I have just taken ownership of a 2000 s70 2.4L non turbo with the AW 50/55sn transmission. The car had been sitting in a garage for about a year with a very minor drive around the block every couple of months just for the heck of it while it was in "storage". My wife started driving the car on a regular basis about 5 weeks ago, last week the transmission began to slip out of gear one day when she was driving to work. The flashing up arrow, check engine, and service light all came on at the same time or within a few minutes of each other. I went and swapped cars and attempted to nurse the car back home, I could take off from a complete stop but when the tranny tried to shift up to 2nd gear it was like the transmission went into neutral, the RPMs on the engine would rev but the car just coasted down the road, it would eventually drop back into 1st gear once the car was almost slowed to a stop and I could accelerate again until it was time to shift into 2nd gear and the same thing would happen again, and for the next 8 miles until I got home. I took the car to a local Volvo service garage that said they thought the transmission may be bad but they weren't sure and suggested I take it to the Volvo dealership to get a second opinion. Really honest or didn't know what they were doing who knows. On the way home I stopped by Autozone and they pulled a code of 0733 (incorrect gear ratio)and said it may be a shift solenoid issue, but I don't think that was correct. I took the s70 to the dealership a couple of days later they said they also received the same indication of the incorrect gear ratio which the service tech called the code of death. The service advisor said with that type of code and the fact the transmission fluid looked OK that the transmission was doomed and would need to be replaced to the tune of $3800.00 (thank goodness they had an overstock of those type transmissions because that was a discounted price according to him).

So with all of that I have a couple questions:

Is the "incorrect gear ratio" really a bad thing?

After sitting and not being driven very much for a year would the fluid, for a lack of better terms "go bad" and cause this type of problem with this type of transmission?

The fluid was changed about 3000 miles prior to the car sitting for a year, the service garage that performed the transmission fluid change is no longer in business so I can not verify what type of fluid was used, I know its very possible the wrong fluid could have been used and with or without the car sitting up for the year I could just now be dealing with the effects of an incorrect fluid replacement. Could a couple of drain and fills maybe solve my problem? If so can the Mobil 1 synthetic be used? It says on the back of the container it is JWS 3309 compatiable but I'm unsure on that one since its a synthetic.

The dealer verified the most up to date software was in the vehicle, are there any other external electrical parts that could cause this type of problem, such as the shift solenoids, or the PNP switch or am I just truly doomed and heading for a rebuild?

 

this happened to me about 2 years ago on my 2000 s70 awd. Same thing It would stall and I could restart it and drive a block and it would crap out and repeat. finally I had it towed to my mechanic and it was a bad tranny. I found a used one of a cross country awd on ebay for around 500 bux and the rest was on labor costs. that was around 80k miles. after labor and the tranny It came to around 1300.

 

I have read somewhere that the P0733 was the code of death for these transmissions. Not sure what could have caused it but sad to hear that for you.

 

Hey I am fairly new to this myself but before I replaced the trans I would clean the shift solenoids and the line solenoids.

 

Easier said than done. What is a shift solenoid? What is a line solenoid? Where are they and how does one go about cleaning them?

 

Come on RSPI... DUH...!

The shift solenoids are where the shifting happens and the line solenoids are what tell the shift solenoids what LINE to shift at.

Driving a manual has made you dumber by the month, dude.

 

The fault I had was P0755 (shift b solenoid - open, short or ground) = shift solenoid 1 - in this case open (400 Ohms resistance). Other 750 series codes apply to the shift solenoid 1 and Lock Up solenoid. These codes are purely for electrical faults and have no bearing on the mechanical or fluid condition of the transmission (so much for the comments I have heard people say they get from dealers and tranny shops about replacing or rebuilding trannys).

To replace you need to remove the battery and battery mount plate. Remove the upper tranny to radiator hose at both ends, ; remove the dipstick housing and loosen the bracket on the left side of the solenoid cover and alow it to rotate down ( I think it is there to **** off anyone attempting to do this job ). The solenoids are under the black cover forward of and below the PNP Switch. It is secured with 9 #40 Torx Bolts and they are Loctited in. For the one just up from the bottom, you will need a 1/4 in. drive Torx bit and to reinstall it you will need to glue the bolt to the bit to get it started (possibly removing the gold covered cover to the left of the solenoid cover could negate this need).

You will need to elevate the tranny a couple of inches to access the right lower bolt (use a floor jack and a piece of 2x4 under the trans housing - no need to unbolt any mounts).

You will need a relatively short 1/4 extension to get at the difficult bolt mentioned above.

Once the cover is off, replacing the solenoids/s is very easy - the recepticals are color coded on the solenoids and the solenoids are pictured by location in the manual available for download on this site.

The cover uses RTV sealant and you will lose approximately 2.5 quarts of trans fluid during the operation.

Reassembly is opposite disassembly and relatively easy (the loctite is the worst part as the Torx Bolts have relatively shallow depressions and are somewhat difficult to get a good hold on with the limited access afforded due to the sub frame.

 

Are the soleniods easy to get?

 

Yes the solenoids are easy to get several company's online have them.

 

Unfortunately replacing the solenoids will not likely fix the problem. The trouble code is only a symptom it's not really the problem. The problem exists deep inside the transmission and must be rebuilt to fix the problem. I have this exact same problem with my 2000 XC70 and I have gone through several steps to try to avoid replacing / rebuilding the transmission. I believe the transmission you have is the 50-42LE four speed automatic not the 50-55SN which is the five speed automatic. What I tried to do to resolve this problem is replace the valve body with a valve body from another transmission which did not resolve the problem. I also flushed the transmission twice with new fluid and that did not work either. Finally I have purchased a used transmission from a salvage car and have now installed it but have not turned the key as of yet (many hours of my labor). I'm hopping this will put my car back on the road in the next week. I'm thinking this or rebuilding the transmission is the only way to fix this issue. Who knows how many miles I will get on a used transmission with the same mileage as my car.

 

Hey I'm looking forward to hearing about how the used transmission worked out for you?
Did you still have the same problem codes with it?

 

It worked out great. Car shifts fine now. I was very careful in choosing the salvage yard and the used transmission. I tried several different methods to fix the old transmission and nothing seemed to work. Still would not shift to third gear without throwing the CEL and "up arrow". So swapping the transmission out was my last option but removing the engine and transmission through the top of the engine compartment was no easy task. Many hours were spent but I did a bunch of other repairs on the car at the same time. I was real nervous turning the key last weekend but my prayers were answered when the car ran so smoothly. I'll be driving her to work next week to test long distance travel (over 100 miles to my job one way) and any heat issues. Any questions let me know.

 

hey im a noob around here, where can i find the manual you are talking about?