Ideas/Suggestions?

Car has about 218,000 and recently stopped shifting into final gear (automatic) about a month ago. Haven't done anything differently and I'm totally stumped. All other gears work just fine, no grinding or hesitation in shifting so I doubt it's the tranny.

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers!

 

Sounds like your OD relay and/or solenoid went out on you. ipd has themor a bypass kit. Got a similar problem on one of my 244's that needs attention.

 

Yeah my OD light intermittently comes on here and there. Pushing the button on the shifter does nothing. This sounds like it may be the problem. Also have a check engine light- could that cause it? What is ipd? Can you link me?

Thanks for the info.

 

My overdrive relay was only working intermittently like yours. After some time I pulled the relay and opened it up to find a few cracked solder joints where the terminals connect to the circuit board. I simply heated up the old solder joints with my soldering iron to renew them, having to add a very small amount of solder to one of them. Now my overdrive works flawlessly. If this is your issue, I would suggest using the smallest tip possible on your soldering iron to avoid spreading solder between circuits and causing a short circuit on the board.

 

Check out these parts...

http://www.ipdusa.com/product.asp?st...StartRecord=41

 

On my 1990 740Turbo it was the Relay in the console. Easy 10 minute fix, 2 solder joints, one had cracked, and one looked like it had never been soldered. I fixed em up and voila works like new again.

 

I just acquired an 89 240 s/w, 186K with the same problem. dash light goes on and off with the button on the side of the gearshift so I guess that switch is ok, where is the solenoid and relay located?

thanks
dave

 

The switch is bad or the relay. The check engine light is something else, so you betterpull the codes: http://www.troublecodes.net/Volvo/
IPD is a great company that sells a lot of crap for All Volvos: http://www.ipdusa.com/

The OD soleniod is mounted at the rear of the transmission and the relay is behind the center council.

 

OK guys so I pulled the relay just to have a look and it seemed fine. I was about to order a new one when I realized that my car started shifting into final gear again! No idea what was going on, but it seems that unplugging and replugging the relay fixed my problem! Weird.

 

My 89 240DL did the same thing 2 winters ago- the kickdown cable was hooked around a stud up on top. It must be slack or she wont shift into high gear. even easier fix than a solonoid. It happened during really cold weather too. might be worth a check. Dave

 

I can say this about your instant fix. The first time I pulled my relay I thought it looked fine. I later discovered that I could jiggle the relay while holding the switch and get the overdrive to work. I then pulled the relay again, and with a close inspection I could barely see the cracked solder joints. With that said, if your overdrive works intermittently, you can safely assume you have a bad connection leaving the wiring or a bad solder joint in the relay as the most likely causes.

 

Ya, that's how I confirmed which relay down there was the OD relay, I knew where it was, but not which one for sure. I touched the one in the far rear/right corner and the light went out on the dash...popped the cap and saw the broken joints.

I soldered them back and gently installed it, gotta love that OD fuel economy!

 

I went out and pulled the center console out. this required unplugging all the switches mounted across the top of it. I still don't see the OD relay. is it behind the dash above where the center console was? Do I have to remove the climate control panel as well? Is this relay really that big a pain to get to?

I checked the fuse, it was good, and I can hear the solenoid click when I push the OD button on the gearshift.

dave

 

On my '88 with the M46 manual transmission the overdrive relay is on the right-rear side of the electrical block behind the astray. My relay is about 1 3/4 inches tall and yellow, but I understand some are red and some are also blue. I do believe they are all supposed to be located in the same place though.

 

I had the same problem with my 92, 240. Sometimes it would work, sometime not. In time it went completely out. I had to replace the O.D. seleniod. It wasn't that hard. It's right in the middle, leftside ontop of the transmission. I spent 52$'s on it.

 

there is nothing behind the ashtray but a heatsink, maybe one of the vehicle computers? according to the illustration in the Haynes book there are 4 relays behind the center a/c vent. there is a band below the vent that goes across the dash, I can see the relays behind that band from below, now that the center console is out. but I cannot see any hardware or fasteners holding them in and they wont pull down for access. I can't to them from above the band because I can't get the passenger side of the vent to come out, it's apparently caught by the radio, which won't pull out either. I removed the torx screws on the drivers side of the vent and radio, but nothing will come out. I'm getting pretty frustrated with this car, I can't believe an electrical relay can made this difficult to get to. anybody have ideas?

apologies to all, I've kinda hijacked this thread, maybe I should start my own.

dave