Greetings,
I am experiencing some strange behavior from my Volvo. When sitting at a stop light, the car feels like it is going into gear and back out again, over and over, but not at regular intervals. If I put the car into neutral, the noise (and apparent gear action) stops. Also, while accelerating, the car seems to "stumble", but the engine does seem to be reving up. While driving, around 40 to 60 MPH, the car starts to shake (the shaking seems to be comming from the front of the car) If it take my foot off the gas, the shaking stops.
I think it might be a transmission or torque convertor issue. Any ideas or suggestions? Is this something that the average weekend mechanic could fix, or does it sound like the engine might need to come out (or something equally horrible)?

Thanks,
Stuart

I can only give you my recent experience. I had much different but bad transmission problems, and their was nothing that I looked into that I could have done myself. The dealer will charge you $5,000 and up for a new transmission and labor. My suggestion is to go to a reputable independent transmission shop and get the codes read. If there are codes, then there may be solenoid or other electronic problems that can be fixed. No codes just means the mechanicals are failing. The shop will probably ding you $2,000+ for a rebuild with a year warranty, no matter what the problem actually is.

One thing to try first is a transmission flush, described in detail in many past threads (or get the kit from ipd for fittings and instructions). Use Mobil 1 synthetic transmission fluid and see if it helps. You're betting $100 on a low probability fix, but then everything else is going to cost you dearly.

Agreed, take a shot at the cheapest solution first if there are no codes thrown. If there are codes, it could be something you can deal with, or a cheap fix at the local shop. If there are no codes, try the fluid flush. I wouldn't waste the money on Mobil 1, since you don't know if it will actually fix the problem or not, so why waste more money than you have to. If the flush works then you can always go back in a year or so and flush and fill again with Mobil 1.

If the tranny is bad be prepared. Out of curiosity I priced out replacement trannys in my area, just in case I ever needed to get one. Best price I could find was $1800 for a rebuilt unit with a 12 month/12K mile warranty. That did not include labor for installation, that was just the price for the trans. Add another $700-$800 for the installation. This kills me though, you have to pay a fortune for a poorly designed, poor performing (even when new) transmission.