Hi all, New to forum. first time to own a Volvo. Found a craigslist clunker. Engine and Trans are running well but I can't figure out these electrical glitches.

odometer broken. got the part but have not had the chance to open up the dash.
Speedometer works sometimes other times just stays at 0

parking lights are not going on. bulbs are new. multimeter shows no power going through. all other lights are working.

lighter port has no power

Radio theft light blinks but radio does not turn on. Wanted to replace the radio with an aftermarket but found that there is no power going through the acc/ignition wire. all other wiring has power including the illumination.

No power going to the ECC. no blinking lights on rec/ Ac

out of curiosity I put a jumper wire between the 12v constant and acc/ignition wire then suddenly the blower fan turned on. Now the ECC is fully functioning, lighter port has power and, of course the radio turns on but since its on 12v constant all is on even when ignition key if off.

still no parking lights and now the keyfob is not responding to lock/unlock.
If I remove the jumper wire, keyfob responds again but all previous items stop working again.

Now what? any ideas? btw all fuses seem to be ok. is there a relay for the acc/ignition?

 

It's always helpful if you tell us about your car. Year, (850), turbo or NA, manual or auto, . . . . any modification that might be relevant. You should also add your location. Doesn't have to be exact but you never know when someone might be in the neighborhood that can give you a hand.

odometer broken. got the part but have not had the chance to open up the dash.
Speedometer works sometimes other times just stays at 0

That's likely two different issues. The odometer gears will usually fix the odometer but the speedo is likely something else. Best bet is to replace both the gears even if only one is broken as ... the other one will go.
On the speedometer, what year ??

This may sound odd to you but a lot of times on 850's strange electrical gremlins are often found to start out in the ignition switch. What you are describing could well be an ignition switch starting to fail.
The good thing is they aren't that expensive and they are fairly easy to replace. Don't even have to take off the wheel to get it in.

 

When something is not working with the electrics start with the easy stuff :
FUSES

- Radio ACC is Fuse 32 which is shared with the remote control (if fitted)
When you "jumped" the radio you also jumped the fuses 31 and 30 . These are the Cigar lighter and Fan
Now that I am writing this it occurs to me that 3 blown fuses are unlikelly to happen...
All these Fuses are hanging behind a worker relay the 105 .
Take off the cover over the fusebox (4x Torx 25)
The first relay on the left from the second row is the "winner". It's a normal working relay which can be bought in any electric shop.

Parking lights:
- Fuse 23, 24

All this information is related to an Volvo 850. If you have a different car than post the info...

Does the ABS light stay lit in the dashboard when the engine is running? If yes than most likely the ABS module needs resoldering and would explain the failing speedometer (this applies to cars from 96 and above).

Cristian

 

So sorry guys, I completely forgot to put my info.
96' 850 GLT NA sedan.
I was thinking about the relay as well when I saw the diagram for radio wiring. I will see if replacing it will fix the problem (cross fingers)

I'll double check the fuses for the parking lights but is there something else that would kill it?
No abs light. its possible that it may have been disabled by previous owner. How to check?

SRS light is on when I don't jump the wires and will go away once I do.

Thanks for all the help.

 

 

 

ok, got the chance to open up the fuse box for first time since acquisition of the car and found out that this car has been molested. Jumped wires everywhere. Need your help to see if this is something that I can leave or if its causing the problems I've been having.

first thing i saw after opening cover

wonder what this is accomplishing.

next

seems that this cut and used as a bypass. could this be ABS

next

what is this purple wire spliced into?
i don't know yet where this purple wire is going to


what is this for?


now for the AC Fan section. It seems that the fan was replaced and wired directly, bypassing relays. Car does not overheat but my ac is not getting cold. AC fully charged.

yellow wire goes direct to battery

 

All I can say is :


The first pic : he takes power from the power window fuse (the big one) and goes where?? To fuse no 34?
3rd pic the wire is connected to the induction coil. Normally you do this when you connect something which needs the RPM information...Any gadgets in the car which do not look "stock"?
The red wire from the fan also comes directly from the battey, maybe the wire is shot and he put a replacement..

If you are not good with electrics I would advise to take it to someone who understands stuff like this

 

mucking around some more under the driver's dash i found more goodness. that wire that went into somewhere in picture 4 is the wire that was spliced in picture 3 and leads to a relay which is connected to the ignition... is this some sort of ignition kill switch?

all in all i don't really care about the wiring debacle as long as the car is running. I just want to fix the power that is missing from acc so that my radio and the ECC main unit has power when key is in position 1. Also to fix why i don't have parking lights.
its not the fuses nor the relay 105 ( i swapped with the adjacent relay so i'm assuming that it works) and I need to find why my ac is not cold

at this point I'm going to splice into a wire on the accessory port located under driver dash.

 

Does all this mean that you are NOT going to change the ignition switch?

 

When the ECC has no power neither will the A/C system work.

Try to determine where the wires are going, or post more pics (it would also be helpfull if they are not out of focus, you could take them from a little further back so more gets in the pic).

Maybe the contact plate at the ignition is shot or was replaced and the cables were fitten in the wrong order...

However the only (logical) explanation for me for the yellow wire at the fan is that the red wire is shot...maybe an animal chew the cables and this was the repair ?!

Where does the cable from the first pic go? To the 34 fuse?