So i was parking my car and backing into a spot and thought i was close to the curb so i got out and checked putting it back in park. then pushed the brakes pedal put it in reverse to back up more. when i lifted my foot off the brake pedal nothing happened. I even gave it a little gas nothing. So I leave work get back in and drive home. From a stop it slowly gains speed and engine easily revs high while at these slow speeds. when coming to a complete stop the trans audibly bangs or smacks too.
so i get home and pull in the drive way normally. BAD IDEA!
I get in the car and put it in reverse, nothing, rev it nothing, put it in drive it edges forward, put it in neutral and try to push the car backwards, nothing wont budge. So the front wheels are locking when trying to go backward in neutral. so AAA towed it.... wheels wouldnt turn when pulled with a 10000 lb winch so he had to rig it and drag the tires..
Any clue what the would cause this? the trans was perfect before that day.
now the shop calls saying internal trans failure....
I have a 95 850 t-5r and i have a friend with a 96 850r that has his old auto box , he offered it to me for free but will the 96 trans work in the 95?
the shop says they might have different control modules so we don't know what other problems we can run into in the install.... any truth to this?

 

Sad to hear it happen to your volvo man, specially a t5-r. ( yellow or black BTW???)

Should work, believe you will have to do some wiring for the speed sensor.

I would source a manual transmission if you have to put a new one in. Search the forums here plenty of information and links to other forums if you want to do a swap.

Would have a dealer look at it first or your trusted mechanic.

 

Never heard of a trans locking up the wheels. Maybe the torque converter lock up. At any rate the tranny will have to be pulled I guess.

Your sure it was the front wheels and not the rears?

 

Yeah me either. Yes I'm sure it was the front wheels, I watched the towing and him pulling it with the winch. The front wheels would not budge. I actually have some video footage of the car driving home weird and it getting towed of your interested. But yeah I'm stuck right now not sure what to do. I would put an auto in if I could get one with low miles but I haven't kind any with less that 150k. A new auto is $2400 and will last the rest of the life of the car or I have an m56h manual swap setup but I still need to order a clutch and a couple other parts to do a swap. (I've never driven a manual car) I know....I know.... Give me **** but I want to learn! You have to start somewhere!
Any advice? I'm slowly leaning towards the manual but this is my daily driver so I cant have problems

 

If a new trans will last the life of the car, why did the current one fail? I had to replace mine, it was bad when I purchased the car. Installed a used one, not sure how many miles it has on it (how can you really know unless you're the op). I service mine every 25k and expect it to last another 200k.

If a CV axle goes bad or comes out of the trans a little it will cause the car to stop cold in it's tracks.

 

Very true, BUT it wouldn't lock the wheel. something inside broke and is jammed against something else. Not very technical a description but it's not worth pulling the trans apart to find out unless you're going to overhaul it.

Since you can shift into park and it holds, drive and it moves a little and reverse is locking the wheels it's something in the clutches or planetary gears. Best guess it's not fluid, it's mechanical, something broken and jammed. Torque converter only spins in one direction like the front pump. If they fail they fail for all gears. They supply all the pressure and volume of fluid for the transmission and they can't physically lock anything, only fail to supply pressure and or enough volume for the trans to function.
(I'm not mentioning the TCC as it can lock the converter but this doesn't sound anything like that and it would lock in forward too)

Fast and simple, replace the auto with the best you can afford for the reliability you need. It's a personal thing. Plus as a daily driver shifting at every light, every stop, each time you have to accelerate or decelerate gets old.

My advise, go for the manual. I love an auto for a daily driver but if I could have two, one would surely be a manual and it would be modded.

What the car wants ?? A MANUAL just like most of the European ones were delivered with (lazy Americans !!) It will increase it's value to a Volvo nut should you need or want to sell it later on so you at least recover a little of the $$$ it will cost. At this point if you have the cash and think you might do some power upgrades later it's the time to put in a posi-traction or limited slip diff too.

But in the end it's your car, your wallet and your right arm.

Now where the heck is first?

 

Yeah Once another trans is in the car that will be the third. When I bought it I had to replace the trans just like you. Now it's out again 2 years later. When I had the second one put it I had the option of a trans with 120 and 89k so I paid $650 for the 89k an put it in. So to me a used auto is a bad idea, maybe I just got a bad one idk I just don't want to deal with this again. And I service mine more free quietly then that living in Phoenix AZ, every 15k.
Well I do know the cv boots are split on pass side, but no audio able sounds from the axle.

 

I think the manual Volvo 850 is excellent for daily driving! You get used to it (just like any other manual transmission car) and it is quite comfortable and effortless day in and day out, not a hassle at all. In fact, I like it because it adds a level of excitement into regular daily driving if you drive it so!

 

One of my friends has a S70 T5M and I have driven it a few days. I think it's a little bit of a pain with all the things going on around you, answering the phone, messing with the iPod, people pulling out in front of you, etc. Fun, definately, tiring at times though.

 

I always pull over, all the way over when I see Robert coming

 

This just proves that crack doesn't smoke itself !!

It's just a matter of personal taste and everyone is going to be different. It's why I recommended both with an explanation of each.

My excitement comes from the feeling of the gas pedal jammed to the floor and holding on to the steering wheel for dear life. I need both hands to steer

 

Dang, that looks expensive.

 

Yeah right now I am just looking for durability and reliability. After replacing the auto already I have quite a bad taste from the aw42-50le or whatever it is.. It just spent seem reliable. The trans in the car has been babied, it's just makes no sense for it to do what it did.
Basically I have quite a lot of the parts for the manual
M56h w 120k
Shifter assembly
Pedals
Flywheel
Slave cyl
Bunches of clips & bolts from removing 3 m56 trannies in the yard) it doesn't hurt to have extras!
I priced out the rest of the stuff along with an ARD me4.4 manual ecu and it comes to $630.
New r clutch& press plate, master clutch cyl, clutch line, new passenger side empi axle, release bearing

 

I would do an auto but it seems impossible to truly find a low milage one plus like rspi said you don't know milage and how it was driven unless you were or knew the previous opperator. And $2400 from the dealer for a new auto isnt too reasonable either. I think I'll go for the manual and shovel out the $650 and pay the $350 to have it put in.
And like stated above the m56 stuff does hold it's value

 

I'm in the same boat. Did some performance mods drove for two days parked at home for the night. I came out the next morning to head to work and I had no reverse or neutral. I'm waiting on the last pieces of my m56 swap to arrive as well. Good luck on yours.

 

Just out of curiosity what mods are you running or were you?
I have na cams, ipd CBv, ipd hd tcv, ARD aluminum radiator, silicone coolant and turbo hoses, ipd intake box, msd coil, Snabb intake mani spacer.
Nothing really crazy or power creating, just supporting mods really. The cams are the only power creator I have.
Looking at my engine bay you'd think it's tuned and has a different turbo but I'm still running an r ecu and a 15g

 

T5r ecu, na intake with snabb silicone, and the rest just for looks and bringing it back to its original glory. I'm thinking between the miles, age, and heat regaining lost power just took its toll. The straw that broke the camels back. I have na cams but they're sitting I the trunk of a donor car. I have put 25mm wheel spacers with 235 45 r17 on njord rims. Maybe the extra traction. My fluid has been changed and is clean and non burnt smelling. Although as a mechanic I've seen other 850 and s70s have the same issue. That was my push to go get a m56.