2004: Occasional hesitancy when asked to drive backwards, then clunks and goes.

**Gene-M** · 05-21-2021, 02:19 PM

This problem first started happening about a year ago when backing out of the cold garage while the weather was still quite wintery. I would get it to move a couple of feet then it would stick again, and the process would repeat until it would clunk rather noticeably before backing up the rest of the way, then it would be fine for several days or even weeks

Finally, mid summer it clunked really badly coming out of the garage, so I brought it to my buddy's mechanic friend, Matt, and he fount that the RR knuckle was busted. I ordered a replacement from Erie, and Matt installed. After that some kind of fault got triggered on the computer, Matt couldn't fix it, so I wound up going to Volvo after all to get all the error messages cleared. Why that happened, no one had an explanation for me.

Fast forward one year, and the car again failed to start rolling when I put it in reverse with a touch on the gas pedal. After two or three very short rolls, it clunked quite distinctly, then went into "normal" mode. Did a bunch of errands and on my last stop, I felt a slight clunk when I had to back up about 30 feet. For the record, the car hasn't been driven in over a week.

Any ideas. Your thoughts would be appreciate. The Dealer is about 75 miles away, but sometimes it's cheaper and less of a headache dealing with them, than it is bringing it to a local shop operated by incompetent know-it-alls.

BTW, I did bring it to Monro Muffler Brake earlier today. I have a good relationship with them and they do my brakes and inspections on both vehicles. They put it on the lift for me, and we couldn't see anything that looked broken (like that knuckle had been last year). It all looked fine. The mechanic I'm friendly with there, suspected a transmission issue and he suggested taking it to Volvo.

Does that sound like a transmission issue to you????

**Astro14** · 05-21-2021, 11:56 PM

Yes, it does.

First thing to do when you have transmission trouble is to check the fluid level.

Idling, warm, after driving at least 20 minutes, on dead level ground. Check the fluid level.

**Xfingers** · 05-22-2021, 04:52 AM

I'll offer something else to possibly check as well. I had a similar problem with my XC backing out the driveway after sitting all night. Not as extreme as you, it would move in reverse with no problem, but I would get a light clunk with the first few backward revolutions of the wheel.

For me, it turned out to be a worn, broken brake shoe on the rear parking brakes. When I removed and replaced the brake shoes as part of an overall brake job, no more clunking.

The brake shoes for the parking brake sit inside the rear brake rotors. You have to remove the rotors to access them. Over time, the pads are known to delaminate from the brake shoes, roll around, and foul things up. You can stop on a gradual incline and apply the parking brake only to test the shape of your brake shoes. If the car moves, this might indicate your brake shoes are shot.

**Gene-M** · 05-22-2021, 07:20 AM

Thank you both for your replies.

Last night before going to bed, it occurred to me that I had never thought to check the transmission level after doing my errands yesterday. My bad. I'll check that today. If it is a transmission problem, what recourse do I have? The car only has 94k on it now.

Regarding the brakes, the guy at Munro noted that my rear brakes were pretty worn and that I might need to have them serviced before my next inspection in August.

In general, the way in which is sticks and clunks is awfully reminiscent of the problem I had with the broken rear knuckle.

**Brett San Diego** · 05-22-2021, 10:38 AM

I don't understand your description at all. Is the transmission shifting into reverse gear or no? If no, transmission problem or maybe shifter linkage. If yes, something else.

**Gene-M** · 05-23-2021, 08:52 PM

I'm still in limbo on this one. After running the car for 20 minutes, I could not figure out how to get the dipstick out, even though I've done it before when I did the "drain and flush" thing about 30k miles or so back. I'll try again tomorrow but first take out while the car is cold so I can get accustomed to the release before getting the engine hot.

To answer Brett's question, the car shifts perfectly well into reverse, but something is sticking for sure, and it has only happened after sitting for long periods. Last year it was in the dead of winter after the car sat unused in the garage for about 2 weeks. Same deal this spring. I've had to do a lot of driving with my truck, and the car had been sitting for two weeks when the sticking problem recurred on backing out of the garage.

Incidentally, my friend at Monro told me that the rear brakes looked a "iffy," and I told him that I'd be getting them done when I bring it in for inspection in August.

**Brett San Diego** · 05-24-2021, 06:42 AM

Thanks. That's a little more clear. Maybe you didn't understand xfinger's post. The parking brake shoes are inside the rear rotors. They are like drum brakes. You can't see them to evaluate their condition. You must remove the rotor to see if something is amiss with the parking brake shoes.

Brett

**perkinscl** · 05-24-2021, 07:10 AM

I had almost the same exact symptoms years ago, it was the rear emergency brake shoes.

**Gene-M** · 05-24-2021, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by Brett San Diego

Thanks. That's a little more clear. Maybe you didn't understand xfinger's post. The parking brake shoes are inside the rear rotors. They are like drum brakes. You can't see them to evaluate their condition. You must remove the rotor to see if something is amiss with the parking brake shoes.

Brett

Yeah that's what the Monro guy seemed to be pointing to. If it happens again I'll probably just get the rear brakes done.

That said, I figured out the function of the transmission dipstick, then closed the hood to move the car to a more optimally level ground, and when I went to release the hood latch, the latch was stuck in a partially "open" position (not flush to the housing), so now the hood won't open. So now I have to find an answer to that. Hopefully I won't have to start a new thread.

**Gene-M** · 05-26-2021, 03:54 PM

Problems solved guys! I was at a complete loss when I couldn't the hood to open, so I called the local garage where I *used* to get all my work done. They just got too expensive even though a formerly close buddy owns it and his kid runs it. Anyway... I called and told them the problems.

They pay the license fees to use the Volvo software, so they are generally a good source for stuff like clearing codes and other Volvo specific work. Therefore they get all the Volvo business in town because we have a LOT of new and used Volvos running around here and the nearest dealer is 75 miles away. So I was somewhat confident they could help out this time.

So... Turns out nothing was wrong with the hood latch. It just stuck, and once they got it lubed up it worked fine. Transmission was good, no problems there, so I had them do a flush and fill to save myself from having to do it. Finally they checked the rear brakes, and just as Brett suggested, the rear brake shoes were so bad, they just removed them.

Matt, the service manager told me frankly that he would even bother to replace them until it was time to replace the rear brakes, so I declined the brake service then, and that might even be this summer. That could give me a time to see if FCP has any specials on Volvo brakes between now and then and maybe do the work myself with one of my Miata forum buddies, an expert mechanic, from another state.

Thanks again to all of you who pitched in with advice. It helped me narrow things down some and ease the stress of the situation considerably! Cheers!