I have a 1996 Volvo 960 Wagon, and I was driving on the highway tonight at about 70 mph, and I heard a pop from the transmission. The car studdered for a second, but kept running at 60-70 mph in traffic. I got off at the exit about 12-15 miles down the road, and everything seemed fine. I stopped at the stop light, and when the light turned green the car barely moved when I accelerated. It seemed to be stuck in high gear. I made it about a mile down the road while I attempted to manually shift from Drive to Low gear, but it only got worse. I ended up pulling over and calling a tow truck.

Can anybody tell what the best steps might be to resolve/diagnose the problem? I do not and will not work on transmissions, but would like to know if there might be something obvious or easy to fix that might be causing the problem.

I did not have any transmission issues until today. The car has about 220,000 miles on it, and the engine runs good, but has a small oil leak somewhere. Is it worth fixing or not? I loved driving this car and so did my kids. I hate to see it go to the junk yard, but it may be time.