Hi I was driving my 240 with a loose shift waiting for an appointment to take it into the shop to have the bushings replaced.- I had to push the lever hard to get it to go into park. Two days ago after I parked it, I was not able to get it out of park and had to have the car towed.

The tow truck had to pull it with the rear wheels locked to get it on the truck, but the process resulted in what I think was the pawl breaking, and the rear wheels were rotating when it came off the truck even though the shift was in park. I had to take it to my local mechanic as my Volvo expert is an hour away.

So my prized 240 is in the shop with a mechanic that is not too experienced with Volvos. How difficult is it to fix the pawl? What does the process involve? Should I have the car towed to my volvo mechanic?

Thank you for you advice.

Sarah from Philadelphia

1990 240 retired
1993 240 current prize

 

I feel your pain!
If you can, take it to the Volvo mechanic; the tow truck driver messed it up by not knowing how to release the shifter--the result of unfamiliarity with these cars! That's why one has to be watching these "professionals" every step of the way!

 

Yeah - there is a release lever inside the shifter that can manually release the shift lock. A little knowledge (or google) could have avoided the whole affair.

 

Come to think of it, all modern cars have some shifter locking mechanism to prevent them from going into gear without the driver's foot on the brake, thanks to the Audi unintended acceleration debacle in the mid '80s. This tow truck driver should know that, he just chose not to bother to look and instead muscled the shifter and broke it!

 

had to get my 2001 Ford E150 van towed once when the transmission grenaded at 10,000 miles and completely locked up inside. AAA dispatched tow truck driver showed up with a flatbed, ooops, so he jacked up the back of van, and put dollies under the rear wheels, then winched it onto his flatbed on the dollies.