S40: Gear selection problems

[MartinT]

I have an X-reg S40, recently acquired second-hand. I have found there is a problem with selection of 5th and reverse gears. Sometimes these can be selected OK, though they are always sticky, at best. Sometimes, however, they cannot be selected at all. 1st to 4th are always easily selected.
I have a suspicion, based on experience with a Triumph Herald (!) years ago, that there may be a fault with the connection of the gearchange lever with the gearbox, and that this may be capable of being fixed fairly easily. I've seen references here to changing of bushes in the linkage... Does it sound as though this might be the problem? Is it a known problem area? All responses gratefully received.
Interestingly, my local Volvo main dealer wants to replace the gearbox at a cost of £2K+!

[Old Painless]

I would start with the bushings. Is your gearstick loose ? My v40 was a bit poor in 1st and 5th but it seems to have been because it was stood for a long time. Fine now.

[MartinT]

Sorry, I should have updated this thread ages ago.

I ended up accepting the need for a replacement gearbox, and located one from a breaker using the Sniffydog service on the Web. When it was delivered, it turned out that my car has the GDI engine, and it was the wrong box. Located the correct replacement for £125 plus carriage, my local garage fitted it for £400, and now the car seems fine.

At least I now understand a lot more about the GDI engine than I did before :-).

[pikecatcher]

This happened to me, it was the bushes on the gear linkages. Search the forum - there are threads on this. It is a simple and cheap job.

[Volvon]

My reverse used to be impossible to engage, most times I thought I was in reverse I was in first and reverse had totally disappeared, about the 6th try it would engage. Miraculous as it may seem though, the problem disappeared and now reverse is there 1st try every time. I never actually realised until I read this so I'm happy about that

[jameslaird]

i am new to forums and not sure how to post a question, so please bare with me. i own a 2004 s40 sport and the reverse synchro has failed at only 37,000 miles. volvo dealer in one breath stated volvo gear boxes do not fail and then stated i needed a new gear box costing over £2,000 which i cannot afford. my usual garage told me to look for a used gear box on internet which i am doing, but i am still perplexed at how this gear box has failed at only 37,000 miles. i bought the car second hand from an approved dealer in jan 2009. i know nothing about cars therefore would be very grateful if someone could enlighten me, also does anyone know if this is a known problem with this particular model? i have had several second hand volvos which have been very reliable and loved them but i am becoming a bit suspicious about this one.

[stevo48]

Originally Posted by jameslaird

i am new to forums and not sure how to post a question, so please bare with me. i own a 2004 s40 sport and the reverse synchro has failed at only 37,000 miles. volvo dealer in one breath stated volvo gear boxes do not fail and then stated i needed a new gear box costing over £2,000 which i cannot afford. my usual garage told me to look for a used gear box on internet which i am doing, but i am still perplexed at how this gear box has failed at only 37,000 miles. i bought the car second hand from an approved dealer in jan 2009. i know nothing about cars therefore would be very grateful if someone could enlighten me, also does anyone know if this is a known problem with this particular model? i have had several second hand volvos which have been very reliable and loved them but i am becoming a bit suspicious about this one.

Welcome to the forums.
That does not sound good, if you use the search button at the top of this page yopu will find (as I have) that gearbox volvo gearbox failures are very rare indeed, I doubt very much that your dealer or Volvo themselves are going to be interested in the car as it is six years old.
It will probably be better to bite the bullet and source a second hand gearbox, take a look here, I think the gearbox will be the same.
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showth...t=breaking+s40

[jameslaird]

thanks Stevo48, i have managed to get a 2nd hand gearbox and my regular garage (not a volvo dealer) will fit it next week. i have managed to find out that the garage i bought the car from 2nd hand (a Ford dealer) had the car since Feb 2008, they motd it July 2008 and apparently one of their employees drove around in it for the next 6 months putting on 6000 miles (I average that in about 18 months), anyway i can only presume they drove around doing wheelies or something as it appears they just about wrecked reverse gear . i bought my previous volvos 2nd hand from volvo dealers, although they were a little pricier i never had any problems with them. perhaps i have learned a lesson here. once again thanks for your reply.

[cccst70]

Having had my dad contact me saying he couldnt select reverse i looked on here last night and all threads i looked at just mentioned replacing the bushings.
Went out to look at his s40 today and it was the squiggly bit of wire that is supposed to clip into liftup ring had popped out. the plastic clip doesnt grip it very well so have put piece of lockwire onto the legs of squiggly wire up and round back of gearstick, if you keep it neat it wont rub on anything else and will stop wire popping back out

Worth checking how much movement when 1st is engaged before ordering bushing kits. i would say if there is only the width of the gearknob movement that is acceptable. seems to be if its reverse and 5th that is lost it will be bushings as they are on the outside of the throw.

if its just reverse missing check the squiggly wire

[grass hopper]

if just reverse is difficult to select then there was problems with the gear selector shaft seal that dropped in the gearbox on certain boxes that baulked the linkage.