As I talked about briefly in my introduction I have been experiencing many problems with my 1994 Volvo 960.

For starters my driver side visor kept dropping down when I hit any kind of bump in the road, then once it dropped it didn't want to go back up. Long story short it opened at a bad time so I had no choice but to tear the damn thing off. this caused my interior lights and clock to stop working.

The window in the backseat of the passenger side kept sticking, then there would be a pop and everything that made the window work would disconnect. it was caused by a bend in one of the metal tracks. Ended up just disconnecting the controls to keep from damaging it further.

I could continue to list the small problems but they are just that, small problems.

Its been a cold winter here this year and on day when we hit a whopping -20 the old beast decided it would only start when it felt like it. What was happening was once you turned the car off it wouldn't start unless you waited 2.5 hours... If you decided to risk it and give the car a go at 2 hours it wouldn't start and you reset the timer.

What would happen when I tried to start it was the weird part, the car would turnover, and over and at a normal speed but never actually started. If you gave it a little gas the rpm gauge would jump a little bit but still no start. as time went on it got worse, a few times leaving work it wouldn't start after 4 hours of sitting. Randomly last week the car began chugging and shaking when driving it. Then on Sunday after work it wouldn't start yet again but this time I killed the battery trying to start it so it got towed off to the shop.

The problem ended up being electrical, I guess a bunch of sensor has died and that was causing 90% of the cars troubles. I forgot to mention how slow the thing got, I probably wasn't running on all cylinders. $400 to get fixed and it runs alot better now.


The other bigger issue I'm having is with the transmission, it happens randomly and usually doesn't last long. The winter start-up arrow blinks and I'm stuck in a high gear for about a day. the next day its a little better and changes gears in a real ugly way. then the third day the lights are still blinking but it drives fine. give it another day or two and the lights go off. Does this mean its getting close to the transmissions death?


121,000 miles on the car.

 

Well, as you know, you have several things going on there.

The rear passenger window is not important, I would just disconnect the motor connection and leave it at that unless you get OCD and want to fix everything.

Sound like you got the car running right motor wise. $400 Is nothing in the big scheme of things in getting a car running.

Your latter situation with the tranny is likely a PNP switch going bad.

How old is the timing belt and flame trap?

 

How much would a new switch cost?

No idea how long it's been since those were changes, I started driving the car one year and 7 days ago then it sat not used for about a year before that. I know it hasn't been replaced in that time span, But it was used by both my brother and sister before me so I'm sure at some point in the last 8 years it was replaced but not in the last 2-2.5 years or about 15,000 miles

 

If it were me, the timing belt has priority here, if it breaks very bad things happen. You may or may not know, your car has an interference engine, meaning if the timing belt breaks the upper part of the engine (the valve train) looses its timing with the pistons. This will leave the valves in a position where the pistons will hit them and they will break.

 

Along with the other fine suggestions, especially the timing belt, sounds like the fuse blew when you tore off the visor, I believe all you had to do is tighten the screws that hold the bracket into the visor, to increase the friction to prevent that from happening, tearing it off sounds like you were very frustrated, and not the best course of action.

You have a twenty year old car, that spent a year not running. Not sure where you are located but if in the mid west, upper midwest then, you have road salt to contend with. All twenty year old cars will have nagging problems, and stupid things happen, such as the rear window. My experience with the engines on the car is the sensors rarily fail, it usually is nothing more that corrosion on the connector, or the main wire harness plug on the front wheel well.

The PNP switch will not only cause the flashing light, but it will also cause a no turn over condition. The PNP is a gear selected sensor, and if the switch is faulty, the computer cannot tell if you are in park to allow the starter to engage. For a short time, one can turn the ignition on, with foot firmly planted on the brake and row the gear selector back and forth about 20 times, then try restarting, that usally will do the trick, but it is a temporary fix, it eventually will not turn over at all.

As to the condition when it was cold, and it did turn over but did not start, I bet most likely it was the main fuel pump was not starting up. The connector under the car allows road salt to migrate in to it, corroding the connectors, a simple cleaning of the contacts and you should be okay. If the proves not to be it, then you may have a sluggish fuel pump relay, and that should be replaced. A 15 minute repair.

DanR '94 964 390,000 miles (156,000 on the new engine)
'08 S60 82,000 miles

 

Thanks for all the help but after dumping $800 for new sensors (plus another $400 down the road because to cam sensor was about to go) the head gasket blew and isn't worth fixing. RIP to my old Volvo.

 

How did the head gasket blow?

 

My brother had the car and was 95% through an hour and a half drive when he noticed the engine was getting real hot, then a cloud of white smoke came from the engine and he pulled over immediately. Luckily there was nothing like melted pistons because he didn't drive on it long.