Took the 01' in for 30,000 mile service.

[Stu in Oregon]

Well, it was not quite so simple.

A loooooong time ago I posted about being the first (according to Volvo NA) in a very small but exclusive club of North American owners who had defective valve body assemblies in our transmissions. That problem took two weeks in the shop, but with an identical loaner for the duration, no biggy. Then the first of two software updates. Then the second of the two software updates. Once again, handled with new loaners and all was well. However, some more "issues" started in a few weeks ago.

To speed my already detail shy post along, I gave a full description of the transmission's transgressions to the service writer when we dropped the car off for it's 30,000 mile service. She pulled a new TSB from 2/27/03 up and read it to me. It did not apply since the symptoms were different. So off to work I went. When I returned at the end of the day, I was told, "Your vehicle is finished and we ordered a new transmission for you. You have had enough trouble already with your transmission and we want to put a new one in for you so you do not have to go through any more difficulties with the car. I hope that is allright with you?". To which I replied, "What did you find to be the problem?". To which she replied, "We did'nt. The tech could not confirm your complaint but said with what is documented already, that you deserved a new replacement unit and Volvo would be better off starting with a new transmission now intead of stringing this one along any longer". I then said, "And Volvo North America actually agreed?". To which she spoke, "Yes. And they have already shipped the unit. It will be here in two days". So I said "great".

I was ready for a long battle to ensue since the transmission had been fine for the last year or so and I figured they would not believe us. The problem only occured under very specific conditions which I figured they would not be able to duplicate and would not throw a code either. Which it did not. But my dealer believed us and took charge with Volvo. I am actually pleased about this and will most likely purhcase the car now at the end of the lease in May.

[wiz]

That is a great story and you should be pleased. So tell us all the name of this proactive dealership so that future readers in your neck of the woods will give them due consideration if considering a Volvo purchase. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Pastor John]

Had a similar pleasant experience with our Volvo here in Atlanta.  When my wife's '98 V70 GLT developed a throbbing in the brake pedal at 54,000 miles, I assumed that it was time for new pads as part of normal expected maintenance.  Shortly after dropping the car off at the dealership, the Service Manager called to say that one of the rotors had somehow warped, and that he was replacing the rotors on all four wheels as well as installing a complete set of pads and flushing the hydraulic system.  All for no charge at all; in the dealer's words:  "Volvo takes it reputation very seriously, and would never want to take a chance on your family's safety."

We bought our '02 V70XC six months later...

John

[coastal]

Great story Stu, always nice to hear the positive experiences. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Pastor John, nice to see you back! http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/happy.gif

[dtlayman]

Stu in Oregon,

We have a 2001.

What problems were you having?  

Travis

[Stu in Oregon]

To answer Wiz's question, our dealer is Fisher Volvo in Portland, OR.. The service writer is Leslie, although I cannot for the life of me remember her last name at this moment. http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/blush.gif She is "sharp as a tack" and has been in the industry in several different capacities for some time.

dtlayman, we have one of the first 01s delivered in Oregon (I know, I know. Never get the first of anything http://xc70.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif ). So it is a very early build car. The first problem was seemingly related to the adaptive neutral but was in fact something else. One of the valve body openings in the valve body assembly was ever so slightly overbored and allowed the (once warm) transmission fluid to leak through the closed valve (when at a stop). This leak triggered the pressure switch that controls the adaptive neutral's engagement and disengagement. So, when we came to a stop the car felt as though it was popping in and out of first gear for up to four repetions. In fact, it was just the adaptive neutral feature cycling on and off. After three software diagnosis downloads from Sweden by an engineering team over there, they literally guessed at the valve body. The part was in Sweden of course, hence the two full weeks in the shop. It was later confirmed to me that it was the valve body and they had found five others (Florida, Minnesota, Italy, Sweden and Norway). Ours and Florida were the first and were discovered simultaneously. The valve bodies were part of a small batch of only several hundred that was recalled of course.

The other older issue was a very abrubt downshift into first mostly maneauvering in parking lots. The software updates resolved those more than a year ago.

But lately, the transmission started to have very abrubt upshifts from first to second under certain conditions. Then two weeks ago on a trip over the Cascade mountains, the manual Geartronic shifts from fourth to fifth and fifth to fourth became very abrubt. Not a shudder, but an abrubt single shift. And now this week, the car just does not want to go forward very fast until the tranmssion is warm. But next Wednesday, it gets replaced and I am sure all will be well.

Our 02' has had no warranty work of any kind and has 11,000 miles now. The transmission drives and behaves totally differently. And I am NOT refering to the absence of adaptive neutral in the 02s and later. There is just something going wrong with our 01's transmission.

