While driving yesterday in clear warm weather, my up-shift arrow lit up (solid, no flash), and the car acted as if it was stuck in a higher gear than normal (not low or 1st). From a stop sign or traffic light when starting out, the revs were higher than normal and the response was sluggish (like a manual starting in a higher gear, but with higher rpm). The shifter was in Drive, and I was doing city driving.

I cycled thru some of the gears with no change. I had better luck shifting to 3rd from a start, then going to Drive when I reached speed, and I could feel an ok 'up-shift'. I had no other lights on, I was not in winter or sport mode.

I tested the car 30 minutes after reaching my destination (off-wait-on), and the problem cleared up. The fluid was red and clear, close seemed fine for 'hot' level.

This happened twice before, years ago, both times on very hot days (hotter than yesterday) and cleared up after a wait and re-start. A delearship looked at it once and said there were no codes recorded, that I'd have to bring it to them in this state to capture it (not convenient), and I can't replicate the problem by myself.

It's a 2000 S40 with 115K, fairly well maintained, single owner - no other gremlins to speak of. I searched here for some answers first, but I didn't find anything.

Any ideas you folks might have would be really appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan

 

After reading some more on the big-I, I see where my symptoms could be characterized as "Limp Mode". This throws off my untrained diagnosis.

Could this be an issue with the ETM, S2 or PNP?
I don't have an ODC, but I can do some work myself - short of a partial engine drop/lift.

Thanks

 

The fluid seems to be overheated.See a mechanic who can read transmission data if there is any stored code.

 

Will do - thanks.
A buddy is bringing in his reader