Use L gear - get upshift & check eng lights

[Sommerfeldt]

Sommerfeldt....while you saving the brakes from overheating doing that,you're ruining your auto transmission.
Manual is another story and you can do whatever you want with it without problems.

I know you're one to appreciate straight talk, misha, so let me give it to you; that's complete bullsh1t.
3 and L are there for a reason, and the tranny's not doing anything it wasn't designed to do. An auto tranny will not automatically downshift on a downgrade - it will let the car roll. Not using 3 and L is up to you, of course, but I think you've completely missed the point.

3 (Intermediate position)
Automatically shifts up and down between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears when in driving modes E or S. There
is no upshift from 3rd gear. Position 3 can be used for driving in hilly terrain, for towing trailers or for
increased engine braking power.

L (Low position)
No upshift can occur when L is engaged. Select position L for driving in first and second gears. Use this
position to select low gear with no upshift, e.g. when ascending and descending steep grades.

- S

[oragex]

I manually shift regularly the 2,3 and 4 gears in city driving, I like that it gives more rpm when I need to accelerate, and the 2nd gear is also useful when slowing down for a traffic light or when doing a little spirited driving. Only thing is the 2nd gear is rough downshifting from 2nd to 1st. Otherwise is fun to use manually the gears on an automatic, gives a more lively driving.

[tryingbe]

An auto tranny will not automatically downshift on a downgrade - it will let the car roll.

My auto always downshift to 3rd gear when I am going down this steep grade on a road I drive 45-50mph.

[jb24601]

I seem to recall the upshift arrow was flashing, but not absolutely certain.

Re: pnp switch, the first time this happened (in 1998) the car had maybe 5k on it. Don't know what the dealer did but there's no record of the fix on their system. No similar problems for 189,000 miles.

[misha]

Sommerfeldt....while you saving the brakes from overheating doing that,you're ruining your auto transmission.
Manual is another story and you can do whatever you want with it without problems.

I know you're one to appreciate straight talk, misha, so let me give it to you; that's complete bullsh1t.
3 and L are there for a reason, and the tranny's not doing anything it wasn't designed to do. An auto tranny will not automatically downshift on a downgrade - it will let the car roll. Not using 3 and L is up to you, of course, but I think you've completely missed the point.

3 (Intermediate position)
Automatically shifts up and down between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gears when in driving modes E or S. There
is no upshift from 3rd gear. Position 3 can be used for driving in hilly terrain, for towing trailers or for
increased engine braking power.

L (Low position)
No upshift can occur when L is engaged. Select position L for driving in first and second gears. Use this
position to select low gear with no upshift, e.g. when ascending and descending steep grades.

- S

I appreciate straight talk.

They are there for a reason,that's for sure...but using auto tranny in the way like manual is a speeding proces of ruining it.
Everybody can use or abuse it's car like he wants....i'm just saying the reason why auto transmissions failing prematurely.
My shifts like from the 1st day i bought it and i bought it almost new.Never touched the transmission or fluid replacement.But what i know about it.

[precopster]

At that mileage the PNP will need some TLC or replacement. The copper contacts will need filing back to a flat profile.

For the record I really enjoy using my transmission manually especially on the auto 5 speed. Position 2 provides 1st and 2nd gears and good engine braking on mountain passes and will shift between 1 & 2 without intervention. This is great when towing. I use position 3 (3rd gear) and pos 4 (4th gear) often for decending Melbourne's tunnels with cruise control activated; prevents speeding fines. My 2000 V70 transmission has 344K kilometres and still going strong fingers crossed

[Sommerfeldt]

I appreciate straight talk.

They are there for a reason,that's for sure...but using auto tranny in the way like manual is a speeding proces of ruining it.
Everybody can use or abuse it's car like he wants....i'm just saying the reason why auto transmissions failing prematurely.
My shifts like from the 1st day i bought it and i bought it almost new.Never touched the transmission or fluid replacement.But what i know about it.

I think maybe we're talking past eachother here - I'm not saying to use the auto like it's a manual, shifting it willy-nilly. I'm talking about using it like the owner's manual says it's supposed to be used - just like I quoted up there. That's the US/Canada '95 850 Owner's Manual, direct quote.

I've never ever heard of a tranny failing prematurely from being used the way Volvo made it to be used, but if you've got concrete examples of it, I'd love to see that.
I've driven all my auto cars just like that, actively using the transmission as per the owner's manual, and never had a single issue.

- S

[misha]

I'm using L in extreme uphils but never put it in L from 3 or D at speed to produce nose diving effect.I never used 3 to keep it it up with speed on uphils.There is 1st degree kick down for it,auto down shift from transmission and kickdown switch for downshifting as far it's possible if it's needed to in E or S mode.
Believe me....i've seen so much abusing of auto transmission from people who never drove anything but manual and those transmissions were convicted to fail.

[Sommerfeldt]

That I can kind of agree with - I suspected we were talking past eachother on this one.

I only use L when driving max 30 kph / ~20 mph. That's when the car's already at that speed - not using L to get down to that speed. What's strange is the talk about auto downshift - I've never had my cars do that - not the 850s and not the S70 either. As for uphill, the tranny does that on its own, but I'll use 3 when on a slight downgrade, to maintain 70-80 kph / ~50 mph. Above that, 3 is hardly advisable. The nose diving effect isn't what L is meant for on downgrades either - it's meant to augment the brakes, not replace them. Anyone who gets the nose diving effect is absolutely doing it wrong - we agree on that.

I've always heard that kickdown is the most stressful thing for an auto tranny, so I try to avoid it as much as I can. Still, as I've demonstrated with the W-mode thing, I don't know everything.

- S

[misha]

Oh...i love normal kickdown,plus kickdown switch in combination with sport mode when all 170 ponies go for a run in 6200rpm.
Amazing sound and performance.Not like in a T5 but pretty close.
Kickdown can't be stressful for auto transmission in any way since it's designed to deal with 300hp.