2004 Volvo XC70: harsh or hard shifting

6 of the 101 complaints about the 2004 Volvo XC70 describe harsh or hard shifting.

owner complaints: 6
of this car's complaints: 6%
typical mileage: 88,000
recalls: 0

Is there a fix? 7 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below

Harsh or hard shifting by model year

2006
1
2004
6
2003
2
2002
4
2001
3

What owners say

Filed Feb 18, 2013 · Suspension · 87,000 miles · PA

While driving on smooth surface- heard a sudden loud sound as if something large dropped on the road. Car continued to drive normally except with a loud clunky sounds heard over bumps. Less than 5-miles later, when I pulled over to the garage- I recovered a piece of the spring coil which dropped: the driver side coil spring had broken/failed instantaneously. This uncommon problem appears to be common with xc70 owners- and could result in potentially serious accidents.

Filed Jun 23, 2012 · Electrical · 143,225 miles · WA

The car was going 60-63mph down the highway there was a sudden hard clunk in the transmission and my guage cluster went dead and lost all power options. Was almost hit as I tried to pull over with no blinkers, flashers, etc. After about 10 minutes I tried to start the car again and the dash came back but SRS warning was up on the info cluster. Took my car to the repair shop (authorized volvo repair) and was told there were no codes present. They drove the car for a week and same thing happened to them. They suggested that the cem volvo part number 30657629 was no good. To replace it would be 1300$ after some research I found that there are a lot of other volvo owners who have had this same occurrence, and even been in accidents due to this failure at different intervals in mileage ranging from 50k and up. Seems to me there should be a recall and some repairs made to the cem on the v70, xc70, s90, s40 etc as they all seem to do it.

Filed Jan 1, 2012 · Transmission · 88,000 miles · CO

During acceleration the gearing slips between 1st and 2nd gear causing a very hard shift (due to engine acceleration) when the 2nd gear engages. It is dangerous at times in ice or snow.

Filed Aug 28, 2010 · Transmission · 74,190 miles · LA

Shaking of vehicle, clunking and slipping of transmission. Transmission failed. Transmission replaced with factory remanufactured unit..

Filed Jun 18, 2010 · Suspension · 89,000 miles · MA

2004 volvo xc70 wagon, 89,000 miles. Front left coil spring broke while car parked in driveway (fine previous evening, obvious clunking sound when turning out of driveway in morning). Loud noise when turning steering wheel, car not drivable. Mechanic found spring badly corroded, fractured near bottom of coils. Volvo dealership's parts department informed mechanic they were "stocking plenty of springs." this vehicle had a similar break in the left rear spring 8 weeks previously. Car is used as commuter vehicle and has never been off-road (4 whl drive sold as "cross country") or used in commercial service or for carrying heavy loads.

Filed Jun 8, 2009 · Suspension · 67,951 miles · MA

We had just driven about 200 miles on the highway and pulled into our hotel parking lot. The car was in perfectly fine working order with no indication of a problem. When we returned to the car to go out, it made a scraping clunking, sound from the front driver's side wheel when we moved or turned the wheel. We managed to get it to a nearby repair shop where it was determined that the front driver's side coil spring had snapped while it was parked in the hotel parking lot. The coil was replaced.