850 Transmission Light and No speedometer

peedee · Post by **peedee** » 09 Apr 2013, 01:53

Hi people, I have been around a while, but have not had to ask before as I was able to get all the information I needed without asking,
I have a 1994 850 GLT (Australian designation we did not get OBDII until 2006) the problem is the other day the speedometer stopped and the transmission light came on as if the car was being held in a lower gear eg light constantly on, by the time I gat the car home the light started flashing, I pulled the codes from the engine bay
they are
222 open in #2 shift solenoid
322 gear ratio information incorrect
232 speedometer signal missing or vehicle speed signal missing
313 gear position sensor signal incorrect
223 throtle position sensor signal too low
I have tried to look at all of these and the sensors all pass the tests that are listed in the 1995 850 service manual that I had downloaded from a link on this site, in desperation today I went to my local wrecker and borrowed a transmission ecu to trial but it made no difference. The car still drives well but I need to use my GPS as a speedometer
I tried getting codes from the Instrument cluster but I put the cable in socket A7 and push the button it lights when I push it but then does nothing, I tried to read the codes with the wreckers ecu in the car after a drive and it did the same as the instrument diagnostics, I had this once before with diagnostics in A6 but was just looking around then and did not concern myself with it not working
Thank You for any help and suggestion you can give

peedee · Post by **peedee** » 09 Apr 2013, 09:01

Does anyone have a suggestion of any sort to try

Post by **mercuric** » 09 Apr 2013, 12:31

Based on the codes, sounds like the suspicious components are the vehicle speed sensor, PNP switch and throttle position sensor. Lack of the vehicle speed sensor can result in the TCM being quite confused as it uses this signal as a critical factor in most of it's math.

If you can "borrow" a TPS and VSS from the yard, try those. Neither are difficult to swap. Then clean your PNP switch -- there are several threads on the board here with methods for that.

Remember these are pretty old cars and electrical stuff can be a problem, so check/clean all the connectors, wiring harnesses and ground points.

peedee · Post by **peedee** » 10 Apr 2013, 03:34

Thank You for your suggestions
I will be trying these and be doing some more tracing of wiring and associated sensors over the next few days

peedee · Post by **peedee** » 11 Apr 2013, 03:09

Have cleaned the PNP today no real change except the light has gone out and I cannot get any codes out of the diagnostic connector now, but the speedometer still doesn't work, will try to get another VSS tomorrow, now middle daughter is out of hospital may have some more time to look at the car, it picked the worst couple of weeks to do this in, but I suppose that's cars for you

Post by **mercuric** » 11 Apr 2013, 07:34

I know right?! Murphy's law, I tell you. Strange on the no codes, I'd expect at least the 1-1-1 "no codes". A lot of people with the diagnostic boxes seem to report various ECUs returning nothing -- I'm starting to wonder why. I wonder if the diag boxes tend to go on the fritz in time. I've only owned one volvo with one of these boxes, a 94 940 -- everything else has been before 90 or after 95.. so pre-box or post-OBD2.

I'm guessing no OBD-II connector near the coin tray on cars down under? I think that's just a USA/canada thing in 1995... If it has an OBD-II port, you could easily use something like Torque with a bluetooth OBD-II adapter (_well_ worth the total ~$30USD investment) on a smartphone to read off the vehicle speed directly -- That'd isolate VSS vs cluster issue.

The arrow going off is a good sign though... I wonder if it will come back on after driving for a while and then throw codes again?

I hope your daughter is making a speedy recovery... family first, always.

peedee · Post by **peedee** » 23 Apr 2013, 04:38

Hi just an update the solution was to replace the speedometer, with a working speedometer checked the codes all clear 1,1,1 and light off, and i do have an OBDII reader for my daughters Holden (opel) astra, but no we did not get on Volvo until about 2000 and became compulsory in 2006, now back to playing with the toy, fun painting a car in a single car garage