Volvo: Car struggles to start and now runs in overdrive, mass air flow sensor, mass air flow

Question
This morning when I tried to start my Volvo s70 '99, the engine would struggle to get going, then die after 5-7 seconds. I tried to do this several times with the same result.  The electricity in the car is working. What I did next is put the car in neutral, then started the car again with me flooring the gas. This extra force finally got the car started running, but gas was fuming out of the exhaust pipe. I was able to drive the car, but it showed that it was running in overdrive, even though I didn't have the gear set to overdrive.

Any tips on what happened and what is causing this?

Many thanks


Answer
Dave,
Read the stored codes or have them read. Then follow the codes to see if that leads to you problem. Perhapts a bad Mass air flow sensor, or fuel pump or pressure regulator.
There is also some codes in the trans read those and see where they lead. Could be a gear position sensor. You need the use of a scanner for the Volvo cars.