I have a 2005 Volvo XC70 with over 80,000 miles. It had been a very reliable car until about a few months ago.
Sometimes It jerks / chokes when I slowly slow down to a stop. Sometimes when I shift from Reverse to D, or D to Reverse, it does not respond right away. It has about half a second delay and then makes a hard grinding noise. At other times, the car looses power when I slow down (without stopping) and then try to step on the gas pedal again.
I thought something’s wrong with the transmission and took the car to the dealer twice. First time they said they would update the software but stopped short of guaranteeing anything. I didn’t go for it because it simply did not make sense to me. I took it to a garage and they said they could only duplicate my problem one time. The garage suggested I go to some place specializes in transmission. Then there was a second time I went to the dealer because the problem seemed a little bit worse. They simply said to replace the transmission. That’s hard to swallow since the car has only been carefully driven and dealer maintenance before. I can not believe the transmission will be that short lived.
Then lately, I’ve been realizing that the car does not have any of those symptoms whenever it was started in the morning or when the car has a long period of time sitting. The symptoms start when I have to go through stop and go traffic after about 30 to 45 minutes of driving.
Do you think the transmission is damaged somehow? Or can it be fixed by changing the transmission fluid?
Thanks in advance!
Older Volvo’s are very expensive to keep repaired and on the road after the factory warranty expires. When you figure out your current problem it won’t be too long before some other expensive repair will be needed. Once a Volvo is out of the factory warranty it is best to sell it, and get another car.
From the symptoms it is impossible to tell whether your transmission needs replacing or not. A transmission service with new fluid and a new filter might help, but it might not. Since that is cheaper than a new transmission it is worth a shot.
It is time to shop for another car in my opinion.
The car is five years old and has 80K miles on it. Have you ever had the transmission serviced?
I’m going to guess “no.”
Too bad.
You have reached the point where your Volvo is no longer “a very reliable car.”
Bail out now. It will only get worse.
How sad. Volvos used to be bullet proof.
Used to be.
You can try changing the transmission fluid, but that really should have been done two years and 50K miles ago.
Good luck.
Thanks for the advice. But the car is still in great shape though. I am just not sure if I should get rid of it yet. I may just try changing the transmission fluid.
Thanks for your advice also. I always took the car to the dealer for maintenance service. If the car needed transmission servicing, I would hope the guys would have told me.
I am checking the Volvo maintenance booklet and it says the following:
Check automatic transmission fluid level only if an external leak is identified. Volvo recommends changing automatic transmission fluid every 52,500 miles, only on vehicles used for towing, or when a message displays in the Instrument Panel Text Window.
Since my car does not have the above described, there isn’t any indication why the transmission will fail all of the sudden or that because the fluid was not changed at 52,500 miles.
Volvo recommends changing automatic transmission fluid every 52,500 miles, only on vehicles used for towing, or when a message displays in the Instrument Panel Text Window.
Few cars today list transmission fluid changes as regular maintenance for automatic transmission. I feel this is a failure on their part. What often happens is the fluid is not changed until there is a problem and then it is almost always too late.
I would likely change the fluid (and drop the pan and clean the filter) and hope.
Good Luck
Thanks for your advice. I think I will try that first. I am hoping it was the old or dirty transmission fluid that’s causing the problem. It’s just strange that the car seems to run fine when it’s in the morning or cruising the highway, and doesn’t like stop and go traffic at all. Thanks.