Hi,

I just bought a 1996 NA 850 sedan recently. I'm on a limited budget and got the car from a
good friend (dealer) who got it for me at a good price at an auto auction.
The car has about 125k miles on it (I believe-odometer is broken) and I have no service
records. I am looking for advice on some issues that this car has and whether I should spend
any money on it or not.

First of all the car is perfectly driveable, and the engine seems to run well. But the transmission
seems to shift roughly (lurches) between 1st and 2nd gear. I've also noticed a whining noise
when in 1st gear, when I accelerate and also when I coast to a stop. I've done a transmission flush (top transmission cooler hose- 10 qts of Dexron 3). No difference afterwards.

I should add that I'm a pretty conservative conservative driver- the old "egg under the
accelerator" thing and that I rarely run the engine above 2300rpm, if that has an affect on
the shifting.

Is it normal for these cars to have these symptoms as they age or am I looking at
a probable transmission failure in the near future?

Thanks for taking time to read this, you have an excellent forum!

 

Hello Mr. J Telectro,

Greetings from Chicagoland.

I'm sorry to hear about the tranny problem. Modern gearboxes are usually very reliable, and as long as proper fluid level has been maintained, they rarely go bad internally.

As to the 1st gear trouble, at this point I am not exactly sure what is causing it. If the fluid has been flushed recently, it could be electronic control problem, internal 1st gear or clutch trouble ($$$), or simply the bands need adjustment, though I am not sure if 850's have adjustable bands. If you're not getting flashing arrow on the dash, it may not be the electronic control problem, but if there is a place near you where they can pull codes for free (such as AutoZone), you want to see if there's code stored via OBD-II. My 1994 850 has OBD-II receptacle in front of the shifter, right under the coin holder.

Having a conservative foot shouldn't affect anything. With conventional spark plugs, this may cause problem as the engine doesn't get hot enough to burn off deposits, but with modern cars with platinum/iridium plugs, this should not be a problem. However, it is a good idea to exercise the engine once a while, as it may develop the habit of performing well at lower RPM but not at higher RPM.

My 1994 850 has 144,000 miles on it and the tranny still works seamlessly, except I once had a flashing arrow due to low fluid, as little as a half quart!

At this point, you could double-check the fluid level, by driving for 15 minutes or so, park the car with parking brake and foot brake fully applied, go through every detent on the shifter, stopping for a few seconds at each detent, and check the fluid for "HOT" range. It could be too little or too much fluid.

If above is not the case, I would have a visit to a Volvo dealer. I know many people, including myself, are on budget, but it is worth paying the dealer $100 for a diagnosis than paying a generic town garage $50, as modern tranny are electronically-controlled and generic garages may not be privy to specific procedures.

I hope the trouble is minor.


JPN

 

Is that in sport or economy mode?

Also is the transmission arrow flashing?

 

It disappoints me to see how many people make posts, then poof!!!!, the original poster simply disappears - leaving the helpers guessing whether the advice they offered has even been read much less acknowledged.

Surely this is a plain discourtesy to those who take the time and effort to help out.

At the bare minimum, I think all help should be acknowledged and also some indication whether the advice helped solve the problem.

After all that is what this forum is all about - people passing information on to others and anticipating some sort of feedback whether their advice helped in solving the problem.

Surely this is not too much to ask of each forum poster.

 

Hi JPN, tech, and Volgrr

Thanks for your fast reply.

I have checked the fluid level and I believe it is fine. I was hoping someone could
give me some advice before I hand a dealer $100 that I could use for repairs on
the car.

The symptoms are occurring in the Economy mode. I have never tried the car in the
Sport mode. I haven't had the arrow flash or any other indications of a malfunction.
I have been driving the car for 5 weeks with no noticeable change in the transmission.

The car seems to run fine otherwise and the only warning lights I have are the ABS
and Engine Service lights-I'm not worried about these at this point.

Volgrr, this is the first time I've posted on a forum, I'm sorry but I didn't understand
your post.

 

Does the speedo ever stop working?
A bad ABS module sometimes will affect the transmission.

The computer compares engine speed with transmission speed then car speed from the ABS.

Maybe if you can cheaply have all the codes cleared and see if it makes a difference.

 

Hello again Mr. J Telectro,

My recent experience may help.

I had flashing arrow, after driving on a grooved road at O'Hare airport. When I downshifted manually to the 3rd gear on that road, the arrow began to flash. With the arrow flashing, the tranny is in "limp" mode, so the car accelerates really slow especially in the 1st gear, unless shifted manually.

