Is it bad to switch obd-1 tester with ignition on?

Pezgoon · Post by **Pezgoon** » 30 May 2016, 19:05

Hello there, so some of you may have read my post about the car I was gifted, well I finally brought it home today and started going through things, the service light was on so I went through the codes and to say there was loads but I don't know how recent any of them are or if they are related to it sitting without a battery etc..

So my question is while I was switching spots like A1 to A2 to A3 to B2 etc going through all of them I didn't shut off the ignition in between as it wasn't stated in the maintenance section with the instructions to do this. I have worry about this because I was never able to get B6 to read (which is power seats which I have) whatsoever, it just would simply not blink or do anything after I pressed the button, I tried using sandpaper and contact cleaner and no luck. Then after resetting all codes, I now have an ABS light on the dash which was not there before I ran the codes and I haven't moved the car since reading them but have started the engine back up to see if any came back on (only ones that came back were 1-2-2 on B2 and 4-1-8 on B1) the rest read clear (although the service light also stayed on but I have now read how to clear that).

Could I have fried anything by simply switching ports like I did?

I sure hope I didn't fck something up the first half hour I had the freaking car after waiting many months for it

could the 1-2-2 on B2 be causeing the ABS light?

Why won't the system let me read B6 (which is very worrying to me?) I don't have two power seats on drivers seat if it matters...

Please help either calm my fears or just reinstall them by me being a fool

Thanks

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 30 May 2016, 19:12

You're not going to fry anything but you won't get an accurate reading- turn the key to position III without starting the car and check the codes again. There are a few codes that are suppose to be there like when the car hasn't traveled over 22 mph...I forget what that was but it involved 2's and 3's in the number of red light blinks. There's a write up somewhere of your car but because it's '93 it's probably the Fenex system which the error codes are slightly different on compared to the later Motronic systems. I suppose you know how to clear the codes? 4-1-5-1 (four shots of one fifty one rum) is how I remember it...push button 4 times, it blinks- push once, it blinks one long blink and then goes off..immediately push the button 5 times quickly and then the light comes back on and stays on. While it's on, push it one more time, this time holding it it for like a second... That's it. Btw, the Haynes book on the 850 is not bad in going through the early '93 model trouble codes. There are some mistakes in that book so post if you have a question- I believe one of them was the firing order of the rotor which confused many people and they ended up with "no-start" conditions because they had the ignition wires attached in the wrong order.

Btw, with the key in position III but without starting your car, read and clear all the codes you can. Once all is cleared then read them again and see what's stayed on and go from there. By the way, B-6 is for power seats. If you don't have them or they're working don't worry about it. The codes you got has to do with the cabin blower fan not getting a signal through its power stage and not going over 22 mph. The power stage (when you get the car running right) to the blower motor is a little different design on your car- a bad blower motor might have shorted it out. Either way, another '93 is what you'll have to go after at a junk yard if you want to get one cheap. Otherwise, they are a bit pricey if you have the climate unit that has climate control- that's the one with actual temp settings on the dials to turn up or down the temp. If there is just a blue to red swoosh then you don't have the climate control and the resister pack (as they call it) is on sale right now for under $15 (ProParts). I would normally stay away from that company but it might not matter on this part: https://www.fcpeuro.com/Volvo-parts/850 ... rds=blower Either way, jumper your blower motor with from the car battery (12V) to see if it runs. If it doesn't then you'r looking at probably replacing it as well as the power stage or resister pack.

Oh, and one last thing- before you go tearing into things- check the simple things first, like the fuse!

Pezgoon · Post by **Pezgoon** » 30 May 2016, 20:33

thanks for all the info, okay I was very worried I may have fried something and that was why I wasn't able to pull the code, I have a drivers power seat and it does currently work and at the time I didn't realized it was only for the seat I thought it may have been a more significant diagnostic port. I cannot give it another shot tonight as my wife gets mad when I'm working on cars until 1 am so ill give it a whirl tomorrow and see if I get anything different by shutting the ignition off in between and while I am at it I will use that reset method rather than the one I had already used ( I held the buttong for 7 seconds and waited for the light and held it for 7 seconds, it worked on all codes except the climate control but did not make the service light go out). I am thinking the code for not going over 22 is simply because the car has literally not been driven over that speed, although we drove it on and off the flatbed that was only a few hundred feet so it may have confused the car. I had looked into the blower issue as I noted the lights would flash on my ECC (I do have the two zone automatic climate control set up) when I would put it to on and I know I probably should've tried the blower motor first but I already order a used (but new/working) power stage from ebay. It was a brand new one with documentation that had been replaced shortly before the car was totaled and has no corrosion and not in ugly shape.

