on, we’ll see.) Remove the center console, the steering wheel, stalks, radio/climate, and center speaker. All the bolts to remove the dash are easy to get to, just mind the wiring connectors, and the dash comes right out. Lots of room to work. Remove the shifter assembly and cables, and that stupid cable that goes from the shifter to the ignition switch, and bash out the knockout for the clutch master cylinder (you should see a cut outline in the foam, finish the cuts and pull it apart). To swap the pedals is probably the hardest part. The brake pedal has two bolts on top, and two nuts on the brake booster bolts. The brake and clutch pedal set will use these same 4 points, plus a 5th nut where the knockout/master cylinder goes. To gain a little bit of clearance, loosen the two remaining nuts on the brake booster bolts to the end (dont remove all the way), and push them through the firewall as far as you can. You wont be able to line up the new pedals unless you do this. Everything else is a cinch.

Once the car is back together and brakes/clutch bled properly you will notice you can’t start the car. On a 2005 at least (I don’t know about -2004 or 2006-/TF80 cars) you absolutely cannot remove the TCU just yet, the communication between the CEM and the ECU goes through the TCM for some reason, these canbus wires need to be jumped when the TCU is removed, which can only happen after the CEM is programmed. Right now we’ll just focus on getting the car moving. The starter-enable wire runs through the automatic transmission harness, but is handled by the CEM. One of the plugs that’s now dangling unused in the engine bay will have two brown/black wires, and a blue/yellow wire (among others). Jump the blue/yellow to either of the brown/black wires, and the car will be able to start (BUT BE AWARE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO START THE CAR IN GEAR, AND WITHOUT PUSHING THE CLUTCH PEDAL). You can add the blue and yellow wires to this jump too if you want to see N in the cluster instead of –. At this point you should be able to – carefully – move the car back and forth and verify the clutch and transmission are working properly and shifting without issue, or in my case move it out of the way for a bit to work on other cars. When my car started, and I was able to clutch, shift, and move the car, I almost cried with joy. What a fucking job, but what a fucking triumph.

At this point you should connect the clutch pedal sensor to the ECU (there are good guides on this all over the net) and flash a manual bin to your ecu (see my previous post for incomplete information on that). This will allow the car to shift smoothly at higher speeds/gears. This won’t affect your new ability to start the car in gear at all, and you still won’t have reverse lights, oh and your reverse lockout wont work (this prevents you from accidentally going into reverse while trying to find 5th/6th, because reverse is on the right on this car). That will be handled by CEM programming, or by custom wiring if you cant get the CEM done. That will be another post though. At this point the car is not happy, there are a dozen and a half codes about transmission errors and various other things not working because of this, my haldex now refuses to work but I’m not sure if thats the swap or I broke a wire or a sensor doing my calipers last year, we’ll see. But it moves!

Overall this job was a LOT more involved and a MUCH bigger pain in the ass than I anticipated. The sheer number of things that didn’t fit, and things that didn’t match the various guides I found online, was pretty discouraging. There were a few points where I questioned whether I was doing the right thing, whether I was just going to fail and end up scrapping the car, and whether I should give up and put the auto back in before it was too late. Again, almost cried with joy. This is a job not for the casual mechanic, in fact most in the volvo community will say “just sell it and buy a manual car”, but these are the same people who will part a car out over minor problems. Must be nice living in a place where these cars are readily available! I bet you don’t know the joy of salt-corroded collapsing jack points either!

I’m learning a lot about tuning, and I managed to score a pop-up RTI screen at a junkyard, so one of my upcoming posts will be about picking apart and modifying this cars ECU bin, and building a carputer to show live engine data on the RTI screen. Muahahaha….