Okay, driving my Brick today made me seriously worry about engine and transmission problems. A while back (roughly a week ago), I posted something about how the gas pedal spontaneously had a totally different feel to me, and how the car was shifting at higher rpms (it's an automatic; I have no direct control over where/when it shifts!). Here's a link to that post, but the overall problem seems to have changed significantly since then.

Today, the gas pedal still felt odd, but my biggest concern was the car's utter reluctance to shift at all. In fact, I think that the only reason it was upshifting was because it *had* to--I had to get to 5,000 rpms in 1st gear to get it to go into 2nd! This condition is BAD!

Someone explained a few days ago on the board that shifting with the auto transmission is done by some sort of battle between how far the pedal is pressed and some sort of governor. If the pedal is winning, then it stays in the lower gear and accelerates, but once a certain speed (or rpm level) is reached, the balance shifts to the governor's side and the transmission goes into the next, higher gear. Well, if you ask me, it seems like the whole governor thing is broken, and the only reason the car shifts at all is because there's some sort of internal limit on the engine or transmission that *refuses* to allow it to stay in a gear above 5,000 rpms.

I heard a suggestion that the transmission fluid may be low, but I don't think that's it. Perhaps if the car were suddenly shifting in an unusual manner I would be more open to that possibility, but because the shifting issues started at the same time as the gas pedal suddenly had a whole different set of resistances when it is depressed, I think that there's a problem with the throttle or governor thing.

However, I will check the transmission fluid level. How is it done in Volvos? I understand the conventional way is to shift through all the gears and then put in either P or N, but I don't know exactly what's right or if there are any additional steps.

Also, how often have you had to/elected to change the transmission fluid? It's supposed to last 100,000 miles in some cars, but that's only if it doesn't get too hot or dirty. Do Volvos go through transmission fluid faster?

Is changing transmission fluid part of any of the regular checkups? The car, being 15 years old and having just over 100K miles, would probably not have it flushed and refilled any other way. However, if changing the fluid is part of 50K, 75K, or whatever mile service, then it's almost certainly done.

I would be very thankful for any information that can be given on automatic transmissions and the use/life of the fluid in them, but like I said, I don't think that's the problem. What I really need is some guesses as to what the problem is.

Why would the gas pedal suddenly feel so different at the same time as the car starts shifting way later than it should be?

Is there indeed something that forces an upshift at 5K rpms, regardless of the "battle" between gas pedal and governor?

The weirdest thing about all of these changes has been that sometimes they seem to come and go. In fact, today, I drove the car probably five miles. The first four were horrible--the car was doing everything above. There are few things more attention-grabbing than driving your automatic car around town in 1st gear at 35mph and 4500 rpms (Volvo screeching brakes being another!), and not being able to do a darn thing about it. However, as I was returning home, the car began to return to it's previous (but still messed up) state--it shifted late, yes, but it was finally going into 2nd at about 25mph instead of 40, and it actually shifted into 3rd towards the end of my drive (55mph)! But, I bet that the next time I get in it, after it has sat for a few days, it'll be back to how it was this morning.

I really don't want to destroy the transmission or do something else permanently and expensively damaging to my Brick, so thank you in advance for any help here!
--
'89 244 GL--25/22 ipd sways, newly repainted!