I've been driving this 96 850 R wagon(automatic) for about a month now, never had a problem with anything until now. Odometer stopped at 160k and since then I have put about 1500 miles on it. I started it up this morning , let it warm and then I was on my way. I drove about 10-15 mins across town and then all of a sudden the car stopped acclerating, car was still running but when I revved I had no acceleration as if I was in neutral. I rolled over to my buddies house and tried to go in reverse. I got no response (at this time the upward arrow is flashing), then tried to go in all of the other gears and nothing. The engine fluctuated as if it went into gear but nothing happened. I checked fluid it looked up to level and clean(not sure how accurate it was). After letting the car sit for about 5-10 minutes, it will go into all gears and function properly for about 2 minutes then go back to the problem..... Pretty stumped right now just looking for advice.

 

1) If the 96 has the same diagnostics LED set up as my 95, you can jumper into the A1 port and see if there are any codes. (search online for code list and procedure) otherwise you need an OBD2 code reader...
2) Check to see if the back up lights come on when you are in reverse (testing the PNP switch)
3) try rowing the shifter Park to low to Park 10-20 times (car off...) to see if it can clean up any contacts in the shifter
4) check the drive shafts (ie if they pop out of shear a spline shaft) for any thing odd when in gear and not moving (obviously don't get under the car to do this...)
5) double check the fluid level (did you check hot or cold the first time? See RSPI's YouTube video on checking transmission fluid levels)
6) can you start in any gear position? ie low? in winter or performance mode etc

Most automatics don't just give up the ghost all at once - so I'd suspect either a PNP switch issue, a computer issue (ie what sensors feed the CPU, not just the CPU itself) or a drive shaft before thinking you need a new tranny.

 

I will check to see if the back up lights turn on. I tried to shift in and out a bunch of times didn't make a difference. I don't think the driveshafts popped out because it will drive down the street a small distance and then go back to this problem.
I checked the fluid when it was warm. And no matter what gear I go into nothing happens. I tried the low gear along with winter mode and sport and economy mode. No response.
Yeah my buddy just blew his trans in his 850 turbo unlike mine he lost reverse and then it got worse and worse.