I'd like to hear about any issues you may have had and how you resolved them. I am in the process of having a transmission rebuilt at 74,000 miles. I've contacted Volvo, however since I live no where near an Authorized dealer and am having the transmission done at a local shop there is no assistance whatsoever.

Were there any recalls that I am unaware of? I noticed that some of the older models had this issue, but you would think they would have had this fixed.

 

You can google for the technical service bulletins and recall notices specific to any model. As to the 2013 XC90, there's no open recalls and the only transmission related TSBs are for hard shifting into the higher gears which is corrected by a "retraining" procedure to recalibrate the software.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...55532-9962.pdf

What was going on that you were advised the transmission needs to be rebuilt?

 

The transmission was a dog out of first and second and sometimes third gear. I live in a hilly area, and it was shifting slowly, and clunking hard. I took it in thinking maybe it just needed a transmission service and was advised it needed a complete rebuild. I bought this car at around 35,000 miles and it now has 74,000 miles on it, typically service should be done at 50,000 miles I guess. According to the mechanic, the seal was leaking and it had about half of the fluid it should have had in it. The transmission was rebuilt and is even worse than before, I've been told that its the torque converter that was put in is defective. I am now on my third week of borrowing vehicles, driving it when I absolutely have to, waiting for a new torque converter. I have assurance from the mechanic that when it comes in, he will completely rebuild again to negate any damage that has been done in the week and a half since the first rebuild, and restart the warranty. It now does even more things like hesitating, stuttering....things that I can see have been attributed to a bad torque converter from research.

I have no idea whether it actually needed a rebuild or not, I had to take it on faith and good reviews that this guy is a reputable transmission guy. The anxiety this is causing me is beyond reasonable, I contacted Volvo about it and they basically told me there was nothing they could do. I guess I understand that but after looking at some of the older model transmission problems I wonder if its still an ongoing transmission issue that needs to be addressed. Maybe I am lucky but in all my adult life I have never had to replace a transmission, much less one at less than 75,000 miles.

Thanks for letting me vent!

 

well the problem with a leaky seal is if the fluid level goes low, the tranmission can overheat and bad things can happen. Historically these cars don't have a history of transmission issues, most of that reputation was from the early 2000-2004 years with the 4 speed GM transmissions not a 2013 which uses an Aisin (who also supply to Toyota and others). Generally there's two things that can be done with a rebuild - they can remove all the bands and clutch plack and inspect/replace what's worn or damaged then rebuild replacing seals and bushings. (when a shop drains the fluid they will run through a filter to look for debris - which is a sign the clutches are toast). The other thing that's replaceable are the solenoids in the valve body These are the electromechanical switches that take the signal from the transmission computer to route the fluid that in turn shifts the gears. If your tranny got full of debris, they's need to clean this up as well. Sometimes the solenoids themselves can fail, but that will usually throw a fault code.