Volvo 960 wagon with automatic transmission. The car has a light on the dash with an arrow, and 3 lights by the shifter, labelled 'E' , 'S', and 'W'. Occasionaly the transmission goes through a spell (for a few days) of poor shifting, jumpy takeoff, low top speed, inconsistent rpm, while the arrow light on the dash blinks on and off, and the 'E' light and 'W' light by the shifter alternate quickly. I've taken it to the garage, but as luck would have it, the symptoms 'healed' on the way there, and the garage was unable to locate the problem. Any similar experiences, or ideas?
Check for loose connectors on the side of the gearbox. There are three. The other thing to check is the W-S-E switch, when they go wrong they cause all sorts of symptoms. I would check on the quality of the connections first.
Mine does a similar thing, thinking it is in W mode (those three letters are for "E"conomy- normal driving, "S"port which is a sportier shifting mode with higher RPMs and faster downshifting (lots of fun in the mountains), and "W"inter which is sort of like a granny low for low traction surfaces- it decreases the torque to the rear wheels). Mine goes into a sort of false neutral with very little power to the rear wheels. It usually happens only when shifting into W mode and/or shifting into 1st from 3rd. SOmetimes when shifting from P to N.
I got under the car anc thoroughly cleaned and silicons greased all the connections I could, and it sort of seemd to help kind of. I am assuming that it is my gear position switch (the pitchpipe switch on the right side). To solve it I can turn the car one, allow the relays to click and turn it off- usually three times does it (but not always- can take four or five). Sometimes (but not always) wiggling the shift lever helps as well.
SInce your is acting the way it is I would recommend a good mechanic. If they know Volvo trannys they should be able to go to the problem fairly easily. Since it is ocassional I would guess it is electrical. __ __ Randy & \ \/ /alerie's \__/olvo '93 960 Estate
My brother's 960 had similar problems and 7! codes in the computer, including 2 "unknown codes". (1997 model, required codes to be read with a scan tool, unlike the 1992 (all up to 1995) that gives codes with the diagnostic unit.) Replacing the gear position switch cured all.
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