Hi Everyone,
I am new to the forum and new to Volvos. I have always wanted a Volvo, but only recently bought our first one. We bought my daughter a 1997 850, automatic, with about 160,000 miles on it. It has a couple of glitches, but it doesn't appear to be anything we can't fix.

The first item on our list is the gear shifter. The shifter will go from Park to any other gear regardless of if the key is in the ignition or not, and even if you are driving. I'm not sure if we need to replace a button, a spring, or the whole shifter. Any advice is appreciated. I would hate to pull the gear shift selector **** off and not be able to repair the issue or make it worse.

Second, we are putting new brakes on this weekend. The ABS and TRAC lights are both on. The previous owner says this has been looked at by a mechanic and he couldn't find anything wrong. Does anyone have any suggestions for things that we should look for while we are replacing the brakes?

Thanks for you help and I hope that I can start giving advice just as I hope to be getting some!

Cheers!

 

Hi Annie, welcome to the site.

The shifter problem is likely a cable lock problem that connects to the ignition. If you remove the center console and look under the shifter near the P, you will see a cable locking system that is likely defective some how. You can look up (search) "shifter" and may find instructions on how to do that. I had a '95 that would shift gears without pushing in the button but I am not sure if it would shift out of park without the key.

As for the ABS light, these cars have ABS and there is a module/controller that goes bad with some of them. You can get a rebuilt one or repair the one you have and fix the abs system. You may want to search "ABS" or look up the sticky's and you'll find a lot about them. There is a aftermarket company that provides a replacement or rebuilt module that will help you. You can drive forever with it out but it may effect the cruise and will stop the ABS from working.

Be sure to read over the 850 sticky section for the New Owner info. You'll find some good info there and it will help you have a good ownership experience with that car. I purchased my daughter a '98 S70 GLT almost 3 years ago and it's been a good car for her, she loves it. I just did a few things on it yesterday and she went back to college this morning. Good looking cars that run well. She has about 163,000 on hers.