On my 245se, when I am accelorating VERY slow, like in rush hour... my auto trans will shift kinda hard from 1 to 2. When the car is going under normal driving, and acceloration, it shifts really soft. Do I have a problem with it? Is it normal? The car has 146k. AW71 tranny

kevin
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1980 244DL, 1982 245GL, 1987 744GLE, 1991 245SE, 1996 855GLT, 2001 V70

First of all, unless you installed an AW71, you have an AW70. Or at least that's what Volvo put in all the automatic 240s in 1991.

Second, the hard 1-2 shift is very common. Many AW70/71 cars do it, and some don't. Neither is unusual. You could go through the trouble of having the valve body serviced, but it really isn't detrimental to the longevity of the transmission. You might get slightly better results with fresh fluid but typically it makes it no better.

Unless this behavior started suddenly, I wouldn't worry about it.
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1992 940 wagon, 77k
as well as others.

This seems to be pretty common. Mine does it too. The problem is a small ball that, I think, acts as a check valve in the trans. As time goes on the ball wears down resulting in hard shifts from 1 to 2. The solution is to replace the ball. There's a faq in the archives about the cure. But I'm not sure if you've got to pull the trans to do it or if you can do it on the car. A trans flush will not help.

My 1993 244 Auto w/ 148k does the same thing. When going slow it's kinda like gettin' kicked in the rear from 1st to 2nd. Normal speed she's smooth like butta. So that's two that do it. Maybe normal?

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Pete

Matt, Pete,

Funny, I was just about to post this same question to the 'board as my '93 240 kicks me in the butt in the shift from 1 to 2 in slow bumper to bumper traffic at about 10 -12 mph (IIRC). I was wondering if a transmission flush or any adjustment would help?

Any wise advice from out there in brickland? or is it just the nature of the AW70 at this stage of its life (185K miles). Everything else is running fine but in my commute of 12 miles at 5mph to 25 mph and back to 5mph I lose track of how many times I get kicked in the butt... ;) Should I worry about my kidneys... ;)

Regards,

TomD
'86 240 M46
'93 240 AW70

Sounds like a normal AW trans to me...

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Matt L. -- Cary, NC -- '91 740 wagon