1997 850 Odometer & Trip odometer

davolvo · Post by **davolvo** » 04 Apr 2014, 14:45

Hello, while on vacation my odometer and trip odometer quit working. I have called a few garages and they all tell me it can be one of several issues. However, my sister just had hers fixed and she said it can ONLY be the gears. Any advice?

Post by **rspi** » 04 Apr 2014, 14:49

davolvo · Post by **davolvo** » 04 Apr 2014, 15:17

Thank you for the very informative videos. I appreciate it.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 04 Apr 2014, 17:45

davolvo wrote:Hello, while on vacation my odometer and trip odometer quit working. I have called a few garages and they all tell me it can be one of several issues. However, my sister just had hers fixed and she said it can ONLY be the gears. Any advice?

Your sister is about 99% correct. There are some situations (the stepper motor contacts are not fully seated on the main instrument cluster circuit board or the stepper motor has died) where the odometer will quit and the gears are OK but they are few if the speedometer is still working.

The VDO instrument cluster odometer gears have a nearly 100% failure rate. This goes beyond Volvo and includes Porsche and even some domestic cars as well.

...Lee

Post by **rspi** » 04 Apr 2014, 21:12

Ozark Lee wrote:
davolvo wrote:The VDO instrument cluster odometer gears have a nearly 100% failure rate...Lee

I'm almost totally with you on that one. I don't believe any of the mileage readings on any 850. I have to verify it with the system under the hood.

davolvo · Post by **davolvo** » 06 Apr 2014, 08:45

rspi wrote:
Ozark Lee wrote:I'm almost totally with you on that one. I don't believe any of the mileage readings on any 850. I have to verify it with the system under the hood.

And surprise! I took mine in and the odometer quit at 113919 and the reading was 115523 I know for a fact I put less than 1000 on it since the odometer quit. Whew, at least the actual is close to what I thought was the original. My sisters had 102000 but read at 126000 still not bad but you are right, can't trust those readings.