Well.........on Friday when it was about 1F in the morning, I started my 98V70 R AWD, warmed it up for 10 minutes, went to drive up the street and AGAIN....like I had a 10,000lb boat trailer I was pulling. Stopped car..put in neutral..I can rev the engine allllll day long and its as smooth as silk. This time the car took 6 miles of driving to slowly get normal operation. The more I drove, the lighter the trailer got in a sense. what I am wondering is this a problem with the "torque converter"????? Again....its like i had a 10,000lb trailer attached to the car...........no check engine lights or anything! Insights?? I am now wondering if before a major mechanical diaster I should dump this thing!!! My confidence is getting shaken!

Are your brakes freezing? I had a car that did this and it took about 10 min. before it drove normally (79 280zx). Try not using your parking brake the night before and see if it makes a difference.

Does the tranny shift from first to second at about 10 mph? I believe the only two possibilities are the tranny fluid and the awd fluid being too cold and too thick. Try flushing the tranny with new stuff. I dont know enough about the vicious coupling fluid to know if it can be drained and refilled. My R gets the luxury of sleeping in an attached garage until the 164 comes home, so I haven't experienced 0F this year.

Klaus
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98 V70Rawd(101Kmi), 95 854T(85K mi), 75 164E(173K mi)

Klaus.....I had last flushed the fluid about 20K miles ago. In reference to shifting.....actually it sloooooooowly works its way up to about 3000RPM's before it shifts to second...this is with the throttle pushed about 1/2 way down. I do not ever use my handbrake in the winter for various reasons and as far as the regualr brakes binding....the car will glide easliy when I take my foot off the gas. My Brothers 98 R AWD lost its trani at 128,000....I wonder if these symptoms are the start of some trouble? So far since the secon time on Friday..........its been fine but temps have been above 20F.

Micky,
This is a great puzzle! When you let off the gas, it coasts easily. Therefore your tranny is slipping until the fluid gets warm. I suggest you drain atf from the drain plug, about 5 quarts, and add fresh dextron IIe, just in case there is some contaminent. Try to do it when the tranny is cold and have some coffee to keep warm. Check the atf level before and after the partial flush.
It could be one of the internal pumps is no longer strong enough to work when the tranny fluid is to cold and thick? Let it warm up 2-3 minutes before trying to drive when it gets cold again, turn on the butt warmer to get the seat warm while you are waiting.

Klaus
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98 V70Rawd(101Kmi), 95 854T(85K mi), 75 164E(173K mi)

is that I bought the car 3 years ago used with 55K and over these 3 years I don't think it ever experienced the bone chilling cold temps of 0 to-- temperatures before!
On last Friday when I had the problem.......I warmed up the car for about 10 minutes before heading out and it still had the problem. I wonder if the MAF is acting up? I would think it would throw a check engine light thou? Wadaya think?

A MAF problem would also keep the car from revving up easily when it is out of gear. You would be flooding it with full throttle. Your tranny is not in winter mode is it? :)
Have you checked for any outstanding codes? Not all codes trip the CEL.

Klaus
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98 V70Rawd(101Kmi), 95 854T(85K mi), 75 164E(173K mi)

First thing I checked was for winter mode. Plus the fact it would slooooowly work its way up to 3000 rpm, then shift to 2nd!!!!! The car would rev easily in neutral. So the computer can get error codes without a CEL? Maybe I'll have to stop by my friendly Auto-Bone and see if they can read anything! Today.....it was 9F.....I started the car...warmed it for only about 1 minute...and drove off with no problems.....go figure! Maybe the car is going into MENOPAUSE!!
No THATS a scary thought!

Binding brakes?
Can you push the car easily?

I've had this problem on my 98 V70R. I suspect that the next day when it was warm, everything was fine, right.
It is icing in the intercooler. It is restricting the intake air. In my case the top pipe from the intercooler will collapse because of this restriction. Only happens periodically when it is cold (1F, or -20C). I had the dealer drill a couple of small holes in the bottom of the intercooler in order to reduce the condensation that forms and it got better. This was why they changed the routing of the intercooler pipes because it was even worse before.
NExt time it does this, pull over and open the hood. Rev the engine a bit and you should probably see that the top intercooler hose will collapse when it revs, that is a sign of a restriction in the pipe. Mine would go completely flat! So far mine is much better after they drilled the little drain hole and only occasionally does this now. Letting it warm up for a couple of minutes fixes it. The other thing I would suggest is to change the top hose if it is too oil soaked and weak it will collapse too easliy. Good luck, let me know if this is your problem. My dealer (up here in the Canadian Cold) says he gets about 5 of these a week in the winter with this problem.

thanks for the additional insight. This was mentioned earlier by someone and since the temps have been above 15F the problem has not returned. I'll log that into the memory banks for next time.