I'm a bit worried. I told my husband that we would never own an Acura again after the problems we had with our TL...so I picked out a Volvo S40 at Carmax in January.

It's been doing great until the last few weeks.

I take it to the barn and have been letting it run for about 15 min before I leave so the AC will cool the car off for the dog.

About two days ago, it acted like it wanted to stall out leaving the barn driveway....but about 2 miles into the drive, it was acting normal...so I chalked it up to something I was doing or my imagination.

Yesterday..same thing, only this time it did it for about 6 miles. Now granted, I was low on gas, but the gas light wasn't on, nor was I low on gas the previous day with this problem. Once I got off the backroads and onto the highway it stopped jerking. I pulled into a Shell station and put in their premium gas (I always use premium). It was fine for the 20 miles home.

Husband said it sounded a bit strange to him when he first started it yesterday afternoon when we went out to run errands...but once again, it seemed fine afterwards.

Do I need to be concerned? I'm reading about transmission problems online and that is exactly why we got rid of the Acura...transmission died at 110K.

Thoughts?

 

Which model and year S40? The 2000-2004.5's are completely different animals than the 2005 + models.

My 2001 S40 started acting up when it needed a tuneup. The coil-on-plugs get roasted after sitting under that engine cover next to a red hot engine. They tend to start acting up in the 75k-100k range. The plugs are pretty gunked by 100k miles especially if the PO used a poor grade fuel.

Also, on the 2000-2004.5 years when the fuel gauge reads empty you still have about 6 gallons left. From empty to full on the gauge is about 10 gallons but the tank holds 16. I'm not sure about the 2005 + models yet. I just bought a 2005 so I'll find out soon.

 

Oops, I did forget to include the year. It's a 2008 model.

 

It does seem you are describing a tuneup issue and not a transmission issue. Since the car is new to you then consider having a simple spark plug change done to see if it changes anything. It's pretty simple to do it yourself with the right tools. The dealer charges quite a bit for parts so consider buying the spark plugs at the local parts store or online.