Hi all, I was recently gifted several boxes of 850 parts among which were a number of various relays. I want to check these and see if they're good but I have yet to find/purchase genuine Volvo shop manuals. Could someone point me in the direction of an online source with procedures for checking them?
Any help appreciated.

 

What I'd is start by researching the part numbers to determine which relay each is. I like to use dealer web sites or Volvo friendly sites to find the Original Volvo part numbers.

To test you'd need to have a power supply and a VOM (or a car to drop the relays into...). Typically there are four spade terminals - two large to carry the load, two small to actuate the relay. You may be able to pop the cover off to inspect the contacts and see if they close when you apply 12V to actuate.

For a good online resource, check out volvotips.com, also you can use volvowiringdiagrams.com

Most relays have a long life - the ones that may have problems are the fuel pump relay (ie #9434225 or 6849591) and the fuel injector relay. The others rarely go bad (fuel pump relays can go bad when the pump starts to fail and draws too much current).