XC70: Gearbox Jolt When Selecting Drive

[MindlessJD]

Hi all

I've just bought a 2011 XC70 D3 Geartronic that's done just 40,000 miles.

The car was running great for the first two days but now, while the engine is warm but not at running temp, when selecting drive, the whole car jolts (regardless of how much I'm holding the break down). It doesn't seem to happen all the time but it does happen a lot (quite hard to know the exact conditions to replicate the issue).

I bought the car from Cambridge Volvo in Havant who were excellent and I'll be going back to them in the week to try and get them to fix the issue, however I'm wondering if anyone else has had the same issue and knows what's required to fix...

[I-S]

Ours jolted a few times, quite alarmingly as you say. I've posted a few times on the issue.

We had the dealer change the fluid, and it has occurred much less since - just the occasional milder jolt.

I think it can also help if you pause momentarily in N before selecting D or R.

[nickbw898]

Get your fluid changed, do it yourself by the Gibbons method -google it, have the fluid counter reset and the gearbox put into adaptation mode (do not delete existing adaptions) by someone who has Vida DiCE and will hook it up to your car for a beer. Then drive the adaptations to take up wear and smooth out the changes. ATF should be changed every 60K (sooner if you intend to keep the car to high miles) engine oil every 4 -5K, Volvo say 7.5K, but they also use dyno oil and we use fully synthetic.

Here is the proceedure as per Vida:

1. ATF temperature MUST be 65 - 110° C (150 - 230 °F)

2. Start driving with light throttle using 15% throttle keep a steady pedal through all gears until 4th is reached. It is not possible to reach 5th gear with this pedal position.
Repeat step 2 at approximately 25% pedal application. Keep a steady pedal through all gears until 5th is reached.

4. Accelerate to approximately 45 m.p.h. and decrease speed by lightly braking until vehicle stops. This should take approximately 7 seconds.

Repeat this until quality of the downshifts is OK.

5. Apply the brake and put the gear in 'P' position. Move to 'R' and wait 5 seconds. Move the gear back to 'P' position and wait another 5 seonds. Repeat until 'R' engagement is OK.

6. Repeat the procedure in step 5 moving between 'N' position and 'D' position until 'D' engagement is OK.

[MartinK]

MindlessJD

The instructions for drain & flush of your transmission is here http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=160569

If you want the Volvo "gibbons" method on pdf, drop me a PM...

[MindlessJD]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I had to take the car back to the garage again as the jolt was still there and in addition to that, the steering was pulling to the left really badly.

I got the car back yesterday and they have updated the gearbox, reset the adaptations and drained and flushed the fluid, replacing with new. To fix the steering, they replaced on of the front tyres (at their expense) and performed a four-wheel alignment.

So far, the gearbox seems a lot smoother than before (the jolt was intermittent though so time will tell on that) and the steering issue has been resolved.

I cannot praise Cambridge Garage enough, even got a few days use out of a brand new V40 D2 Powershift with less than 1000 miles on the clock while they had my XC70 in!

[Rayno421]

Originally Posted by MindlessJD

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I had to take the car back to the garage again as the jolt was still there and in addition to that, the steering was pulling to the left really badly.

I got the car back yesterday and they have updated the gearbox, reset the adaptations and drained and flushed the fluid, replacing with new. To fix the steering, they replaced on of the front tyres (at their expense) and performed a four-wheel alignment.

So far, the gearbox seems a lot smoother than before (the jolt was intermittent though so time will tell on that) and the steering issue has been resolved.

I cannot praise Cambridge Garage enough, even got a few days use out of a brand new V40 D2 Powershift with less than 1000 miles on the clock while they had my XC70 in!

Hi, I recently picked up a 2011 xc60 which has this N-d jolt, did the gearbox flush /adaptions reset fix the issue?
Cheers, J

[Tony Rama]

I had this problem. It's a known glitch in the original software. An update from an indie fixed it.

[Ian21401]

Our daughter bought her 2011 D5 XC70 in Feb. 2017 from main dealer with 18,027 recorded miles. Selekt warranty.
That “thump” developed within a couple of months. Dealer checked the software but thump persisted. In Dec.2017 ( 98,740 miles ) dealer did what they described as an “adaptive road test” but that didn’t cure it. In July 2018 dealer advised that they had replaced the internal oil seals and changed the fluid at the same time. That cured it. All done under the Selekt warranty.

[Tatsfield]

My 2012 XC70 developed this N to D jolt and I carried out the "adaptive road test" which was nothing more that repeatedly shifting from N to D, driving 20 feet or so, stopping, shifting from D to R, reversing 20 feet or so and repeating this 20 or so times in the corner of an empty car park. And it actually worked! I was surprised but I could not say that it would work for every problem as the same or similar transmission symptoms could be caused by various faults, some of which might need work of some nature on the transmission.

[apersson850]

The "backyard adaption" has worked for me too. The same symptom has occurred a couple of times, during 350000 km, in my XC70 2012 as well. Not for a long time now, though, knock on wood...

Do the shift sequence N - D - N - R a number of times, staying in each position a few seconds. If you've done the sequence 20 times and it doesn't improve, then you can stop, since it will not. But usually shift quality improves quicker than that.

The glitch in the software Tony Rama refers to above could be the downshift issue these cars had to begin with. Mine too. But that happened when slowing down at an intermediate rate. Not braking hard, not coasting, but like when slowing down for a roundabout. The gearbox could then shift two gears at a time, which produced a considerable jolt.
I've not heard about an issue with the selection of drive from neutral at standstill.