I have a 1997 850 T-5 automatic.

I was on a road trip (of course) when I noticed that my car seemed to be stuck in 3rd gear, then I noticed the check engine light went on and the shift-up arrow came on. I pulled over, and noticed smoke coming out of the engine compartment.

I opened the hood, and the only thing I noticed was that it seemed a bit wet around the driver's side firewall and the area below the brake fluid reservoir. It seemed oily. Not sure if that was new or old, but don't recall that area being wet.

Anyway, had my car towed to a volvo shop. They looked under the car but didn't notice anything. Cleaned the area off with brake fluid cleaner, filled up the tranny fluid, and took on a test drive. It drove fine. They re-looked under the car and could see a drip on the seal. They figured it was a bad tranny seal.

They didn't check the check engine light. Later I took the car to a tranmission shop. They checked the check engine code and it said "Torque Converter".

I asked how is it that I'm driving around town without issue. They said if I drove it at cruising speeds, the torque converter would lock up, build up pressure then push out all the tranny fluid which is probably what happened on my road trip. They said if I were to drive at slower speeds under 40mph, and even keeping it in 3rd, it may never leak and be just fine.

Does this sound like Torque Converter? I'm going to have the check engine light re-checked by another party just to double-check.

Can the torque converter be replaced? I can't afford a new tranny or a re-built one, but if someone had to replace the seal, couldn't you just replace the torque converter while you are at it? :)

Car has 202,000 miles on it.

Thank you