Tomorrow I'm going to go out and try grounding out the blower motor and seeing if it works but I may simply get one anyways as there are some out there for 25$ just incase the one I have is going bad from the car sitting for essentially the last five years I don't want it to burn out another power stage if it was bad.

I did check the fuses sadly no luck there, from what I saw there was only the one fuse panel under the hood?

And after attempting clearing all the codes using my method, those two codes wouldn't go away but I am thinking fixing the power stage/blower motor will fix the climate control especially with them being failure prone and I do not want to attempt driving the car until I can get a new timing belt on there as the one on there is 13 years old so I will have to report back later if simply getting the car up to speed fixes the 1-2-2 code.

Thanks for all your help and I will let you know what happens tomorrow when I get back at it!

oh and I do not have a Haynes manual for it, I instead got the VIDAS program which idk how helpful that is as I haven't spent much time going through it, it is definitely nice for the parts diagrams though and I have a copy of the 1995 shop manual that is in pdf form here on the forum, do you suggest still picking up a Haynes manual? Between those two resources and the forums massive list of resources I think I may be alset without one. Luckily I still had an old laptop with windows 7 on it that could run the VIDAS program.

Thanks again!

P.S. I wasn't able to test the blower motor today as I have the dam broken glovebox latch so I'm going to have to hacksaw my way in to get at the blower motor tomorrow to see if that works, I may just end up getting one anyways though just to be safe

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 30 May 2016, 21:55

I should have been more clear- it's been awhile- my current cars don't have the push buttons and red lamp. The 4-151 is for resetting the service light so I goofed. You are right about holding 7 seconds for resetting a code specifically. So when your service light comes on, you put the little connector in A-7 and for the first push of the 4 of 1-5-1 push quickly which forces the ECU into a different type of reset mode. When the light comes on, push it quickly...then it will come on again and then you push it quickly 5 times...then it's a 10 second or so wait until the light comes on again and this time it seems like it's almost fluttering. This time the last push is once and it's for a good steady second and then the light will give a steady blink and I believe stay on (or maybe it goes out). Anyway, you can turn key off after this and back on and the service lamp should be off. The push button access to the different modules in the car is pretty crafty of Volvo. There's even a way to read off the blinking lights to accurately know how many miles your car has traveled- a real help to those with a broken odometer! Yes, there is only one fuse panel- If you take the cover off there are a few relays under there including your gas pump relay- you know about the relay panel under the driver's foot right? Well, it won't help you with what you're doing but there are a few things you can do there - you can replace the window wiper relay with a VW or Audi one to give it more intermittent control (push up on the stalk- back down...wait and push up again and however long you waited, that is your new interval until you do it again). This is a known hack and since my S70 uses the same relay, it is very handy and I just use it automatically when it's just sprinkling out. Other than that, the code for not going over 22mph will never go away because you're not traveling while checking that code- I recall on our old 850, it was always there when we checked the code- believe it's what's stored since you turned car off...so unless you drive it, then park it and kill your engine but never take the key away from position II (to all the way off) before you check the codes, then it will be there. Yes, blower motors and power stages are pretty much guaranteed items as a pull-a-part junk yard- so are the brackets for the glove box. Good luck and post back at how it's going!! I would personally not worry about adding oil or the gas as long as the car runs without issue. If it's sputtering and such like the gas is bad, then I'd deal with it. Just keep diluting the old in there although I might be tempted to drive it to 1/4 tank before topping up. A fuel filter is a great idea, is inexpensive and easy to replace and it should take care of any crud in the system. If you're really worried, you can also throw a bottle of Seafoam in the gas. Originally, the Timing belt interval for the '93 850's were 50K miles and I believe they upped it to 60. I would change the belts as well as the tensioner just to be safe. AT your miles I wouldn't worry about the pully's or service belt tensioner. In regards to the water pump (which is typically changed with a TP), if it's not weeping I'd probably leave it alone too due to the low miles. And, if you have VADIS, and this site, I would not worry about the Haynes manual. The downloaded PDF also has quite a bit specific to your '93 model. Good luck!

Post by **Clemens** » 31 May 2016, 02:17

NOOOO! Don´t hacksaw the glovebox open. It´s easy to open it and then fix the broken mechanism. You just Need to take a 10-15mm wide (half Inch) Piece of sheetmetal, like 1mm thick (as thin as possible, but not too flexible), bend it like a J and insert the round part from above to right where the glovebox latch is (pretty much in the center). You should be able to lift up the latch and open it. Don´t try to force it, you can´t. Just insert the J-hook from above, then push it underneath the latch, and lift it up. (I have the tool in my wife´s car, can´t post a photo now).

