Two problems related to transmission stuck in gear have been reported for the 2004 Volvo XC90. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2004 Volvo XC90 based on all problems reported for the 2004 XC90.
After several hours of driving in the georgia / north carolina mountains with the wife and 2 kids in the back, the air-conditioner and radio on with the 2004 Xc90, the car started experiencing weird behavior. Shortly after crossing the georgia border into the mountains of north carolina there was a loud noise under the hood of the car and the vehicle jerked violently. The car immediately lost all electrical power (no dashboard, hazard lights, blinkers, windows and door locks, sunroof, etc. ). The drive train also seemed stuck in a high gear and would not downshift which made normal driving close to impossible especially on mountain roads. About 15 minutes later, the car made the violent noise again under the hood again and jerked violently again. Luckily there was an autozone immediately after the second incident and I had them read the engine codes which was only showing a ¿dstc failure� (dashboard was non-functional). I decided to replace the battery with a new one in hopes that the failure was because of a weak battery tricking the computer to go into survival mode. Upon restarting the car, power was restored to the cabin (ac, radio, and dash were all working again) and there was now a ¿srs airbag service urgent� message which I couldn't clear from the dash, nor could the tool from autozone detect or clear via the plug to the computer port. There were no engine codes in the autozone computer after the battery change but we still had the srs warning light / message on the dash. The next day, we had the same issue above driving home from our destination. We were hoping that new battery would solve the issue, but I now believe it's the cem. Car is going to the dealer tomorrow to investigate since of course it happened on memorial day weekend and nothing was open other than some stores.
Traveling on highway 231 north just south of montgomery. Came to a stop at traffic light, proceeded through light but car would not shift. In heavy traffic, car was sluggish and stuck in third gear. Almost ran into by tractor-trailer because we could not get out of the way.