Volvo 850 Made from 1993 to 1997, this Volvo line was available in both a wagon and a sedan, both with were graced with several trim levels.

Gauge Cluster dead - 97 855R

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Old 07-14-2015, 09:27 AM
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Default Gauge Cluster dead - 97 855R

The gauge cluster in my car is dead.

Nothing lights up.

The speedometer and tach don't work

The trip odo and regular odo don't advance.

The idiot lights work, and the boost gauge works.

I get that the boost gauge is 100% vaccum, so I understand why it works.

The owners manual doesn't identify a specific fuse for the gauge cluster, so I pulled and checked them all.

The only other gotcha I can add - we had a pretty bad thunderstorm yesterday, and I got caught out in it. I did drive through some water. Nothing horrific, but I did drive through it.

Any thoughts? It seems to drive OK, although I've noticed it 'feels' a little different when you're driving along and let off the gas, almost like it shudders a little bit for a second.
 
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Old 07-20-2015, 10:41 AM
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I could not find a 96/97 turbo cluster at any of the local junkyards, so I ordered a used cluster from a 98 V70R and will swap it out when it gets here and see if that fixes it.

If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.

I plugged in my OBD-II reader, and it shows the tach on my smart phone, but not the speedo. Perhaps the reader gets the speedo reading from the cluster, but again, I'm not sure.
 
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Old 07-20-2015, 02:00 PM
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Not sure if this would help, I have a used cluster from a 95 (the LCD display and odometer are dead but the rest of the gauges work) if you wanted a part to drop in for testing purposes. I have not checked for compatibility with 96/97 850s.
 
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Old 07-20-2015, 05:18 PM
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Well, I stumbled upon a fix earlier today.

I thought, just for the heck of it, I'd unhook the battery in case something needed to 'reset' - and once I hooked the battery back up, the cluster started working again!

It's so nice knowing how much gas I have, and how many miles I've traveled!

So, I have to decide now if I want to install the 98 V70R cluster with an external tach... or just stay stock and resell the 98 cluster.
 
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