Hello New Member Here

I am working on my moms car, did alot of general maintenance to it recently, including repairing a radiator with a crack in the plastic side. anyway my question is this...

Shes had a check engine light on since shortly after she purchased. I have my own code scanner, and I could never get a reading. I took it in, and two other code scanners, could not get a reading either.

Now I know the OBD port is next to the cigarette lighter, so does it somehow get powered on the same fuse? The cigarette lighter fuse always blows instantly. Tried three different fuses, and they blow right away. She also said here dome lights dont work. Not sure if thats related or not...

Thanks for your help, will probably be poking around here more as I get affiliated with the Volvo, as I am a Toyota guy by nature.

HER CAR IS A 1997 850 Sportwagon Non Turbo Auto with 132k Miles.

Any pointers or obvious flaws a newbie needs to know? Already replaced radiator, plugs, fuel filter, air filter and ran a can of seafoam through the tank. She seems to have a slight oil leak. I may have fixed that by tightening the oil tube by the spark plugs, it was loose and the whole top end had a bunch of oil in it.

 

The tube at the top of the motor is part of the PCV system. That needs to be replaced every so often. I say 7 years or 100,000 miles. There is a lot of info on the site about it. If it goes bad, it will likely blow seals, including the rms which is an expensive repair (have to pull the motor or drop the tranny).

Lost of info on the site at to how to test it. A quick test is to warm the car up and pull the dipstick out a little while the motor is still running. If you see smoke coming out of the dip stick tube, it's in need of service. The best way to test it is to remove the oil cap, install a rubber glove on the oil filler hole, start the car and see if the glove blows up like a balloon, if it does, it needs serviced/replaced.

As for your lighter fuse, my daughter drops coins in there all the time and blows her fuses. Not sure if the OBD-II get's it's power from there or now.

 

Do you have the car on when checking the ODBII? With my handheld scanner, it has to be on but not running. With my Bluetooth adapter & Torque on my phone, it can be running. Weird.

 

Plug it in with the car off, then turn the car on without starting it. Both of my scanners work with the car running.

 

Not necessarily saying this is your problem, but it sounds familiar. The OBD port, at least in my model year (1996) runs off the number 15 fuse, which also controls interior lights. So if your interior lights never work, and the 15 fuse is always blown, it may not be so easy to get a reading with a scanner.

In my case, I discovered some bare wires inside the rubber harness that goes from the body of the car to the driver's door. Years of opening and shutting the door, I assume, took its toll. After I repaired those wires, the interior lights and the scanner port worked again.

 

Thanks for your help guys, none of those suggestions appear to work.

It does fail the PCV tests, and recently has started smoking out the tail pipe pretty badly. Is this also a sign the pcv system needs service? IT smokes out of the dipstick tube, and the oil filter cap, and smokes out of the tail pipe now.

I just got done replacing the radiator hose, as it blew shortly after a new radiator. She also needs front brakes, struts, and the dash seems loose. I will do some searching unless anyone has any confirmations.

Thanks!
Rob

 

That's what I was looking for. On GM vehicles it's the cigarette lighter fuse. If your Chevy, Olds, GMC .... lighter doesn't work you will get a message that the code reader can't connect as the reader powers up from the connector. On the 850's it's the interior light circuit.

Rob, what color is the oil ?? The smoking is likely a neglected PCV system. When the radiator and then the hose went did you drive on it at all? I'd just be a bit worried you might have done some damage to the head gasket.

The front brakes are going to be similar to a Toyota so nothing there to worry about. Like any brake job, turn or replace the rotors, clean and lube the caliper slides and the channels the pads fit into and you should be good. If you can, break the bleeders free and bleed out the fluid as you compress the caliper so the fluid is getting pushed out instead of back up the system with any crud that might be in it.
Sturts have a different nut at the top, at least my year model does but otherwise they are just a strut and simple to do. That nut is shaped like a cross.
There are different threads on how to fix the dash cover. The looseness is usually caused by the tabs that are supposed to hold it in place being broken off.
Mount repair with pictures
http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...ic.php?t=15115

 

About that rattling dash — this is a brilliant, simple way to stop the rattling:
https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...-mounts-59650/ There's a place in heaven for the guy who posted this.

 

Thank you guys. Yeah, the car ws not driven when the radiator cracked, i caught it early so it was a small leak. Same with the radiator hose. The lower hose had a small tear where it went into the engine.

Smoke is blue, definitely oil. It passed emissions last year. It runs excellent so I presume since it fails the pcv tests noted here, that it will need servicing.

Also, are there any components on the front struts that go bad, or just the whole assembly? It makes clunks, but doesnt necessarily hop like a typical worn strut.

 

If it's clunking it's likely the top mount and not the strut itself. There are two pieces that make up the top mount. There is a rubber spring seat that fits into the bearing plate.

Usually you can bounce on the fender with the hood open and see if the top nut on the strut looks like its floating.

 

This all sounds like a blown head gasket to me