'89 740. Transmission skipping? Topic is solved

[Guest]

I've got an '89 740. Automatic. Silver. Her name is Charlotte, cause that's where she came from. She's got 209,200 miles...She idles pretty rough and will sometimes die when sitting at a light if I don't keep my foot on the accelerator.
On top of that a funny thing recently started happening with the transmisison. If I accelerate, it feels and sounds like it's skipping gears. Sometimes it's a rough transition, sometimes the tach just reads extremely high and then briskly switches into the next gear. It'll happen in the next gear too. 2 years ago I was having problems shifting into 4th so we (Volvo guy) replaced the overdrive solenoid...not sure about this one though.

I've got a great Volvo guy but like any good mechanic he's pricey...any suggestions for possible problems?

I love my Volvo and want to keep it running cause it's in great shape...at least the body is. Thanks, Charlotte's owner.

[petershen1984]

I've worried about that, too, but the fact is, our mechanical A/T routers (which routes hydraulic fluid to activate the gear shifts) are just not as smart as the modern computerized systems.

Meaning, if you like to accelerate hard, your car could run fast enough to activate 3rd gear, even from 1st. Give it a little more gas, then the kickdown cable will downshift again. It's starting to get annoying, but hey, I still love my Volvo

Some ways to remedy this - I turn off the overdrive while accelerating from rest from the hwy toll stations, this way it would shift sequentially rather than skip 3rd gear to advance into overdrive too soon.

I just worry whether a transmission fluid service is necessary or whether it could remedy this situation or improve the "roughness" in shifting. My mechanic says 40 k KM -- and we've been checking the transmission oil regularly - he only says it's "clean" and that "change is unnecessary"..