My car seems to lose power from engine to transmission. I notice the engine reps up a lot more but the car slowly pickupspeed. Then I notice at between 2000 and 2500 rpm, the engine reps freely before the transmission engage. I feel like there's a void between that rpms. All this happens during the gas pedalconstantlydepressed with equal pressure. Example, you sit at the stop light, then takes off, and this would happens before you reaches 40mile/hr; or when you enter the freeway. (basically, I didn't jerk my foot to cause it).

My car: 2000 S80, 2.9L with only 45K miles.

What's wrong with it?
Is this something a transmission oil & filter change would fix? (fyi, I haven't change it yet).
If so, is this something I can do at home? Given a couple of floor stands and a car jack?

 

Is there any messages showing up on the dash?? Servicing your transmission would be the best. You may want to get it flushed. A flush isn't just dumping out a quarter of oil from the pan, replacing the seal and filter and putting that quarter of new fluid in. A flush will flush out all of the fluid, then the filter and seal are replaced.This will run you about 225 What's the point of having a quarter of your fluid clean, you're just diluting the dirty fluid w/ clean stuff, but if this is your route, you're looking at about 75 bucks in filter, seal and fluid. Spend the extra money. Also keep in mind, this isn't a Porsche, S80 take a little time to speed up.

 

Sounds like the transmission is slipping.

 

Funny thing is, this seems to happen just after I cleaned the throttle body. It must be a coincidence. My only guess if it has anything to do with cleaning the throttle would be the car is now running lean (air-fuel), causing lack of power. Since this car is completely computerized, without any MSG Light, we are left pretty clueless. The ability to troubleshoot this car is in the hand of dealership and that's just more $$$.

 

Find an indepentent in your area that has VIDA. I have it in my shop and it makes all the difference when diagnosing cars. The first step would be to have the tranny filter and fluid changed. you'll get almost all the fluid out in that tranny, about 7 quarts. The early S80s had lots of quality control issues with those GM trannies they are using. The clutches and other things just wear out too fast. My recommendation would be to take it to a good tranny shop or independent volvo service center and have the tranny checked. What you are descibing to me sounds like a failed tranny. Likely clutches. If you drain the fluid it will likely be very gray.

 

you know Volvo4mula my S80 has a really funny noise when it shifts to second gear, you can actually hear a click, and shen she slips on the ice it almost sounds like a ratchet. Yet on the road she works fine. I just had her serviced not too long ago and she worked fine. A couple of months ago a transmission service light went on but disappeared. Suggestions?

 

slips on the ice? In San Antonio? Man, we don't even really get any ice up here.
As far as a clicking noise, wouldn't know without hearing it. There are a few things that could make a clicking noise. A ratcheting sound on ice may be the abs module.

 

I was thinking the same thing. The tracs was kicking in.

 

I'm in Montana now, well for a little longer, this place sux! Anyways, the car does slip a lot, they're not very good on ice or snow, regardless of the tires. I've had Falkens, Michelin, and now Goodyear. I can see how that ratcheting noise could be from the traction mechanism kicking in, because once i hear it, it grips and then it stops. I only started hearing it once I moved to MT. As for the ABS, she works good but/the amt of ice we have here, there's nothing that can stop when we have an inch of solid ice on the ground.

 

Hey I think my car(2000 s80)is doing the exact same thing. Last night I don't think that it shifted into forth gear until after a while on the interstate. The funny thing is that no code appeared. When I got home I checked the tranny fluid and it was its normal bright red. Today it seemed to work okay and there are still no codes appearing.

It was below zero degrees Flast night could this be the reason why? I wouldn't think that it would be but you never know.

Any help would be great!!

 

that's one thing i noticed right after i moved up from Texas, this car's transmission really has to warm up in order to work right.

 

The older volvos used to have a button for Winter mode, wich kept the car from taking off in first gear so as to avoid slipping on the ice. It is possible that the vehicle may be operatiing in Winter mode.
Winter mode also causes the tranny to slip a lot more than it normally would, causing longer shifts. That may be what your experiencing. Given the weather and time of year, I'd be loath to say over the net that you have a legitimate problem. It may just be tranny programming.

 

Thanks for the response. The last two days I have let the car warm up for two minutes after letting it set outside all night. It seems to do alot better.

The one thing that I noticed is that when I took it out of my garage today and was getting on the freeway it revved up all the way to 3000 before going back into overdrive and dropped all the way down to 2200 rpm. The car didn't jolt or anything when it dropped into overdrive though. The thing that I noticed is that it didn't drop into overdrive immediately. I hope you are right about winter mode, it would make sense.

Thanks again for the post

 

If it was in Winter mode it would say in the little display.
Like where there is the D for drive.
With the car running and in gear hit the W button you should still have one and see if the D in the display changes to a W when you press the button.

 

Thats what my tranny was doing made a clicking and warboling sound when put under a torque demand at low speeds, finally the service transmission immediately light came on and my used car warranty came in handy getting me a new trans.

 

Your right there is a W for winter mode and it is not in winter mode. The car did the same thing today. It took a long time for it to get into overdrive. It eventually did but again took awhile.The car didn't jerk or anything when it did i just noticed on the rpm gauge. Once again no code.

Should i start shopping for a new transmission or would a flush help the situation?

 

What color is the fluid?
You might want to see if the computer has any codes.

 

When Volvo diagnosed my transmission they said that the slipping was due to one of the two limiter switches being bad, supposedly one governs low rpm and the other high. Maybe its one of those.

 

The color of the fluid on the dipstick is still a good red. Believe me I checked it a couple times just to comfort myself. There has been absolutly zerocodes of any type.

Thanks for all the help I am a little nervous about having to get a new transmission. That is alot of cash that I don't have to fork over.

 

I've noticed the same problem with mine too (moreso recently). I push the gas pedal down; the RPM meter goes near 3,4 then suddenly dips down; then maybe crawls back a bit (and I did not change my foot pressure either). My neighbor told me that's your transmission changing gears and norma; he said you should panic if it doesn't (because that means you're slipping).

But wasn't the purpose of the S80 was to compete with the BWM 500 series, the Lexus, Mercedes Benzs of the world? I would presume 197 hp (and esp the T6 268 hp) would be enough to at least make afair fight power wise with those guys.