2004 XC70 3rd gear issues

[ottergy]

I just picked up a 2004 XC70 with 170k on it.
It's a really nice car but 3rd gear won't engage . I knew this going into this purchase .

I drove it home from Portland ( about 4 1/2 hours ), and it drove great except for having to use the manual shift to get passed 3rd and then putting it into Drive when coming to a stop.

My thinking was that this problem might be because someone had mistakenly removed the band anchor bolt to refill it with trans fluid and disconnected the band in the process. This seems fairly common from what I’ve read.

I have looked into the repair by drilling and tapping a hole through the anchor bolt and fishing the band anchor into place. This is a fix that I think I could handle.

When I got the air filter off, I noticed that the bolt head was 5 sided and it looked un-molested. It seems that if you tried to remove this without the right tool it would get marked up and so maybe this was'nt the problem.

The only other symptom is that it shifts pretty hard when stopped with the brake on, shifting back and forth between forward and reverse. It does soften up after a few times.
The fluid is brownish and don’t have a good read on the level yet… dipstick broke taking it out.

What I want to know is if there are other causes I should consider that would have the same symptoms of not engaging in just 3rd, with the other gears all shifting well? 3rd does not try to engage at all.
I just want to know before I pull the bolt out to re-attach the band anchor. ( Because I won’t know at that point if I just released it or it was already released.)

[vtl]

I've had no third gear after transmission rebuild. Turned out to be a problem in the valve body (took it apart for replacing the gaskets and inline filters and did a mistake in assembly). You mentioned it shifts badly, so VB could be the reason for no gear.

Also take B4 piston out and inspect it just in case. Pay attention to the cap, it can get separated. Inspect the channel when the pin moves, and check for scuffs on the pin itself. If you can, measure the piston travel. Factory travel is 5.5-6.5 mm. +1.5 mm to that, due to wear or casing damage, will cause severe shifting problem.