2001 S80 Won't move in 'drive' but will in 'reverse'

my2001volvo · Post by **my2001volvo** » 25 Jun 2014, 20:16

Yesterday my car was driving fine. I replaced the battery yesterday morning and it drove to work fine, parked for about 10 hours and then drove it home just fine. This morning it started up, reversed out of my the parking spot but when I shifted into drive it wouldn't move. It was as if it as in neutral. It will idle in 1st gear but not in drive. It is an automatic. I checked all of the fuses: fine. The transmission fluid was full and a dark red: seemed fine. I have no idea what the problem is. Its got 132k miles.

matt5112 · Post by **matt5112** » 26 Jun 2014, 04:04

Probably the forward band if you have a six cylinder.

MyS40T4 · Post by **MyS40T4** » 26 Jun 2014, 04:25

Yes, symptoms match what happened to my 2000 S80 T6 - except accompanied by a loud bang. I was accelerating from an intersection.
Try shifting it to tiptronic (manual) mode and selecting 3rd. See if it goes forward (will be slow) and if it does, I'd suggest this confirms the forward band. Don't drive it in this mode...

Dropping the transmission pan might result in the broken end bit of the band dropping out.

my2001volvo · Post by **my2001volvo** » 26 Jun 2014, 09:38

In third it basically acts as if it's in neutral at all. The only time I get forward movement is in first, but it basically rolls at a slow idle. It's as if in first its within the friction zone on a manual which is basically what its doing.

MyS40T4 · Post by **MyS40T4** » 28 Jun 2014, 22:27

Hello,

A bit weird that it won't drive in third either.
I think I might have something else to try - there are a bunch of connectors (4) between the air cleaner housing and the headlight. They come from the round connector on the top of the gearbox. Try disconnecting/reconnecting all of them (one at a time in case they can be mixed up) and try the gearbox again. Ideally you will clean them then lubricate them with a dielctric grease. I had a problem with not being able to start the car that was down to these connectors. Given power to the solenoids would be via this connector it's worth a try.

here's the link to the post I did with some pics.

Cheers,

Chris

my2001volvo · Post by **my2001volvo** » 30 Jun 2014, 09:42

I ended up getting it towed to Certified Transmission. They said there was nothing wrong externally with the transmission and that the problem is definitely within the actual transmission which is a 2xxx dollar fix. Go figure. They won't know what's wrong with it until they take the transmission apart. Am I getting screwed here or do I really have a choice and should I just rebuild it?

Post by **precopster** » 30 Jun 2014, 16:03

Is this a 5 cylinder or 6 cylinder volvo S80? Two very different transmissions.

Do you have an engine light? Try a battery reset with ignition in Pos II. (anything is worth a try when considering shelling out 2K)

my2001volvo · Post by **my2001volvo** » 01 Jul 2014, 00:16

Its a 6 cylinder with no engine light on. I took the battery off and back on to see if that was the issue but it didn't help.

SlowLane · Post by **SlowLane** » 20 Apr 2020, 12:09

Resurrecting this old thread, because that is exactly what just happened to my '02 6-cylinder S80 yesterday.

I had just finished replacing the sway-bar bushings on my 850 and went to put the S80 back into the garage. No forward gears! D & 3 just sat there. 1 & 2 had a little bit of forward pressure, just enough to help push the car up the slightly sloped driveway into the garage.

This is really icing on the cake, given the amount of effort and money I've spent on this car recently. But I've been aware for some time that the 4T65EV transmissions in these cars is a weak point, so it doesn't come as a complete surprise. Just a despiriting one.

To the OP: did you have a resolution?

aussieviking · Post by **aussieviking** » 30 Apr 2020, 04:43

Sorry to say but yea it's going to be the forward apply band, was there a bang or a clang at any point? The bands break in the middle where the forward apply solenoid presses the band to engage it.
I've rebuilt my box (3rd clutch burnt to hell) and is going great since, when I inspected my apply bands they looked good. I said a prayer for them and put them back in and thankfully still haven't had any issues with it.