Gearbox Leak

you have to take the box apart to change the seal but even then you cant buy the seal from anywhere as volvo don't sell parts for these boxes, either get a second hand box or i have a box casing with good seals if you want to do it yourself helluva job though as the subframe needs to be dropped that side if you buy a second hand one to be fitted go to breydons in hackney

That's sort of confirmed what I suspected. Presumably it's cheaper to get another 'box from the breakers than take mine out and get it overhauled? Ironically I'd just decided to swap it for a V70. I think I might try to top it up and put my head in the sand for a bit although I tried to check to oil level before I went away but couldn't get the filler plug undone.

second hand would be cheaper than an overhall yeh especially if your looking to sell and breydons seem to be nice guys i got a box from them you wont get crap from them

Just had another look on my lunchbreak and I decided to lift off the little blue cap on the selector arm thinking it might be an anti tamper screw cover but it is in fact the breather cover and it was soaked in oil. Could there have been a build up of pressure inside whilst I was in France (15 hours on the motorway!) which would have pushed the oil out of the breather after I got home?