I did what all good newbies should and spent the last 2 hours looking through this forum for answers I needed. My 2002 s40 sometime won't s h i f t at all in D and sometime it will s h i f t all the way to 4th most of the time not at all. manually it will shift to 3rd and if you run it in third for a while and put it in drive it will go into 4th but never 5th. I've read about solenoids, tranny additive
valve body, transmission control module. Any additional thoughts? thanks in advance. Newbie Robert Carter.

 

How many miles? Have you looked at and smelled the fluid? Has the fluid ever been changed?

 

Just got car 3 days ago 208,000 the fluid looks and smells brand new, I traded my 2000 Mountaineer which was in good shape, nothing fancy, but was a gas hog. I traded for the gas mileage and safety. I didn't realize the shifting problem until later.

 

Any additional thoughts?

 

It may be possible the wrong transmission fluid was used, more than likely your transmission is the Asian/Warner, I would figure the fluid should be synthetic for this but the year of your Volvo may not call for that.
Last resort would to use an additive as the delicate valving may be affected adversely. Also If the A/W is as mine, a 2004 old style, then your transmission is a five speed. Makes for good mileage!
Since the S40 is a OBDII diagnostic and checking this is free at O’Reilly and Auto Zone, you may want see if there are any trouble codes. Possible the shifting may be from a speed sensor or even out of range temperature sensor. Not all codes will turn the check engine light on. It is also possible that clearing codes may give a better shot of what is wrong and may clear the problem.
I had water in my fuel tank and using a good additive the engine misfired several times, ran poorly, brought up a trouble code, it was cleared and the car now runs great!

poikaa

 

I added a screen-shot from the service manual and it mentions speed sensors and a shift position sensor.

poikaa

 

Can you find out how fresh the ATF is and its type from the person you purchased from.
As stated above it should be JWS 3309 spec'd for a 5 speed.
If it is very fresh and was only just done prior to handover to you the tranny may just need to do a few miles to help it adjust and settle in. Over a period you may notice gradual improvements and smmoothness of shifting. Hopefully!!
If the previous owner power flushed the system, well that can be detrimental to a tranny with higher miles as is this vehicle of yours.

 

I will ask the PO, as for shifting, when it does shift, it shifts very smooth it just won't shift into 4th and 5th, occasionally will shift into 4th if you manually shift it. My local indy thinks it might be the TCM could it be that?

 

Possibly, or shift solenoids.
Can you get the car checked for fault codes? As poikaa suggested above.
That might give a more accurate clue.

 

I took it to AutoZone and they plugged the code reader in and told me that there was no codes and that I needed to go to a shop that had a code reader that could test further. I plan to do that this week.

 

I saw some oil on the left side of the engine, here is a pic.

 

That oil leak pic could be down to camshaft seals leaking. That can cause timing belt failure with serious engine damage.
Oil sprays around inside the plastic cover.
It could also be oil seeping from under the spark plug cover plate after ponding on top of the head.
Inspect the oil filler cap for a good seal and the top breather hose elbow of the PCV system.That can split of even become dislodged.
You need to check and locate the leak source ASAP.

 

I will do this now my new friend thank you very much for the information.

 

Leaking from the plunger on the CVVT gear is also very common on high mileage cars.



Outer ring gear removed exposing plunger:



Plunger thingy with broken brittle o-ring:

 

I'm inclined to agree, could be the seals and/or CVVT.

When my CVVT leaked the inside of the cover as soaked but there wasn't a drop of oil on the outside. If by chance when you pull the upper cover off everything is dry inside, check for a power steering fluid leak around there. PS fluid loves to creep over the entire surface of anything its touching like that.

 

Pleas tell me more about the inexpensive way to do this, I'm looking to do what you are saying and replace the timing belt, the serpentine belt, the motor mount, the struts and the breaks at the same time, I know that a tall order.

 

The inexpensive method is to mark and remove the outer gear, remove the plunger, replace the o-ring, and put it all back together. The catch is that no one has found the correct size o-ring yet. From what I've read it seems the leak will start up again after awhile.

There has to be a known method for selecting o-ring sizes but I haven't a clue how you go about it.

 

Wonder if a guy could hopefully remove the plunger and the O ring might be in 1 or 2 pieces and could put them together to try to get an approximate diameter. My Youngest Son is a supervisor in a factory and he says that they use literally like 50 different sizes of small O rings on their equipment, I bet that would be a great start.

 

Any additional thoughts on this o ring thingy? I'm determined to figure this out, your looking at a guy who has kept printing presses running for 30 years with rubber bands duct tape and coat hangers. I WILL find an o ring that will work.

 

If you are serious about figuring this out I'll send you the plunger in my old VVT. Just PM me your address.

There could be several reasons why earlier attempts by people to replace that o-ring have failed. The first is it may not be an o-ring at all. To me it looked like it was taller than a standard 'donut' shaped o-ring. Imagine 2 o-rings stacked on top of each other but all one peice. Or it could just be flattened out into that shape...

The second is the materials used in cheaper store bought o-rings. They need to stand up to heat and oil and gasoline. Where I work we have a line or premium Buna-N o-rings that are resistant to petroleum base oils and hydrocarbon fuels at high temps.

When I replaced mine I decided not to try and fix it, and shelled out $185 for a new gear. My main reason for not attempting it was if it failed again I would be replacing the timing belt yet again, and that by iteself is a major PITA on these cars. Also going in and cleaning the oil off of all the parts on that side of the engine.