I do alot of mountain driving with my 96 855T, and there is one thing that seems wierd with the gear selection. When I need to use the engine to break, normally I will select "3" unless the grade is still too steep, then I will select "L" . Now this is all fine until the engine decides that it wants to shift down again into what would be "1st'. Or if I'm going up the mtn. in "L" and get to a very tight corner where I have to slow down, the trans. shifts itself down with a heave and the car lurches to a crawl. What is up with this system? Am I doing something wrong or missing some mysterious Volvo truth about how to work this trans??

Thanks,

scott k

 

Sounds normal to me. Mine behaves like that. It sucks that there is only an L and not 1 & 2.

 

That is a 'feature' of the 850 auto transmission. You can read about it in the owner's manual. If you keep very slight pressure on the gas pedal it will not downshift when decending a hill.

 

yeah thats normal, its the 'box changing from 2nd to 1st. if im not mistaken, when in L, doesnt the gearbox do its lock up like it does in 4th around 50mph? feels to me like when in a manual you clutch ur way into 1st from 2nd when the revs are high.

is this the lock up in action? and is it the same as in 3 mode?

rich