Then I turned off the engine, re-started and the flashing arrow was gone, then came back intermittently. However, at the same time the check engine light came on. This one was tricky, as I did not get any codes from the ECU. I could not clear the check engine light, either. So, I went to a local AutoZone to have it checked via OBD-II scanner. There was a code for tranny, and the scanner was able to clear the codes, as well as the check engine light.

So, try OBD-II and see if there are codes for the tranny.

Good luck,


JPN

 

No, the speedometer has always worked so far. I didn't know that the ABS was the
source for the car's speed, but the ABS is not working as far as I can tell.

I will try to find an inexpensive way to view/clear the codes.

Is the whining sound in 1st gear normal on one of these cars?

Again thanks for your help, these are some of the things the dealer doesn't tell
you.

Also thank you Mr JPN I will try Autozone that is a good idea.

 

Not sure about the whining I would have to be there to hear it to tell you if it is normal.

The ABS is part of the equation.

You can have it rebuilt for usually less than $100.00.

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~vicrocha

 

Ok, Iwill look into the codes and also ABS repair- thanks Robert for the link.

It may be a little while before I can get the ABS done. I will try to get codes
in the mean time and see if anyone has any thoughts regarding them.

Thanks, John

 

Tech, you are a genius!!

As I said earlier the speedometer works fine- or so I thought.

Yesterday I was driving through a school zone with one of those signs
that displays your car's speed. The speedometer said 20MPH but the sign
said I was only going 16-17 MPH. I thought the sign might be wrong.

This morning on the way to work I noticed that the transmission seemed
to be shifting back and forth between gears for no reason. I looked down at
the speedometer and it read 40 MPH , then it suddenly dropped about 4 MPH
for a moment and then jumped back to 40.
It looks like the ABS is sending incorrect (and erratic) speed data to the
transmission controller and the controller is probably telling the transmission
to shift at the wrong vehicle speed. Anyone that has driven with a manual
transmission knows what happens if you shift to a higher gear and the vehicle
does not have sufficient speed.

I haven't been able to get the codes yet, but it looks like ABS repair is at the
top of the repair list for the transmission.

I don't know how you did it but that was an excellent diagnosis.

Many thanks, John

 

I recently had a flashing arrow light on my 850... and transmission was really bad at times ... i took it to the dealer.. they said it was gone... so I bought an s70... do you guys think it could have been just low fluid levels? it had 203k miles on it..

would the volvo dealer service lie to me?

 

We would need to know the codes they pulled from the computer.
That would help us more to tell you what the problem might have been.

 

ok...thanks but is it possible that I got shafted

 

It could have been a faulty PNP switch which costs about 300 to fix. Like Tech said, you'd need to know the codes that the transmission computer was storing.

 

Sorry, it took a little time for me to get the OBD-2 scan done.
First of all I went to Autozone and the gentleman that helped
me told me this was his first scan on a Volvo. He did the scan
and told me that no errors were found. He did mention that
their scanner was an inexpensive one and not as sophisticated
as some of the more expensive units.
I thought I probably should have this done again so I went
to one of their competitors and asked if they would do the
same for me. The gentleman at their parts counter said "sure"
and did the scan for me. Again no errors found. This seemed
pretty strange to me because my ABS light is on almost all the
time and I've seen the speedometer needle jump a couple of
times. The only other symptom I've noticed is the "lurch"
when the car shifts from 1st to 2nd, and a less pronounced
"lurch" from 2nd to 3rd.
Any ideas about this?
By the way the man that did this scan owns a 740(?) and
told me "they are one h3ll of a car". He said he has over
300 thousand on his and loves it.

John

 

The Average scanner only reads Engine code.
They won't read transmission codes or ABS codes.

 

Hello John,

I'm sorry to hear the transmission still acting up.

As I'm worn out after 12 straight days of work, I will post detailed assumptions later. For now, I'll try to visit my local AutoZone asap that was able to get tranny codes for my 850. I'llask them & seewhat brand/model scanner they used. Their scanner was able to read tranny code, as well as erasing it.

If the tranny seems unsafe to drive, try to shift manually. This won't hurt anything (but don't downshift at higher speed, though the tranny should have over revving protection programmed), and once a while this is a technique to slow down/get better acceleration (though usually not necessary).

Again, I'm sorry I couldn't give you better answer at the moment.


JPN

 

Hi tech and JPN,

I hope you both had a good New Year.
tech, thanks for the info-I was afraid of something like that. It
would have been nice if the second fellow had told me he could
only access engine codes,but maybe he didn't know.
JPN, 12 days! You need to go get some rest, cars can come
later.

John