Once the glovebox is open, take the insert of the box out, then you can take the door apart with a few torx screws. the mecahnism is inside the glovebox door. take a photo of the assembly before diasassembling it. otherwise you will be doing alot of guesswork when putting it back together. THe part that breaks is usuallly a Little rod/notch that moved the latch. I drilled a whole where the notch was broken off and put a 4-40 screw in there with some CA. Has been working for a year now.

Pezgoon · Post by **Pezgoon** » 31 May 2016, 07:24

Actually I didn't know about that second relay panel MIJ and now I am going to get me one of those relays! Thank you for all your help and information as well. I love the idea of having the diagnostic like that! I have had cars before with obd1 where you can put a jumper in a terminal and the service light will blink you codes, but I consider this way more genius as they broke the ports up and its almost representative of being like a giant obd2 port lol.

Yes, blower motors and power stages are pretty much guaranteed items as a pull-a-part junk yard- so are the brackets for the glove box. Good luck and post back at how it's going!! I would personally not worry about adding oil or the gas as long as the car runs without issue. If it's sputtering and such like the gas is bad, then I'd deal with it. Just keep diluting the old in there although I might be tempted to drive it to 1/4 tank before topping up. A fuel filter is a great idea, is inexpensive and easy to replace and it should take care of any crud in the system. If you're really worried, you can also throw a bottle of Seafoam in the gas. Originally, the Timing belt interval for the '93 850's were 50K miles and I believe they upped it to 60. I would change the belts as well as the tensioner just to be safe. AT your miles I wouldn't worry about the pully's or service belt tensioner. In regards to the water pump (which is typically changed with a TP), if it's not weeping I'd probably leave it alone too due to the low miles

The yards are all junk around me, have cars with nothing left on them and rarely European cars of any assortment so its all ebay for me! alright, I figured because it was still driven every 3-6 months so it didn't sat straight I think the cylinders should be good and no the car ran fine! started right up and had no uneven idle or anything. I did throw a bottle of gumouts octane booster in there and I'm gonna probably throw some seafoam in there to dry the gas up and help clean things up a bit, I think once I've run through this tank of gas I'll change the fuel filter. I don't think the gas is old enough to truly worry about, I think my grandpa said he filled it before it started pissing oil back in November/December period.

Ok great! that's what I was hoping to hear as that kit is quite pricey and I've just about run out of savings after being laid off. I'm going to do both belts, but when you say the tensioner which are you referring to? Is the service belt tensioner the hydraulic piston one that is on the timing belt? And you mean to change the tensioner for the accessory belt? or do I have them swapped and I should be changing the tensioner on the timing belt? Thanks let me know and I'm going to send an order as soon as I can!

I will be heading back into the beast today and will update when I return! I have been cataloging it all so I may have many pictures to share!

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 31 May 2016, 16:46

Timing belt tensioner- hydraulic one!! No, the accessory belt tensioner should be fine. It hardly ever needs to be replaced- maybe once during the life of the car. Btw, you're not going to want to hear this but buy a genuine Volvo (or Aisin- I think it's who make's Volvo's) tensioner. All others are crap unless someone knows something I don't know.

Pezgoon · Post by **Pezgoon** » 31 May 2016, 18:06

Ok that was the one I was thinking, alright I will do that, the aisin is only about 70 from Eeuroparts anyways, and right now everythings 10% off. Since I am doing that now, should I still do the complete kit at 100k simply because that's 50k and to keep on schedule anyways? I figured if the water pump is supposed to be done that often then I am forced to do it at 100k anyways. I didn't have much time to get at the Volvo today, had to work on the wifes car today finally haha. I was able to reset the service light though, sadly the ABS light is on but could be related to me not being able to drive it, I put seafoam in the tank and oil today, to dry both out.

Sorry Clemens, I tried doing it your way, got aggravated as I didn't have something I could cut without real effort using a dremel and was still strong enough to apply pressure, just ended up hacksawing it open and then saw exactly what you were referring to Clemens lol. Oh well too late haha

I'm gonna put in my next order of parts today, and there's a good chance I will wait for everything to continue as I have to work on the yard while its gonna be cooler over the next two days, atleast when it gets hot again I can do it in the garage.
Thanks guys!