Just thought I'd ask (since my search skills here seem to be poor) but the trans is getting real stiff to move from park to drive these days. I only drive it about 5-10 miles a weekend to keep the battery charged and get the fluids moving. Seems independent of outside temps and car temps. Doesnt get any easier after car is driven 20 miles. (Long drive for me but this is the "spare" car). So thought I'd ask what might be going on or an idea of what it might cost to fix. Trans operates a shifts fine just moving that shift **** is difficult. It was a gradual event also. Any rubber bushings or something wearing out?
Thanks everyone

 

when you say the trans is stiff - are you referring to a hard shift going into a new gear or the shifter is hard to slide from P to D? If you have hard shifts (ie a thump going into gear) the first thing would be to check fluild color and levels, then consider a simple drain fill. If its your shifter, you may need to open up and see about key spots to lube (without hosing down the PNP switch :-) )

 

I haven't had to deal with this on my Volvo, but my (recently retired) Acura MDX had that same issue. Turned out it was just the pivot at the end of the shift cable (the one connected to the lever going into the tranny itself). Just had to clean and lube it, and all was good again.

The lever on the Volvo tranny seems to be in a relatively easy place to get to - you might have to remove a few things, but you could get lucky and get it to free up with a schpritz of penetrating lube on the pivot point at the end of the shift cable.

 

Aha....I should have looked. Made the bad assumption of a complicated linkage, not a cable. Will WD-40 be ok? Excellent point. I should have soaked some moving parts first. And yes to the other question, it is stiff just "park to drive" and back. Tranny performs fine on the road. I'll lube the cable this week end

Thanks everyone

 

I replaced my battery today (the old one lasted nearly four years - pretty good for Arizona, where 2-3 years is the norm), and notice that the "business end" of the linkage really isn't that bad to get to. I didn't dig in to figure out how difficult it might be to remove / clean it, but the end of the cable is where you can pretty easily reach it (on top of the transmission, in front of the battery box). You might be able to route some "real lube" onto the moving bits with a long piece of tubing. I'm not a big fan of WD-40 as it has almost no lubrication (it's mainly about Water Displacement, and has only a trace amount of oil - the rest is a volatile compound that's designed to evaporate).

 

I would not spray WD 40 but liquid grease. Comes in a spray can. Avoid electrical connections. Spray by the shifter and links on top of the transmission.

 

Wanted to say thanks to everyone that chimed in. Spaying some oil into the linkage may have helped but not sure if I got to the "right spot". Ive used it a bit more this week and everything is fine. The shop did an oil change for me and did not notice anything unusual either. Maybe I should drive it more??? More questions after the oil change but I'll save them for later and another thread. Thanks again all........