Volvo RWD 200 Forum

Took my wife's '91 245 for an errand this AM and the trans felt funny. There is no tach in this 240 so I have to go by sound but it appeared to NOT be going into O/D. The O/D switch on the shifter stalk did work and the yellow arrow on the dash illuminated and turned off but I could not sense any differential in engine speed. Normally in this car I can hear when the trnas shifts into O/D at around 35 - 40 mph. Nothing like that this morning. I also then heard a sligt thud when taking off from a stop. Then later attempting to get up to speed the trans just "slipped" and did not convert to accelerate as I gave more gas. The thud got louder at the next start from stop. I was about 20 miles from home so I got off the highway and took back roads limiting speed to 35-40. Same symtoms.

I go home and parked on level and kept it running in park and moved the gears up and down to reverse, 2/1 etc. several times and checked the trans fluid.
Much to my surprise the fluid was not hot even after driving for over 30 minutes. The fluid was red and clean as I flushed it our with 12 qts. about 12K past. The reading on the 90F side was well above the max. I recall that I had thought it was low about 2 months past when my wife took it for a 500mile trip and I had added some (a few onces) of trans fluid.

I had my wife listen for the O/D solinoid click and she said she heard it when I depressed the shifer O/D button.

Should the extra fluid above the max level cause the slipage and thud on first to second gear shift?

Do I have a shot trans? or are these symtoms caused by overfill?

1/ Should I drain some fluid and then re test drive

or

2/ Just reflush with new trans fluid and check the level to the correct pt.

Thanks in advance