I'm the second owener of this car since it came off a lease in 97 and have given it religious attention to maintenance. I'm faced now with three issues that have me baffled. I have 4 cars total and do all my mainteance to the extent possible (trans & engine rebuilds go to the shop). I've kept my first new car out of college alive for 17 yrs and 223,000 miles. I drove it to work yesterday. I have a Porsche and know my way around Bosch L-Jetronic. The Volvo now has me stumped.

1. 18 months ago ago the transmission started to act up. The wife (it's her car exclusively and she puts 20k miles on a year) complained that is was shifting funny at highway speeds, clunking, missing & hunting for gears, and sometimes seeming to "miss a shift" kind of like if it were a manual and you would depress the clutch in and out quickly. I had the fluid flushed & filled and that seemed to help. This is also when I found out that the 960 maintenance schedule considers trans fluid a lifetime fluid with no scheduled changes. I plan on replacing it ever 3 years or $60k miles regardless. Anyway, the problem is back, I ran the DTC/OBD codes and got a 142- open in the trans fluid temp sensor. Checked the resistance at the Trans TCM connector pins 6&7 though and got the correct resistance according to the service manual. Erase codes drive a while, same problem. It just dawned on me that I haven't checked the ATF fluid level but I will now. Assuming that is OK what else could be wrong? FYI-I replaced the gear shift position selector sensor last summer.

2. Stalling at idle. First happened in Dec. coming back froma 5 hr trip. coasting up to a redlight on the highway. Brake...engine stalls. Starts right... up no further problem. She starts to complain over the last couple of months..intermittent stalling at stop signs or just after you start it up for the first time. After the stall, it start & runs fine. Happened to me last week going to get the Sunday paper. First thing I did was shoot carb cleaner & WD-40 into the idle air control/stabilizer valve. No change. I took the valve apart & cleaned it. No change. There has been talk about intake manifold gaskets. This car had a cracked head replaced under warranty 4 months after purchase so the intake gaskets are only 5 years old. I replaced the timing belt last fall and its run fine till about now. Codes revealed loss of signal from the IAC and air flow sensor. I cleaned all the contacts and ran through the manual pin-out diagniostics. Everything checked out. Air flow sensor was replaced last year as well. I don't know where else to look.

3. Major steering groan. Started last week. Loudest when the car is at a stand still turning the card hard left. Fluid is fine. Rack & suspension are all bolted in tight. No noise if tires are turned when on jackstands. Is the rack shot? (153000 miles on the car now) Can it be rebuilt? I did the ZF one on my Porsche. Are rebuiild kits avalable? Anything else??

HERE'S MY BIGGEST PROBLEM. SHE REFUSES TO DRIVE THE CAR UNTIL THESE PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED. I CAN"T AFFORD A NEW CAR!! Any help is appreciated.

PJM in Phila.