My wife's '98 Cross Country with 62,000 miles started hesitating last week and just broke down 300 miles from home. According to the diagnostics, there is something wrong with the transmission. She is being told that they have to replace the transmission and the job will cost $3500-$4500.

Is this normal? Will Volvo provide any help? There is no reason a transmission should fail at this age and mileage. Should I take it to the dealer or have a well repsected independant shop rebuild it?

My 1998 Cross Country experienced a complete transmission failure in early October 2001. While the car was out of warranty with mileage of 62K, I am sure that Volvo transmissions are not designed for replacement after roughly 3 years of use. Faced with a $4,000 repair bill on a car that I spent a significant amount of money to purchase I called Volvo Customer Service to determine if this repair was a normal expense that Volvo customers should expect on their 3 year old cars. So far my 3 calls to Volvo Customer Service have not provided me with any direction. The first time I was asked to provide my VIN number to determine if any “soft-recalls”; existed on my transmission. I called back with this information and left my phone number, but after 2 weeks have not received a reply. I called a third time and was told that management was in Sweden for the week, but if I brought my car to a Volvo dealership, it would be examined and considered for “cost sharing”;. With my transmission already out of my car, and with every Volvo dealership in the Boston area reporting at least a 2 week wait, this was not a worthy option. My car is not a hobby car that I can be without for a month, nor would I want to take the risk of going though this wait and finding after this examination that no “cost sharing”; will take place.

One would expect the manufacturer to stand by its customers faced with catastrophic repairs with expense far beyond the normal repair bill a car that it designed and built. I found Volvo Customer Service to be passive and circular in their response. I guess I was expecting more from a firm that promotes an aura of preferred customer service. It seems that I am being told to just suck up this expense and go away.

Hi Neil,

My local Volvo mechanic has replaced quite a few automatic transmissions on 850 and 70 series cars. He told me not too long ago, that to replace a transmission would cost $1,600 for a rebuilt automatic and 9 hours labor. For me that would be a cost of $2,140. Not bad.

Make sure before you install a new transmission that all Sensors are working! Most noted should be the Throttle Position Sensor and the Vehicle Speed Sensor. If any sensor is bad it can make a transmission not work correctly.

Good Luck and Best wishes,

Steven---

I would try changing the fluid right away, especially if it has not been changed yet. What codes were found? And what happened when it broke down? Low power, no power? clunking noise? More info would help.

Part of the problem is that this happened to my wife while driving 200 miles to visit a friend. My understanding is that, in the prior week, the transmission had started to make a high pitched whining noise and was shifting roughly. After she drove about 200 miles (New Hope, PA to East Hampton, NY) the engine started to rev up to 5-6,000 RPM and it lost speed. It still can be moved, but she has not attempted to drive more than a mile or so. Everything else was working fine, although she did say the "Check Engine" light went on briefly before she turned it off. The garage did a computer diagnostic and the code P5300 (I think) can up.

The car has always been serviced at our local Volvo Dealer and recently had its 60,000 mile service.

Hello Neil,

Be careful, I would not let anyone but Volvo look at this initially. I had a similar problem with my first 850, a '95 N/A 850. It's possibly the

throttle positioning sensor. This is a much less expensive repair. Less than $300.00 U.S. That is my experience, and others have had trans. replaced only to have the same problem again. Also, I dont think you will find anyone who can open and work on this trans. easilly. They may say they can but, I would be careful. Sorry, but unless you have an extended warrenty I think your going to have to take your medicine on this one. This is a common problem your experiencing.

Good Luck,

Kirk

I feel your pain! Volvo should defintely get involved.Transmission failure at 60K is inexcusable. Good luck!

There are worse stories.....I recently had a '95 Saab 9000 CSE (a $40,000 car when new) with a transmission failure at 50,100 miles! Just out of new car warranty, but fortunately I had purchased an extended warranty for Warranty Direct. I had no out of pocket expenses, but the repairs were over $3000 for a new transmission. I had serviced the trany at 45,000 miles.....go figure! Hope you have a successful and inexpensive solution to your problem!

Ken