I’ve owned a 04 xc90 for 1 week and I regret it very much.
First there were 2 occasions we were told the lights on the car were flashing. The car was not running, in fact both times the car had been off and in park for hours.

Then I was driving and the car shut off. I lost power steering and all the warning lights flashed. The check engine light included. It gave me a transmission urgent warning but it didn’t stay there. I pulled the car over, put it in park and restarted it. It started fine; I put it in drive and started on my way. I made it no where before I heard a kind of winding up sound….I looked at the dash and the RPM’s were soaring but the car was not. I think this is what’s called “limp mode”. I pulled over again put it in park, shut it off and restarted on my journey. This happened twice and finally I pulled over and called my husband. It took him about 30 minutes to get to me, I say this in case cooling time matters. He drove it less than a mile and we parked it. Hours later he went to get it and was able to drive it about 1-2 miles home, which did include an impressive hill. We haven’t driven it since.

I feel like if it was the Transmission fully gone it wouldn’t work even for a minute. It almost seems electrical or something. But when I search online I’ve learned the tranny’s go out often. Volvo needs to do a recall and replace these faulty transmissions.

A buddy with a scanner said it popped codes P0842,734,733,&700. I've tried to research these but the main one seems to be the 842 which is some kind of pressure switch. But I've tried to research that part or symptoms of it going bad with no luck.

Has anyone else had these same issues? If so, what was the repair? It almost seems sensor related?

 

Is this a T6? The T5's are a lot easier to work on and the transmission is different.


All these codes might have been set by low fluid so please check that. The codes 734 and 733 "wrong ratio" can be set by slipping, so that is not a sensor. If you're lucky, it was set by failure to shift, caused by something you can get to outside the transmission. That is not impossible.


If the transmission is "bad" there are two schools of thought on this, namely, fix it or don't fix it. There is a guy who decided to fix one who posted a good thread on that recently and he is just now getting it finished. You might want to look at that. Like a lot of things in life, a good person can handle this. This is the most complex car that I have ever worked on. You're going to need a very, very good person.


There is at least some support for improving the transmission too, so that it lasts longer. These guys seem to specialize in that at least a little: Triple Edge Performance - Home Page

 

Unfortunately it is the T6. We checked the fluid and it does need changed but isn't low. My husband said it isn't a red color. When I tried to research the code 842 it said something about it being a fluid pressure switch. I was hoping it could be something simple like that. But logically I feel like it's not going to be that easy.
I appreciate your feedback. I did go to that link and sent an email. Maybe I can figure this out.
Thank you very much.

 

When we first purchased a Volvo had similar issues, Found that many would advise is was major electrical issues. We found that it just needed a new battery. The alarm would use all power and cause alarm to reset and drain battery and worsen the issues.