2000 S70 Manual Transmission Shifting Issues

[tjmartin317]

None of these issues are necessarily new, nor are they terribly surprising as I rallycross my Volvo, which requires high RPM shifts between 1st and 2nd. But lately the symptoms (caused by the consequences of my own actions) have been getting more severe, and I wanted to start by asking what I can check to try and avoid replacing the whole transmission. Which, according to the videos I’ve seen, would be incredibly labor intensive.

I’ll try to keep this as organized as possible. Starting with the gears most affected:

• Reverse Gear - unless you park it in reverse overnight, the car cannot find it the next day. No grinding, but it doesn’t pop in. However, as you drive, it will find it later.

• 2nd Gear - one of the only drive gears that is sometimes hard to find, especially when you first start driving. Haven’t been able to figure out the exact RPM where it won’t go, but similar symptoms to reverse. Won’t go in but doesn’t grind (unless really pushed)

• 1st Gear - am always able to find it, just hard to get in. As if it’s blocked.

• 3rd through 5th, absolutely fine, with 5th shifting like butter every time.

Again, all the symptoms above seem to get better the longer you drive. And once I’m in gear the car doesn’t pop out. So if there’s anything aside from take this one out and throw in a new one that’d be great. But I’m pretty sure this one is cooked. It does have 350k miles on it, so beating it to death isn’t exactly ideal.

It won’t see any repairs until late March at the earliest. I have two rallycross weekends back to back. So if the trans is going to die, it’s going to die then.

9D9FF990-652A-4569-884E-AB7FFEF318DB.jpeg (140.44 KiB) Viewed 638 times

Photo for your time.

[850 LPT]

I have owned 3 Volvo's now with the 5-speed manual and they all had similar symptoms, but not quite as severe. They are hard to shift into first and reverse when cold, even low mileage ones. Right now I am driving a 98' S70 with 145k on it.

One thing I always wanted to try is installing different material shifter bushings, that may make a difference. I have a set of SS ones, but not installed yet. The P2 cars do shift better and they have different bushings.

No real answers here, but it doesn't sound like it's going to fall apart on you.

Dirk

[tjmartin317]

Thanks for the info anyways, even if you don’t have the answers (I sure don’t, hence why I’m here ). How easy are those bushings to slip on? If it’s a “may as well try it” repair then I’m all for it! The gear I’m most concerned with is 2nd being hard to find when cold, as it’s the gear I primarily use on the dirt tracks.

[abscate]

Are you sure you don’t have a clutch problem and are not getting good disengagement ?

[tjmartin317]

Could be that too. I do notice that my foot has to be pressed a little hard just to get the clutch to be depressed enough so I can start the car.

I really don’t know much of transmissions as a whole, so it could be a host of things. If the clutch is struggling then it’s going to require a trans removal anyways… couldn’t be something easy like the clutch master being low on fluid, could it?

[abscate]

Could just need bleeding, the fluid uses the same reservoir as the brakes so you would have caught that low fluid on your monthly check, of course.

Follow the line coming forward under th-e fuse box area for the stinky smell of hydraulic fluid to see if the line has rusted out. You need to pull the air box to check the line underneath

That’s a fun job

[850 LPT]

If the line has rusted out, you have no clutch. Good point though about the clutch action in general. I was also wondering if this could be caused by air in the lines.
I had this line replaced on Matilda, the 99' S70 by my indie. Before it rusted through, the clutch made a strange groaning noise when shifting into first gear. Then with the new line installed, and properly bled, the car shifted much better and the noise was gone.

[tjmartin317]

Could just need bleeding, the fluid uses the same reservoir as the brakes so you would have caught that low fluid on your monthly check, of course.

Follow the line coming forward under th-e fuse box area for the stinky smell of hydraulic fluid to see if the line has rusted out. You need to pull the air box to check the line underneath

That’s a fun job

If it uses the same reservoir as the brakes, is there a specific nipple on the clutch master that I can bleed? Dumb question but I am also a dumb individual.

[abscate]

You bleed at the slave cylinder, down near the transmission. It’s really easy to bleed, gravity alone will sometimes do it.

[foggydogg]

Plus one on bleeding the slave, it feeds off a nipple on the bottom of the reservoir.
There are two wear areas in the shifter setup. There are rubber mounts in the console that can cause a bit of slop, aftermarket vendors have them in delron or some such, and Mother has stock replacements - I'll try to dig up part numbers.
The rubber bushings on the transmission end of the cables is another sport altogether. They aren't available separately, but Robert and others do a workaround using small bearing from the skateboard community and fender washers.