3rd Gear, it Loves 3rd gear! Help!
 

Hello Fellow Road Warriors....
I have a tale to tell, bear with me please.
Recently I purchased a 2003 XC90 T6 SE (2.9) I had looked at several and this beaut appeared to be the cleanest, and at 90 odd thou miles, pretty solid for the year etc.
I have discovered a problem, on short journeys, all is well, however, once properly warmed up, the gearbox/transmission, when under load for example, or when pulling away, works up to Third- AND stays in Third.......
No other issues noted, noises, clunks, nothing like that.... I scrolled through the menu on the indicator stalk this morning and it advised "Transmission Service required"
Can you help with sage advice? Is this a simple oil change? (if so, how do I do this) is there anything else I should do?
Id really appreciate some help on this folks, I love my new XC90, I plan to use it for work, so need a fix for this problem.

The "Transmission Service Required" message indicates a fault condition is present, which is borne out by the symptoms you're experiencing. It is not a simple service light indicator affair to remind you to change filters and oil at the appropriate interval.

A quick search on this forum should reveal to you two things of relevance to your situation:

1) Whilst Volvo originally considered the gearboxes to be "sealed for life", and don't have a gearbox oil change listed as a standard service interval item, many people report that reasonably regular changes prolong the life and can resolve some "roughness". But you're way beyond some roughness / clunking. An oil change isn't going to fix this

2) The General Motors gearbox fitted to the T6 XC90 is notorious for premature failure in this application. (I personally know someone who owned one from new and had two gearboxes fail before 60k)

That's not to say that your situation is definitely unrecoverable but I'd suggest taking it to a Volvo specialist, franchised or otherwise, sooner rather than later. If you prefer, and you've access to Vida/Dice, or can entertain purchasing them, it's possible that it will provide useful additional info; maybe it's just possible that the issue is electrical/control related. Any module / comms issues should be apparent from a Vida DTC read.

Hello Dave

If the car shifts to 3rd gear like limp mode displays a transmission service warning on dashboard your transmission maybe too worn. Better to use VIDA to see what errors you are getting. Have you had any gearbox servicing recently?

Thanks Gents
None of that sounds good, I'll get it plugged in tomorrow and see what faults get thrown up, hopefully its not a replacement gearbox job....

Will it shift to 4th and 5th using the manual function?

It's only got 4 forward gears...

Hi Psyche
Sadly changing to the manual selector doesn't help, you move the stick, forwards (or back) but no selection change.