I went fishing yesterday and on the way home I was stopped at a traffic light. I noticed a cloud of smoke coming from the Volvo. I pulled over and saw transmission fluid dripping from the exhaust and smoking. This evening I'll jack up the car and check it out. Any suggestions for where it might be leaking?

Thanks,

13

The tranny shop verified that it is leaking from the kickdown cable.
I'm having them do the cable and change the fluid and filter since they are dropping the pan to do the cable.

Thanks to everyone who shared from their experience.

Tom

The tranny shop said the kickdown cable was actually broken. The tranny was also low on fluid.

After replacing the cable and doing a flush and filter change, the tranny is so smooth.

The thing shifts like butter and has never shifted this good in the decade + I've owned it.

It shifts so smoooothly I can hardly notice the shifts. The car is a pleasure to drive and seems like a brand new car.

Money well spent.

13

"Money well spent". (Dan Marino)



How much $$$$$.........If you don't mind me asking?
steve

$301 to replace the kick down cable, flush the fluid, and replace the filter inside.

I'm sure I could have done the kick down cable, but it looked like a messy pain to do.

It is like driving a new car. The thing shifts smoother than our Town and Country minivan and Honda CR-V.

13

I think there is a vent at the top of the trans. If over filled it may blow out fluid at speed.

I dropped the car off at a transmission shop for them to examine and give me a free diagnosis.

They have cleaned everything off of the exhaust and tranny and have driven it some, but can't locate the leak......

The tranny was definitely down 1.5 quarts from the leak.
I'm wondering if it is only happening at higher RPM's / highway speed.
We'll see what the shop has to say. I was hoping it was something obvious and easily corrected.

Leaks are hard to locate sometimes. Have you considered that ATF also runs through your power steering rack?

OK I jacked it all up and looked around.

I found a bracket with a bolt that holds the two transmission lines kinda near the front side of the transmission. Everything looked kinda dry there.

I found the transmission kickdown cable and it looked kinda like the fluid was coming about from near there. Adjacent to that is where the oil seemed to be hitting the exhaust and then going farther back from there.

I looked near the back end of transmission and it didn't seem extra oily there.

Fluid seemed to be heavy on the side of the exhaust and kickdown cable. The driver's side of the tranny seemed much more dry.

I looked at the kickdown cable and I'm not sure what it is supposed to look like when good.

There was a plastic fitting at the tranny and on the end of the cable and It kinda looked like it was supposed to be all one piece, but might have broke. Again, I'm not sure what it is supposed to look like. I could pull the kickdown cable away from the tranny and the two plastic pieces would move apart and I could see the cable.

Didn't quite look like it was supposed to do that, but maybe I'm wrong.
I didn't really see an o-ring there so maybe tranny fluid comes out when the kickdown cable is activated?

Any additional help would be great.

I'm not sure I want to tackle the kickdown cable job myself if that is what the problem is. It looks like a pain.

13

Well, it sounds like the kickdown cable is your most likely culprit.

Replacing it is a skill level 2-3 job by my reckoning. The cable itself is under $50 from FCP, but you need to drop the trans pan and it's messy. So you need the gasket and filter/screen kit, plus a fresh charge of ATF - rolls up to about $150 in parts (assuming a full 12 qt fluid replacement). Plus you need to disconnect that big fluid line, and that can be a bear. There's plenty of info on BB about the job, so do your research and see if it's something you want to tackle yourself.

When my kid's 244 had the problem (c. 2006) I was 2500 miles away and unable to work on it myself. The local foreign car shop charged just under $300 to fix it (parts + 2 hrs labor, IIRC), and their work was bulletproof.

Could be leaking out the back thru the bushing around the output flange
--
89 240 wagon, 94 940, 200K, 94 940, 135K

Check where the kickdown cable enters the tranny - your symptom matches what happened to my son's 244. Virtually no leak sitting still in the driveway, but at speed and in gear it seems the AFT leaks out the fitting (or failed cable sheath) and blows aft along the exhaust pipe. If that's the case, replacing the KD cable is the fix.

cooler lines at frame mount

Look at the steel transmission lines where they pass by the frame under the car near the exhaust.

There is a clamp there with a single bolt thru the middle that holds both lines.
This clamp will eventually wear a hole thru one of the lines.
It has happened on every Volvo 240 (with auto. trans.) that I've ever owned.

To repair, I've always used a 5/16" (8mm) brass compression coupling.
Cut the old line in two where the hole is located and slip the compession coupling over each end and tighten.
You won't be able to reuse the clamp over the coupling but you can tie the lines in place with some pipe strapping.....any thing to keep them from vibrating against the frame.

hope this helps
steve