I have a 2002 v70 T5 that has been running like a top until last week. It has been owned by my family since it was purchased new. I have all of the service records for the car and we have been very good about making sure to schedule and do the services on the car. I am just shy of 210,000 miles on the car and within the last 2,000 miles I did the major 30K service. I was driving to work the other day and I hit a small bump when getting on the freeway onramp. Nothing that worried me as I usually take this entrance and it happens sometimes. I continued to drive and merged onto the freeway. When I got on and over into the left lane and went to accelerate the car did not respond. I was in the left lane so I was pushing the accelerator harder and was expecting the car to gain speed and/or kick down and then speed up. Nothing happened so I looked down at the dim and had the orange hazard light on and a message that read something to the effect of service transmission urgent and where the D is normally displayed there was nothing more than a dash. I immediately exited the freeway and started to drive to the dealer, they were within about a mile of the exit. As I was driving it seemed like I had no power and the car was in neutral. While I was driving the mile or so I had times where I was trying to accelerate and the car would not shift. It would rev really high and seemed like nothing was happening and would only slightly engage to move the vehicle. I only had to come to a stop 2 time otherwise the car kept moving and for the most part at a decent speed 20-30 mph because I was still coasting from the freeway. After the second time I stopped I tried to get going again and when I pushed the gas nothing happened and the car would just roll and it felt like it was in neutral. I shifted into neutral and then back to drive and nothing changed. I tried shifting into park and yet nothing changed and the car started rolling backwards down the slight hill I was on. I then put the car in park with my foot on the break and shut off the car. Turned it back on and shifted into drive and it would move again. I then made it over the slight hill and down the road the last 2 blocks to the dealer. I shut off the car when I go to the dealer. I am not sure if it was on previously but when we inspected the car 5 minutes later we saw the red check engine light was also on (I don't know if it was on the whole time or not.)

Initially, the dealer suspected that the car had missed a shift and that it was in limp mode. I left the car there and they did diagnostics on it. They called and we talked later that day and they said that they had a fault about a valve missing timing (i think, it was something with the valves in the transmission) and they rest it and got the lights to clear. They said they test drove it and it was fine and then the check engine light came on and it drove like crap and was really rough. They elected to keep it overnight and look at it the next day. The next day they called and said that the technician was driving the car and had the laptop hooked up and the same loss of power happened to him as it did me. There was no error about missing a valve or skipping a shift (something like that I don't remember the exact verb age). But long story short that they had bad news and the transmission was shot and I needed a new one. They quoted me a repair and it was almost 7K and the value of the car is probably closer to 2K.

I am posting it here for a few reasons. 1) I want to make sure this sounds right as for a sequence of events and that this is the problem, dealers can be wrong too. 2) I have been reading and it sounds like the '01 had this issue and maybe the '02 also and it was due to the aisin warner transmission. 3) Are there any replacement or repair options that could help? 4) They are saying it is high mileage and this can randomly fail but I just did a major service with them less than 2k miles and a month ago so is it really not possible for this to be found? 5) Is it even possible to have a non-volvo shop make the repairs and fix this issue (I am in San Francisco if you have a shop recommendation that would be great here too)

I really like this car and it has been a powerhouse for the 14 years with no major repairs or mechanical issues. I have never had the transmission slip or do anything that would be abnormal that would have me take it in to get looked at. I don't want to sink money into this car that is not a wise investment and I always thought I was going to get to 500K or more miles out of this car.

Some sound advice from others who have seen this or experienced it would be helpful. I am new here so I apologize if it is posted in the wrong area or a repeat as I could not find an answer to the 2002 V70 T5 specifics and also thought the story could help.

 

Rebuild your transmission.

 

or obtain a factory rebuilt that comes with a 2 year warranty. If you have it installed at a Volvo dealer, its a lifetime warranty!

 

Was the transmission fluid ever changed?


Option you have now,

Sell the car
Fix the car
Donate the car

 

Where would one get the transmission rebuilt? What would that cost?

 

Carafe shows the Tranny build was changed about 80k ago. I'm going to try the B4 servo, Rostra solenoids and tranny flush before i decide to change out the tranny.