Hi,
Well, all of a sudden today, my 850 would not go into reverse, then it did and boy what a jolt! Thought the engine was going to jump out of the car! Well, after fooling with it, sometimes it would just sit there and sometimes it would jump. Then I noticed that forward would jolt also, but not as severe. I jacked up the front, put it into reverse and as the wheels spun backwards a nasty sounding noise was coming from where the axles join the tranny, (if that's where they meet). It was a cross between a grinding and whirring noise, almost like the sound of metal against metal when your brake pads are gone. Forward was the same only not as loud. The car is undriveable. I hope it's not the tranny, it's got 94,000 miles on it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!! Joe

sound like the your inner cv joint(s) are blown out and you need to have the axle(s) rebuilt. had mine done about 6 months ago both axles rebuilt with all 4 cv joints rebuilt with labor 455.00 at my indy shop.

this common on front wheel drive cars it is the equivalent of a U-Joint ona RWD car's driveshaft, when it goes out the car can not be driven.

New axles are available but you will save money having yours rebuilt.

Dan

I'm having a hard time understanding why this is a CV joint problem.

For the CV joints to have failed and caused this metal-on-metal noise, which sounds, from the description, like one piece of metal rotating continually against another piece of metal . . . the CV joint(s) would have had to suffer a catastrophic failure.

Normally, CV joints give you weeks of warning, even months of warning. To the best of my knowledge, they rarely fail catastophically. For the CV joints to be fine one day, and then fail the next, just doesn't make sense.

I would suspect a torque converter failure, or a flex plate failure, or something internal to the tranny.

Dan,
Thanks for the info. I wonder if I can do the job myself. I would gladly pay the $455, but I am no where near a Volvo Mechanic. I wonder if another mechanic could do the job.
Joe