V8 Transmission Rebuild (2005 XC90 95k miles)

[Northstar]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums - what a great community that I'm happy to join with the purchase of an XC90.

Just this weekend I bought a 2005 XC90 V8 with 95k miles on it. Everything checked out for my test drive and the mechanic's drive & eval before me. Then I went just 10-15 miles down the road (the happiest miles ever) and that's when the transmission started spinning freely when it shifted from 3rd to 4th gear! It just would not engage the gear and the engine briefly redlined. DANG! Sometimes it would spin, sometimes it would hook up. Sometimes some of both. The car just had an ATF fluid change with Volvo fluids supposedly, and the level checks out, however after continuing to play with this spinning issue in manual mode for 10-15 minutes to understand it better, I got a "Transmission Oil Temp High" warning. Horrible luck. Maybe it was used for a lot of towing; I hear the V8 trannies are not supposed to be a big problem but my pal says he looks at 100k as the useable life of any auto transmission. Well the used car dealership took it back for inspection and is willing to knock some price off which is good of them since technically they probably didn't have to. Good to know they're standing behind the product for something that was obviously wrong when they sold the car. The fault codes that were stored as of yesterday were:

• PSM-002B
  REM-6A01
  TCM-P089600
  TCM-P089500
  CEM-9C03
  TCM-P074400

It's a beauty of a car once I get the transmission problem (and rack&pinion problem that I knew about) sorted out. I've bought at a low enough price that I can afford a tranny rebuild and still have a decent value overall - with a tranny good for another 100k miles.

MY QUESTION: I found a shop called Triple Edge Performance online after seeing recommendations in this forum for their work on T6 tranny rebuilds - making them better than new. However they don't do V8 rebuilds. Can anyone recommend a good shop like that for V8 tranny rebuilds? I live in Las Vegas but can ship a tranny to a shop you all recommend in any western city due to my company's ridiculously low freight rates. Then just have to find me a good shop locally to remove/reinstall. I am not one to spend time doing big car projects myself, but I sure don't want to pay a stealership to gouge me either. Any suggestions about how I can get this tranny fixed economically and effectively, please?

Thanks in advance,
AJ

[Northstar]

Update: The Volvo dealer said there was an "internal transmission failure" whatever that means - no further information. The used car dealer agreed to cancel the deal so I did that. Instead I have a lower-mileage version of the same vehicle on its way to me. But do please post an answer here for anyone else that would be looking. Thanks!

[jimmy57]

The gearbox is easily rebuildable once out of the vehicle. Parts can be found at Transtar and a reman'd valve body from reamman.com.
Assuming no metal shavings or any other indications of anything but a friction burnout and seal failure the VB and overhaul parts would be $1500 with VB being about $600 of that. Includes reman'd torque converter.
These transmissions are used in some Ford 500/Taurus models and some others so some trans shop has to have waded into these waters.
A-W gearboxes are over on the easy side of the scale as far as service goes. No working down in a hole as the case splits and then the components are just laying there.
There is some possibility the VB would fix this trans. If I had bought it I'd do the VB which is an in-car fix before I did anything else.