There is a new TSB related to the adaptive neutral in the 01s that was given to the dealers on 2/27/03 if anyone is having problems related to that.

[joeboy01]

I was having problems with the transmission slipping on my 02.  I thought a software update would correct things as it did earlier in the year, but when the tech inspected it and did some tests as directed by Volvo, they decided to replace the transmission.  When they dropped the pad they said it was pretty full of metal.  This with 13,000 miles.  Loaner made it a nearly pain free week.

[dtlayman]

joeboy01,

When was your transmission slipping?  How would you describe it?

Initially, but only on a rare occasion when we first bought the car we would experience what might be called slipping when we were slowing down to make a turn.  We had an update which seemed to help.

Very occasionally we will still experience what seems to be the transmission doing something close to slipping.    It seems to occur when we are at a stop and then start when the light turns green.  Initially there will either be a hesitation or slipping that occurs somewhere between letting our foot off the brake and a second after pushing the gas.  It hasn't happened enough for me to identify exactly.  My wife just told me that it seems to happen to her when she is driving right after she takes her foot off the brake.

Also, we noticed when we first got the car especially, that in the morning (or after cold starts) that the car would hang in a low gear for the first couple of minutes of driving.  We got an update which seems to have helped some.

We had updates I.D. 667 per tech note 43-24.01 when we described the slipping and then ID. 667 per tech note 43-28 when we described the hanging in low gear issue.

Any of this sound familiar?

[joeboy01]

dtlayman, some of what you are describing is what was happening to me.  I'd slow down, and either a rolling acceleration or from a stop and then accelereating, the transmission would just not be there, you'd have this half to one second delay before things got going again.  it got worse over time.  I origainlly thought new software would correct it, but like the tech determined it was defective.  They had to some sort of special Volvo tech support line to diagnose the problem and to get a new transmission sent...

Does that sound like what is happening to you?

[dtlayman]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (joeboy01 @ Mar. 10 2003,22:36)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">dtlayman, some of what you are describing is what was happening to me. I&#39;d slow down, and either a rolling acceleration or from a stop and then accelereating, the transmission would just not be there, you&#39;d have this half to one second delay before things got going again. it got worse over time.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
joeboy01, It does sound similar to what we experienced for a little while, but it seems that lately it is when we are at a stop and we take our foot off the brake and the transmission is engaging from neutral to drive. &nbsp;I don&#39;t think our condition has gotten worse. &nbsp;We have our 30,000 mile service coming &nbsp;up and we are going to let them know what is still occurring. &nbsp;We love this car but this doesn&#39;t seem quite right.

[dtlayman]

Just spoke to the service manager about scheduling our 30,000 mile service and I told her about what we have experienced. &nbsp;We live 1 hour from the dealer and because of this we both agreed that it would probably be difficult for the service tech. to reproduce what we have been experiencing because it seems to occur when we first drive the car that day.

We may have to leave our car overnight so they can drive it the next day. &nbsp;Any other ideas?

[emil]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Stu in Oregon @ Mar. 09 2003,11:14)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">There is a new TSB related to the adaptive neutral in the 01s that was given to the dealers on 2/27/03 if anyone is having problems related to that.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Anyone has seen this new tsb? I checked out nhtsa at www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/tsb/central2.cfm but the most recent tsb they have is from July 02.

[dtlayman]

We just had our 30,000 mile service. &nbsp;When they called us to tell us they were about finished they informed us that they were going to need us to come in again to replace the transmission valve body. &nbsp;We were told that when there have been other cars with similar issues this has solved the problem. &nbsp;I started thinking is &quot;valve body replacement&quot; what I heard about in the forums. &nbsp;Just a minute ago I read the previous posts and was reminded that this was the case.

Should we be concerned that we are not getting an entire new transmission? &nbsp;If we do have a defective &quot;valve body&quot; could this have damage the rest of our transmission? Should we be due a new transmission?

We drove a 2003 today when our car was being serviced and the throttle response seemed quicker and the transmission seemed smoother.

Also, during our conversation with the service dept. today we discussed adaptive neutral and we were told they could disengage the system. &nbsp;I am thinking we should.

[Stu in Oregon]

dtlayman,

&quot;You&#39;ve got mail&quot;. Check your e-mail.

[emil]

By any chance, does anyone is able to quote the part number for the faulty transmission valve? &nbsp;I am working on my dealer to have this fixed but all I am getting in response is that only the whole box is available as a part on VADIS. &nbsp;Help much appreciated.