I am a newbie to volvos. Just purchased a '94 940 wagon with a few issues, I know ! surprise ! I thought you all would surely be able to steer me the right way. I have enough knowledge to really get myself into trouble(drive a '99 miata and rebuilt a 1960 ford ranchero) Anyway , enough about me. On this wagon, fuel guage is inop. passenger exterior door handle is broken , and there seems to be a nasty oil leak somewhere around the waterpump? check engine light is on. I think that is most of the stuff I want to correct soon, and I am looking forward to you experts chiming in to steer me the right way. Thanks in advance for your suggestionsand/or help !

 

great bunch of resources here. Volvo Maintenance Hints for 7xx/9xx

first thing I'd do is figure out WHY the check engine light is on, see the OBD section for how to read the codes.

the oil leak could be a bunch of things, maybe the camshaft seal? pretty easy to fix. might as well do the timing belt while you're in there, if thats what it is.

door handles.. broken how? picture? the insides of a 9XX door are pretty simple. to remove the inside door panel, slide the speaker cover forward and remove it, unscrew the door lock ****, remove the red lens from the door jam courtesty lamp (pulls straight out), remove the trim from around the inside door latch pocket (quarter turn fastener lifts out, then hte tray just kinda wiggles out, you have to lift the power window control up some for the trim piece to come out around it. now, on the bottom of the door panel, there's 3(4?) openings, each one has this white plastic clip thats pressed straight up onto a plastic pin... you can get a small flat blade screwdriver on each of these clips and pull them straight down (without turning them) and they pop off. NOW the door panel swings out from the bottom and lifts off the window sill... there's probably a connector for the speaker, and another for the door jam safety light, unplug these and you can put the panel down somewhere out of the way. inside, there's some white plastic moistore barriers you can unhook and lift out, then you can see much of the door lock mechanism. I've had to replace a door lock, reconnect a linkage rod, and replace a electric lock solenoid on various 7xx/9xx cars before, all jobs were quite doable once you were in there. there are some tricks to removing the latch plate, I'd have lto look them up again in the service docs.

fuel gauge could be the fuel sender in the gas tank (access panel behind back seats under floor), or it could be the dashboard gauge or the wiring between them. i'd probably start at the instrument panel connector with an ohm meter. threre's probably somethibng on that FAQ

 

Hello everyone,
I am also new here. I am student. I have a Volvo . I will add this pic after some time.

 

How cool is this? been on here for two hours and a wealth of info already ! The handle appears to have a broken tab on the reaeward end. Now I know how to get to it.Great to know that the sender is not a "drop the tank" affair also ! Just bought the car this eve. and these are the issues that jumped to the fore , so , barring anything else , these will be fixed first. I will take it to Auto-zone tomorrow , get those codes read , see where that leads. I have been looking for a few months for a decent RWD wagon and this one fell into my lap, 267'000 miles , great interior , no rust. runs out great.Paid $700.00 for it and I am looking forward to a long and greasy relationship with it ! Thank you so much for taking time to help me , and I am sure you will be hearing from me many more times !

 

Welcome, I got a 1993 240 Wagon for $800 at auction a few months back. These guys helped me get her running after a lot of checking stuff out, she runs good now.

This is the place to be.

 

autozone is CLUELESS when it comes to Volvos. you can read the codes yourself, no test equipment required, its a simple pushbutton, count the light blinks.

see here for the procedure and the codes
Engine and OBD Diagnostic Codes

basically, put the jumper in pin #2 (EFI), turn the key on without starting the car, push the button for 2 seconds, then count the blinks (its pretty slow). 3 groups of blinks is one code. push the button again for 2 seconds, and it gives the next code, or repeats the first if thats all of them. then key off, put the jumper in #6 (ignition), key on (no start), and push the button for 2 seconds, read a code, repeat til the code repeats.

after reading all the codes, you should reset them... read the code(s) on #2, then press the button for over 5 seconds, release the button, light should come on, push the button again for over 5 seconds and release it, and the ligth should go off. push the button for 2 seconds, and you shouldl get code 1-1-1 which is no errors. key off, repeat for #6.

some codes will not come back immediately, but only after driving the car a few miles. other times they won't come back at all, meaning they were either something that was already fixed, or some transient problem thats spontaneously gone away on its own (unlikely, heh).

seriously, Autozone and other big chain car parts stores are useless with Volvos and other older european cars. get parts from Car Parts - OEM & Genuine European Replacement Parts Catalog | FCP Euro or Volvo Parts, Accessories and Performance Specialist Since 1963 or volvo factory parts from TascaParts.com

 

I really appreciate that you are looking out for a newbie.I will try to do this this weekend, then report back ! Another question, if you don.t mind: P.O. told me that when pass.door glass was broken,that "some" glass had found it's way into defrost vents and that is why(his opinion)the a/c blower hasn't much force. It blows and blows cold , but not much force. It's not noisy , just weak. clues? please?

 

Possible... You can drop the blower motor or remove the cowling and clean it from above. Does the car need the cowling screen reattached? Most 740/940s do. It's actually less work than going from under the dash to get the motor out, and you get two things done...

