i just bought my 1st volvo and i am enjoying it very much so far but...i am not a mechanic and i have many questions so the 1st one i have is the "overdrive off" lite is on but the little button on the gear shifter doesnt make it go off...the car runs great as is but i can tell there should be another gear at higher speeds...is this something that is in imminent danger and needs to be fixed immediately ( im pretty sure its been like that a long time ) and is it a easy fix? with the car being this old ('85,260,000 miles) should i have the transmission serviced? i appreciate any/all input i can get...im not a mechanic/i dont know volvos...thanks yall...

 

This isn't an urgent fix unless you spend a lot of time driving at high speeds. Most likely causes of this failure is the overdrive relay or a bad overdrive solenoid in the transmission.

You can easily check the relay if you know how to use a phillips screwdriver. To access the relay you must remove the glove box. Open the glovebox door and remove the 5 (I think) phillips screws around edges and lift the box out. Just inside to the left you should see a whitish/grey relay with wires coming out the bottom. Pull it out with the wires still attached. Give it a whack with the plastic end of the screwdriver and then work the button on the shifter to see if that helps. If it does, then your relay is bad and you can just replace it. If you are good at soldering, you can remove the plastic top and re-solder the solder joints on the little circuit board and see if that helps. New relays run from $15 to $35 depending on where you purchase it.

If this doesn't help, crawl under the car and look for a white wire coming down from the shifter to the transmission. Check this wire for breaks and/or missing insulation. Missing insulation can cause the wire to short against the body or transmission keeping it from shifting.

If neither of these fix the problem, it may be just the solenoid. IPD sells a plate that you can bolt onto the transmission instead of the solenoid that basically removes the function of the button on your shifter. This basically turns your transmission into a 4 speed all the time with no ability to disable 4th gear.

Good luck

 

thank you for the advice...i would be fine i guess with the OD turned on full-time...got any idea what a repair like that would run?

 

this is all easy do-it-yourself, unless the switch or wiring has failed deep up inside the shifter where its inaccessible. any decent euro/import mechanic around here charges $90-100 per hour for labor, you'd probably be at least 1 hour here...

light always on probably is NOT the solenoid, its far more likely to be the wiring or the relay. solenoid failure symptom is usually that the light goes on/off just fine, but the car doesn't shift into 4th/OD regardless of the mode.

 

thanks pierce...im not very mechanical so im probably going to wind up having to take it in but im going to try to do it myself 1st...i am amazed that allmost everything on this car still works...even the clock works for petes sake...the one thing i can find that doesnt work is the tag light on the back folddown hatchback...the fuses arent blown and the bulbs appear to not be blown...got any ideas on this one? i appreciate all of the help i have gotten here...

 

The wagons are notorious for the wiring breaking where it goes through the hinge. Take a look at the hinge when the hatch is up. You can see that the wire is bent at 90 degrees at when it is up. A lot of time you can see the broken wire. Other wires that go through there are the high brake light, rear window defroster and the rear windshield wiper. If any of these don't work then it is most likely your problem.

If this is indeed your problem, the solution is to replace the rear hatch wiring harness. This requires removing the hatch and stringing the new harness in.

For your overdrive, I agree with Pierce that most likely the issue is the relay or the wiring. The relay is actually the easiest thing to replace. Both of my 240s had the light on when I bought them and fixing the relay fixed the problem.

Good luck

 

FWIW, I'm with act1292 on the hinge wiring. but I'd verify the bulb is bad with a ohm-meter, visual inspections only go so far. I'd probably check the voltage across teh socket with a voltmeter too (ohm meter and volt meter meaning ohms and DC volts modes on a pocket digital multimeter aka DVM).

btw, highly advisable to fill in your profile with your car and general location... do this via the 'user cp' ...

 

you guys were right ...thank you...the wires at the hinge are indeed broken...where would one go to purchase a wiring harness like that? i pleasd ignorance...again thanx...

 

I'd just splice the wires, that harness would be expensive (if even available), and a pain to replace in its entirety. but let see....


Hopefully its broken after the connector thats up by the left side hinge? Assuming you have the 3rd brake light, that piece appears to be 3544695 ... and oh wow, its only $40 at TascaParts.com, much cheaperr than I expected. $55 at your local dealer (undoubtably a special order that might take quite a while to arrive). its a fairly short harness, goes from the connector up by that left hinge, down the side, connects to the window defroster, rear wiper, and another small harness that powers the license plate lights.

 

I'd go with the dealer part for this. When mine broke originally, I thought I'd splice it. After checking the wire in it, it is not your ordinary wire. It consists of many strands of extremely fine copper wire. I think this is to give it more flexibility in the hinges.

It's kind of a pain to do. You need to remove the entire hatch. Having an extra hand makes it a little easier. Also, make sure you don't lose any of the thick washers that go under the hinge. These are critical for proper alignment of the hatch.