We bought this car with about 60K on it in '09. It now has about 130K on it. It has been great until now.

Last week it would not start. I pulled the battery, it had a 2005 install date on it, so I replaced it, figured out the radio code and was good to go.

Fifty miles later, upon start up the CEL came on and the up arrow started flashing. The arrow soon stopped, but the CEL is still on.

We are 200 miles+ from a dealer, so we take it to someone that is supposed to know Volvos. I question this.

Anyway, I had him read the code. He gave me a note that says, "76 DTC in AT Control Module". He says he does not know what this means, and he is unable to turn the CEL off.

I had him change the trans fluid while it was there as it was beginning to get dirty, and I figured it would not hurt anything. We were going to schedule it anyway.

He also noted that he was having issues accessing the transmission control module. He stated that it will come up with and error.


I was grinding valves and boring blocks in a machine shop at age 15. I have never taken a car in for repair before this one, and I made my living for 30+ years fixing electronic and electrical stuff. The mechanics frustrate the heck out of me as they provide no information for me to work off of and indicate a severe lack of desire to figure out what is wrong. It looks like this one will be up to me.

Any hints?

 

76 is not a code. You need to start by buying a code reader. About 50 bucks .

 

If 76 is not a code, what is it? I have found other references to it online, but have not been able to find it in a list of codes.

I'm not the one that picked up the car yesterday. The mechanic and I will be having at chat at opening time today.

Which reader is preferred?

 

I have an el-cheapo Actron that I got for Christmas at the local auto parts store. You can also find cheap ones at Harbor Freight. Mine simply reads and erases codes, no data logging or sensor scanning though. Also, and I don't work for Actron, they claim all their readers are CAN compliant. This is important for newer cars. If you are really into this stuff you can get a DICE which is what the dealer uses. Hooked up to a Windows XP Pro laptop running VIDA you can see the exact Volvo codes instead of the generic OBD-II codes.

For your situation the flashing arrow is bad. It's been termed the "flashing arrow of death" although yours stopped flashing. Not sure what that means though. When mine did that it was because I placed the car in gear on jack stands and ran it through the gears. Removing battery power did not remove the code or stop the flashing arrow. Only my reader/eraser removed the trouble code (DTC) and got the car back to normal.

Actron®

2012 newest car scanner tool volvo vida dice-in Code Readers & Scan Tools from Automobiles & Motorcycles on Aliexpress.com

 

My idea of a great automobile is large displacement, points, stick shift and power nothing. I do not want to become a Volvo expert.

So far, after a chat with the mechanic, the 76 merely means the light is on. There are no other codes according to him. I have access to scanners through several friends. What I do not have access to is the car. It just left on a trip.

I'm not sure why the arrow flashed on start up but went off before the car was moved. That will probably remain a mystery. When the car returns, I will scan it, and if I find no codes, I will probably force a malfunction to bring one in. Perhaps clearing that will allow me to turn off the light.