2002 S60 - Odd transmission problem

Yaworski · Post by **Yaworski** » 10 Mar 2020, 14:37

It all started last week when the car felt "draggy," not like a drag racer but like it was dragging. The engine was revving but the car wasn't pulling like it should.

The next day, I couldn't reverse up the slope of my driveway. So I had the car towed to a local and highly regarded transmission shop.

They had the car for two days and couldn't find anything wrong. No codes. No errors. According to the computer, the transmission is shifting when it should. So I picked up the car, drove the 20 miles home without a problem and then back and forth to work the next day. That was yesterday.

Today on the way to work, everything started out normally. Then all of a sudden, the problem happened again. Just not accelerating but the engine was revving up.

After a few minutes, the problem disappeared and I drove the rest of the way to work without incident.

It may or may not be related but while the car was acting up, and I stepped on the brakes, I rear brakes made a grinding sound. The car just went through state inspection and passed with flying colors.

Any thoughts?

sprocket007 · Post by **sprocket007** » 11 Mar 2020, 02:04

I had a similar issue, then the car wouldn't drive, it would shift into gear and the engine would revvv up but wouldn't move in any gears. it ended up being the torque converter in the transmission. how many \Km's on the car?
Maybe that's helpful?
Wade

Yaworski · Post by **Yaworski** » 11 Mar 2020, 10:09

About 170,000 miles which is something like 11,000,000,000 kMs.

272,000 kM.

Post by **oragex** » 11 Mar 2020, 11:21

Any other parts replaced recently ? Perhaps worth lifting each wheel and give it a spin - for the front ones may shift into N. Start with the rear ones which have the parking brake shoes that may delaminate

Yaworski · Post by **Yaworski** » 11 Mar 2020, 15:52

Front brake pads were replaced when the inspection was done. I believe that they pull the rear brakes to check the parking brakes for the inspection.

When I have a rain free day, I'll have to check.

Yaworski · Post by **Yaworski** » 23 Mar 2020, 09:44

Well, it's not the transmission. A few days ago, I was on my way to work when the car started acting up again. I was less than a mile from home so I tried to turn around to go home but I couldn't. I pulled into a driveway and when I tried to back out the car wouldn't go. The wheels spun but the car wouldn't go. Forward gave me that same issue. Wheel spin but no go.

Call AAA. In the meantime, people were stopping to let me know that I was blocking the road. Thanks.

A guy did stop to try to help me push the car of the road and we couldn't budge it.

Fifteen minutes later, a cop stops to see if I need help. He says, "Put it in gear and try to move it." Voila, it moved fine.

AAA shows up and drags the car back to the transmission shop. They say, no problems but your brakes look like they are buggered.

So off to the mechanical shop. Right now, they are trying to figure out what is wrong with the brakes.

Post by **oragex** » 23 Mar 2020, 11:42

What's surprising is brakes dragging up intermittently. Usually either work good or get stuck. Hopefully they didn't bend the flexibles. Do you know if they did rebuild the caliper ? Maybe they've installed the piston seal the other way

Yaworski · Post by **Yaworski** » 23 Mar 2020, 13:32

oragex wrote: ↑23 Mar 2020, 11:42 What's surprising is brakes dragging up intermittently.

The transmission guy said that he's seen problems with brakes where the rubber line will collapse when pressure is released and not allow the brakes to release. After time, the pressure equalizes and the brakes relax.

My mechanic said that they tried to do a brake bleed and couldn't bleed the left front. They checked the port on the master cylinder and traced down to the ABS unit. Fluid flowed going into the ABS but wouldn't come out. So now they're looking for a good used ABS.

The odd thing is that the car has always pulled left when braking which one would think means that it is grabbing harder on the left.

Post by **oragex** » 23 Mar 2020, 15:52

I had this problem with very little fluid coming out from caliper bleeders. I did two things, one 'bleeding' at the ABS module and master cylinder lines like this www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGU-glkL2B0
This worked but then I did another thing, bleeding the calipers (in fact it's bleeding the ABS and master) like this guy does. Basically - because his video it's a bit confusing - he is having a long tube at the bleeder with the other end lifted higher than the master cylinder www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi4BnNA3Ep4
After doing this the fluid started coming out normally off my bleeder screws. I think my whole problem started when I replaced the front brake flexibles, because it took me long to screw the new flexible in place, the master reservoir got empty and air got trapped inside the master and the ABS. I think it's this air that was preventing normal bleeder flow, and also the braking force was quite weak - and the discs were wearing strangely, only at the center.

Quite possible your garage did the same mistake. I'm thinking, they bleed first the right wheel, let the master get empty and trap air in, then when going to bleed the left wheel it wouldn't bleed because the ABS/master had air trapped inside.

My take is, try bleeding these ways first, before replacing the ABS unit, because I wanted too to replace it, then got things back to normal by just bleeding. In fact, with a new ABS unit, if the master and the module are not properly bleed, you may go back to the beginning. Volvo can also bleed these by activating the ABS valves (solenoids) in a certain way, so as to push all the air out.

Also inspect the brake flexibles, if the garage lt a caliper to drop and curb the flexible at a sharp angle, the inner flexible layer can rupture and block the fluid passage. Also make sure the garage is using the correct Dot 4 Synthetic fluid for European cars, hopefully they don't put some random fluid causing the piston seals to swell.