How do I tell if I have a bad transmission?
I have 1 month warranty left...

One common problem seems to be a shudder when the trans shifts from 1 to 2 or 2 to 3. The shudder is sometimes only noticable under moderate acceleration. My suggestion is to make the car work a bit by accelerating briskly up a hill...if there are any shift problems they should be noticable.

Or take it into the dealer, tell them you think the car is shifting strangely and let them check it out.

We techs are mostly flat rate techs so we're ONLY making money while working on a car. We do not get paid to go on test drives IF there's nothing wrong with a car so doing what you're suggesting will do nothing more than waste someones valuable time, time that they should be spending to repair real problems.

IF there IS a real problem that can be duplicated during a test drive or if codes exist, fine but otherwise one will just be wasting time, including the car owners. The trans is either OK now or it isn't. If it shifts fine during a test drive and has no codes stored, nothing will be done.

No tech anywhere can do things to any car under warranty UNLESS there's a real verifiable problem.

Ningster;

Make sure your transmission fluid on the distick is a nice color and doesn't smell.

Rich

If you have to ask, it's not bad now

That's not to say that this person wouldn't know one in good working order from one that is not.

On an S80? When an S80 trans has problems they're obvious and the customer knows it. The trans either slips or shudders and usually if it's serious (internal probs), the marquee reads something like: "trans service urgent!" and fault codes will exist.
If the trans operates normally, no dealer can do anything.

My 99 transmission Service Urgent light came on. Took it to the dealer. Found a fuse blown he says and reset the light. Transmission Service Urgent came on again 9 months later. I noticed it was in concert with the ABS Module Service warning because the tranny shifted strange like it was trying to overcome the ridiculous computer takeover to prevent you from moving in the middle of traffic. Each time the ABS clears the tranny shifts normal but the transmission warning stays on. I replaced the ABS module and that part works fine along with normal shifting, but with the Transmission warning locked on. I think there is a major defect with the 99 and 00 models and possibly others related to the control mechanism Volvo uses when the ABS warning comes on. All the blame has gone to GM transmission, but Volvo controls the software and apparently poorly.

GR

Your problem was different. If and when the ABS (termed BCC) module fails, you'll also get a CEL and trans error messages, codes too because those units need the vehicle speed sensor input from the ABS module. Volvo electronics..........yep, very poor IMHO. The modern day auto electronics are terrible.

C'mon! Not everyone is as car smart as you think they are. There are a lot of people that don't know what those little lights on the dash are for, they just know that they come on once in a while. My mother in law is one of those people.

I had a friend many years ago that was a certified mechanic. He told me one day that while he was driving on the highway his oil light came on. What did he do? He waited until the next exit to pull off the road, about 3/4 mile, he figured he could make it. Just as he pulled into the gas station his engine siezed. And this is from a mechanic! $4500 in damage. And they screwed up his engine rebuild to boot. He didn't live that down for quite some time.

Just because its an S80 doesn't mean squat. Some people just don't know what it means or what to look for.

Take it to an trusted independent shop and ask.

Otherwise, if it is going bad, it would be slipping in and out of gear by itself a lot.

I guess my tranny is working okay... It doesn't shift as smooth as my acura, but it is a Chevy tranny after all...

Unless you detect a problem, there isn't one.

I'd suggest that you do a hard acceleration or two every day or so now until your warranty expires. Hard acceleration is handled just fine by a healthy transmission, but if one is starting to fail, it will accelerate the problem.

My transmission started to feel as though it was 'slipping' as it went into second gear. When I use Geartronic mode, it shift fine into second. So, it's probably a software problem.