the check engine light is on and occasionally the blinking arrow comes on but has no effect driving it.


I bought a scanner and connected it to the car and it says that there is no check engine light on and there are no codes to be read or cleared. I tried to shut the light off and it didn't go off.


a few weeks ago I brought the car in to advance auto and they said the only code was a PNP switch so I disassembled it and cleaned it and stretched the springs and so forth.. I put the car back together and the check engine light remained on.


the inspection was due at the end of the month and I knew it would fail for the check engine light being on so I brought it in to fail anyway..
the guy tells me that its supposed to fail because of the check engine light but when they plug in there computer it also says that the CEL is off and that there are no codes so they passed it saying I don't know why but its passing.


the only thing I can say is that every once in a while it feels like the tranny slips slightly and that the blinking arrow keeps coming on but by shifting very fast a few times it makes it go off.


when I cleaned the PNP I did not have dielectric grease so I used a substitute spray and one of the points was chipped so I sanded it smooth and stretched the springs. and I also didn't have connection cleaner

 

What year is the car?

Some codes can only be read by a Volvo reader. A lot of scanners can not read PNP errors.

 

its a 1996 850 turbo


the guy at advance auto read the pnp code

 

Ok, sounds like you need to replace the PNP switch. Cleaning doesn't always fix them.