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1998 S70 Fixed Transmission Range Switch... Now Trans Fault

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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Ozark Lee
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Re: 1998 S70 Fixed Transmission Range Switch... Now Trans Fa

Post by Ozark Lee »

I don't believe in coincidences. If the car ran fine before the PNP was disassembled to fix the reverse lights but now the transmission is in limp mode immediately after that then the problem has to be somewhere in the PNP switch itself or in its cabling. You can use an ohmmeter at the connector end to check for continuity in the various gears selected to find the problem.

I cannot post schematics for you (someone else can but not me) but the switch is the same as an 850 and you can glean information from the 850 factory service manual. There is a truth table and the wire colors in a couple of places in it.

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/downlo ... vo_850.zip

...Lee
'94 850 N/A 5 speed
'96 Platinum Edition Turbo
Previous:
1999 V70XC - Nautic Blue - Totaled while parked.
1999 V70XC - RIP - Wrecked Parts Car.
1998 S70 T5
1996 850 N/A
1989 740 GLT
1986 740 GLT
1972 142 Grand Luxe

ferocity02
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Year and Model: 1998 S70 GLT
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Post by ferocity02 »

UPDATE: After sitting overnight the transmission fault is gone, and the trans shifts normally now. BUT, the CHECK ENGINE light is still on. It comes on a couple seconds after starting the car. When I scan for codes nothing comes up. When I clear codes the light doesn't turn off. So I pulled the battery cable and will let it sit today and see if that clears it.

I'm thinking that powering on the car while working on the range switch caused a fault that took a drive cycle to clear.

cn90
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Post by cn90 »

From your other reply (in the other thread), it seems that the culprit was the copper contact that was worn in an angled manner.

I last did this 3 years ago. See the post from 23 Dec 2012:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... 1&start=42

The bottom line is:
- Mount the copper contact on a vise-grip and file it nice and square.
- The OUTERMOST copper contact had the most wear, so I swapped position with the INNERMOST position (which has the least wear and tear). Remember that this is all common sense, look at the "railroad tracks", the one farthest from the center has to go through more distance.

Three (3) years later, things work just fine.
2004 V70 2.5T 100K+
2005 XC90 2.5T 110K+

ferocity02
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Year and Model: 1998 S70 GLT
Location: Califfornia
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Post by ferocity02 »

UPDATE:

The CEL was caused by a trans fault for a low signal from the gear selector switch. This is probably because I turned on the ignition with the PNP switch unhooked. Oops! The ECU also had code EFI-666 which indicates the presence of a trans fault which causes a CEL. I cleared both the trans code and the ECU code and so far so good. I used Vol-FCR to do this.

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