1998 V70 Slight hesitation and rough downshift

[chexny]

I am having the following issues and trying to figure out where to start. Not sure if related either.

First - If I accelerate in city driving, from stop to say 30-35 mph and then let off gas on occasion - maybe 20% of the time - I get a rough downshift. This is the only time I get a rough shift. And rough may be a bit of an overstatement but it is noticeable. The rest of the time the transmission is fairly smooth. Did train/fill maybe 10-15k miles ago and check the fluid and level is fine. Overall mileage is 185k miles.

Second - Driving at highway speed. Not under any noticeable load, just cruising at 60-65 and there will be a slight hesitation. Tough to explain but basically it is almost a loss of power for a very brief moment and then it goes back. I did 100 mile trip a couple nights ago and it happened maybe 3-4 times. I tried to look but not noticeable rpm/speed difference just a slight kind of hesitation and immediately back to normal.

Just a note - The top engine mount has a very slight tear but nothing awful. Just eyeballing the engine while revving it hard in park the engine does move slightly but it is not too bad.

[scot850]

My 2000 R, while different (5 speed auto) does lock the transmission at around that speed (90km/h) and can seem like a hesitation. If you have had the car for some time and it is something new or you haven't noticed it before, then it may be normal.

When you say you did a drain/fill, what do you mean? Did you just pull the drain plug, and empty out what came out, or did you do a flush and drain? The first uses 3-4 litre, and the 2nd takes up to 12 litres of trans fluid.

If you did the first version, that only clears about half the trans fluid, so another drain and fill is probably needed. Some of they guys here don't like to do the drain and flush method, and prefer to drain the trans at maybe 3 engine oil changes and they feel that does a good enough job. Never, ever to a power flush as that can loosen build up and get it into the valves and it is then trans death. I prefer to do the fill, remove the cooler line, run engine until 2-3 liters has come out, stop engine, refill trans and repeat until fluid is clean (around 12 litres).

You've been on MVS for a while, so apologise if you already know this.

Others, feel free to chime in!

Neil.

[chexny]

drain/fill 3x with a week/month of driving in between.