 

I have a hard time picturing a significant amount of passenger door glass getting into the defrost vent, actually. do the other vent modes work OK (main dashboard vents, and floor/heater vents) ? maybe a bit of glass is blocking a control flap from opening/closing, I dunno.

 

I took LEV's advice , removed the cowl and removed a BUNCH of crap from inside the blower. Now I will drive it around a bit ( a few bulbs need replacing) , then I may try to clean up the engine bay and see where this nasty oil leak is coming from ! Apparently , there is a shop in Edmond (oklahoma) named SWEDISH, and if I had to guess , they may be able to find some interior bits that I want to replace. Haven't decided how to proceed with fuel gauge. all other gauges work , even the clock !but no dash lights. I checked the fuses under the ashtray all good. Is the code reader under an aluminum? cover behind the strut? Havent checked that out yet. I polished some of the gunk off the headlites , small improvement . I want to put a few miles on it and see if anything else draws attention. In the glovebox I found the owners manual along with many reciepts for oil changes tire purchases & rotations , new muff & cat. trans rebuild , brakes etc. was also one for timing belt approx. 100,000 mi ago. I may be the third owner. can anyone tell me what is supposed to be included in the toolbox behind the pass. rear wheelwell? Wow , long post ! Thanks again for all your help so far.

 

the code reader is a small rectangular black plastic box on the foreward side of the left strut tower, near the power steering reservoir on a 740/940. lift the cover up, and under it is a set of like 8 numbered holes, and there's a jumper wire with a pin that fits in the holes. there's a pushbutton and a LED on the side. hole #2 is the ECU (Fuel Injection), and #6 is the ICU (Ignition)

the toolbox has (from memory) 2 or 3 metric open end wrenches, a pair of combo screw drivers (one is flat/phillips, the other 2 torx sizes), a prybar/lever that doubles as the jack handle and as the lug wrench handle, and the lug wrench itself (a metal tube with a hex end). originally there was also a pair of silk gloves and a little box with some bandages and such, but those are typically long gone.

 

OK, wagon runs good , a little shimmy not bad , after I cleaned the a/c blower cage (thenks , LEV) it blows ok on all settings , not blow yer hair good , but ok. What I did notice is that changing the vents to floor , defrost ,wtc. nothing changed , blows from ALL vents. Blows cool not cold , it is a wagon and I assume that's why its not cold ! (dark blue , in Oklahoma heat 100 degrees !) Soooo, am I gonna have to dismantle the dash to fix the controller? also no dash lights ,but I think that may be the switch that dims dash. Is taking the dash apart a bag-o-snakes?

 

ok , thanks I will go have a look when it cools down a bit , my toolbox has 2 open end wrenches , no handle or lug wrench , however , it does have the white gloves !

 

all the flaps and stuff are vacuum actuated. does this car have ECC (temp **** marked in degrees) or MCC (just blue-to-red) ?

before digging into the dash, make sure the vacuum line that goes through the firewall is in good shape, and I believe there's a 1 way valve on it and a vacuum accumulator (plastic bubble box)... if the car is a turbo there's probably two vacuum lines, one without the one way valve or accumulator that comes off the intake manifold for the turbo boost indicator. (ok, I might be forgetting about another one...)

 

non-turbo , marked blue to red only

 

I do not see an accumulator , and the vac. line looks good, in fact everything under the hood looks good and un molested.

 

k, the MCC is quite a bit simpler than the ECC. the dashboard vent controller just steers vacuum to the various actuators, purely mechanically, and the temp controller adjusts the heater control valve via a vacuum servo.

can you get your hands on a 'mityvac' ? very handy tool, looks like a trigger pump handle with a vacuum gauge, comes with a bunch of adapters and clear hoses... set the vent controller to the dashboard vent only (9 oclock), and the fan to '0' too, and heater to full blue... disconnect the vacuum line that goes through the firewall, hook up the mityvac to it, and pump down a vacuum of around 0.5 bar (7psi), and see how long it holds. also, hook the mityvac up to the vacuum line from the engine side, start the engine and see what the gauge on the mityvac reads, should be around 7psi at idle.

if the vacuum lines are good in the engine compartment side, things that can go wrong under the dash are A) the various spagetti lines to the actuators, and B) the actuator bellows themselves. the MCC controller itself is less likely to fail as its so simple.

 

not sure I want to dig under the dash , sure seems like a lot of stuff to go wrong !

 

on #2 I got 2 2 1 0n #6 I got 1 4 3 can I clear check eng. light on dash ? how ?

 

to clear it, read the codes just as you did, then press the button for over 5 seconds, release and the ligth should come on, press it for another > 5 seconds, and it should go off, then if you push it for 2 seconds, you should get 1-1-1 indicating no code. key off, plug into #6 and repeat (read codes, then clear as above and verify).

2-2-1 says the O2 sensor thinks the engine is running lean (not enough gas), this can be due to intake air leaks, vacuum leaks, or tired MAF or dirty wiring connections. 1-4-3 is 'missing knock sensor', which is probably a wiring problem, the knock sensor is one of the 3 sensors screwed into the block under the intake manifold.