Mysterious 940 auto transmission issue

JCosta · Post by **JCosta** » 22 Aug 2011, 11:24

I just bought a 1992 940 GL automatic with 180K from its original owners. It's been sitting in their garage unused for two years, just and occasional startup. It was his wife's car and she no longer likes the RWD in the snow. They stated that it was in good working order prior to taking it off the road 2 years ago and was always serviced regularly at their Volvo dealer. It was always garaged and appears cosmetically to be in amazing shape. Here is the problem...

The engine starts and runs fine, I was able to back it out of the garage but when I put it into drive... nothing! The transmission doesn’t appear to go into gear. Is it possible that after sitting for so long the transmission would just stop working like that? Could it be a sensor or gear position switch or cable or bad fluid or something...? This is my first Volvo so I don’t know where to start troubleshooting this problem... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

J Costa

Note: Because they have to apply for a duplicate title, it was misplaced, I haven’t taken the car yet so there is still time to back out.

Post by **jimmy57** » 22 Aug 2011, 13:30

First would be to verify it is full of ATF.
Yes, seals harden and fail when it is not used. It is well worth a try to put a seal conditioner additive . It sometimes works.

JCosta · Post by **JCosta** » 24 Aug 2011, 13:16

jimmy57... Thanks for the reply. I should be picking the car up within a couple weeks. I will try some fresh ATF and seal additive first and repost my findings.

J

JCosta · Post by **JCosta** » 10 Nov 2011, 05:34

Well, I thought I had the problem fixed. I flushed the transmission fluid and changed the filter, it looked like chocolate milk in there. It even looked like some moisture had gotten in too. The car ran great for a couple months now once the transmission warms up it will just stop working. If you turn the car off and let it cool down it will work fine. I got a quote from a local shop to rebuild it $2500... So that’s not an option!

Any ideas before a part this thing out?