I OWN AN AUTOMATIC 1994 VOLVO 850 TURBO. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY THE YELLOW FLASHING ARROW LIGHT IS ON. THE LIGHT WILL COME ON WHEN I'M ABOUT 5 -
10 MILES FROM HOME. WHILE DRIVING OFF AFTER STOPING IT TAKE OFF REALLY SLOW LIKE IT'S IN A LOWER GEAR, ONCE IT GETS UP TO SPEED IT'S OK. I'VE BEEN TOLD IT CAN BE ONE OF THREE THINGS, THE PNP SWITCH, OVERDIRVE RELAY, OR THE FAILURE SENSOR. I'M HOPING SOMEONE CAN TELL WHAT'S WRONG WITHOUT ME HAVING TO TAKE IT TO THE VOLVO DEALER. PLEASE HELP!!!
The limp mode is the same as Winter mode. The car stays in 3rd gear and has very poor acceleration. It doesn't hurt the transmission to run in limp mode.
Mine was the PNP switch. With the PNP switch, the car resets itself from the limp mode when you shut the ignition off. My PNP switch was only bad in 3rd gear on a 4 speed AT in a '95 850. Sometimes when I would downshift the AT into 3rd when slowing down, it would go into limp mode and start the yellow light flashing. It would continue flashing for about a week even after it reset itself.
My dealer blindly read the error code and mistakenly replaced the input speed sensor and the output speed sensor before someone in this group told me what it was. They charged me for the first two needless repairs, but the final necessary one was free.
The PNP switch tells the computer which gear the transmission is in. Then the computer takes the input speed and the output speed and computes what the gear ratio is. If the ratio disagrees with the PNP switch information, then it generates an error. It can be any of the 3 parts, but seldom is the transmission itself. If it does it in any gear (L, 3, D) then it could be one of the speed sensors. If it only does it in one of the 3 positions, then it is the PNP switch.
I also had a '93 850 in which the AT did completely fail. The car would not go anywhere. Then they put in a rebuilt AT. It was worth it. The car was worth twice as much as the rebuilt AT. That is one problem with Volvos, their value is enough that they are almost always worth fixing. The catch is that you must sell them to recover your investment. But I have been lucky and always got all the miles I wanted and then sold them for top dollar privately.
The only problems I have had were a soft cam shaft in a 240 and a bad AT in the '93 850. I both cases I got about 80,000 miles before the problem occurred. My other 8 Volvos have not had any major problems.
hi i had the dreaded flashing up arrow, after it came back from a service,
it can sometimes be cured by putting the car in neutral, switch the engine off, then move the shift lever back and forwards through all the positions about 10 times, it is the contacts on the pnp switch but you usualy cannot repair it by taking it off, but this little tip has fixed mine and 2 other volvos.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.