Many people say that a little gear ends up breaking, thus stopping the odometer from working in certain Volvo cars. This isn’t the problem with ours…there …
Volvo Speedometer Fix Part 1
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Wow, that seems like an awful lot of trouble to get an odometer working. I
probably would’ve just gone out to a junkyard and taken home a whole new
cluster for a $20. And the best part is that those usually come with a
warranty! And yes, on those ’80s electronic speedometers with mechanical
odometers were extremely convoluted. Luckily, I’ve never had a failed one
of the three I’ve picked out of junkyard cars, nor have I ever heard of one
failing in this manner, yet still partially functioning.
Where’s part 2?
@compwiz878 and did some online searching and found that not only the
speedo sensor in the trans not only rand the speedo but also sent signals
to the computer then the computer told the tranny when to shift via rpms
and speed the plastic gear on the sensor went bad so yeh ull be suprised at
what that speed sensor does do
Mine just quit working at 164k miles. The plastic gear broke at 160k and I
replaced it. In my case, the speedo needle no longer moves. No cruise
control obviously. Did you use a link from somewhere to get your
information about the capacitors? I’d like to fix this, but was hoping for
a guide to help me buy the right parts.
Whilst the dash is out, i’d do all the dash bulbs… There’s nothing worse
than one going out when refitting the cluster.
The 80s electric/mechanic speedos weren’t too bad. I saw a BMW E30 in the
local yard with 472,777 miles on it 😛 My volvo has 220,000… But it has
an electric display speedometer (1998 S70)
Do you think that this problem is what is slowly draining my battery when
the car is not running?
@tubageek2006 i fiddeled with a friends ford escort 90’s model it stoped
shifting on day but b4 that the speedo started going crazy . and chk engine
light came on drove fine for aprox a week then it stoped shifting u had
reverse and 1st gear only no 2nd or 3rd gears . so they had it towed back
to his house and come to find out after doing the computer code test it
came back as a fault in the speed sensor or circuit
@MrStelmer As it turns out, these bulbs aren’t bad to replace at all. They
fit into the back of the printed circuit board on the instrument panel.
There are blue-capped ones with no bulb in place for unused indicators on
this car (such as the “choke” indication) and black ones that are populated
with bulbs for the lights that do come on, along with the backlighting.
There probably isn’t enough room to add LEDs in an elegant way…I’m not a
“twiddle fingers”. 🙂
@uxwbill whats the story with the shift light that the keykeeper talked
about on his video
I don’t think a speedometer of this age would be electronic, so as long as
the cable that drives it is spinning, it will show a reading, even if the
car’s ignition is turned off.
Where is Part 2 and what were the part numbers for the capacitors you
ordered?
@vwestlife Rather surprisingly, it is. (The speedometers in our late 80s
Buick cars are also electronic.) That ITT IC does everything…reads a
pulse count input from a vehicle speed sensor and does all of the needed
figuring to drive both the odometer digits and speedometer needle. It has a
built in motor driver and short circuit protection, as well as a pulse
output for use with a so-called taximeter.
Yeah these red / brown bakelite capacitors may seem to be hi-quality parts
but in fact they are just crap. Never seen one in working condition… and
they were widely used in over-expensive B&O high end audio equipment…
@uxwbill Yeah, they can be awkward. I’d use 2.2w or 3w ones as the 5w ones
get too hot and they don’t last as long. LED is an option but I find the
light spread a little too focused when compared to filament bulbs.
I Thumbed up this video for the Easy Button!
Hopefully nothing got zapped or otherwise damaged in the process. The whole
speedometer assembly is quite fragile and uses an integrated circuit (on
this model, not sure about others) that could be damaged by electro-static
discharge. If the capacitors are still intact, they are marked with ratings
for voltage, capacitance and polarity. Just match those when you order the
new parts, and install the new ones the same way. If this is your first
time soldering, practice on scrap parts first.
I have never heard anything bad about these volvos except the electrical
systems. Other than that with proper maint. they run damn near forever.
Maybe you roll back the mileage now (just kidding).
@compwiz878 and did some online searching and found that not only the
speedo sensor in the trans not only rand the speedo but also sent signals
to the computer then the computer told the tranny when to shift via rpms
and speed the plastic gear on the sensor went bad so yeh ull be suprised at
what that speed sensor does do
@blazerlover25 If the caps are all that is wrong, this speedometer will run
again. Other electronic parts are extremely reliable and (in some cases)
hard to hurt if something else goes wrong. The ITT chip that drives this
speedometer appears to be well protected. Both the pink Buick and Cadillac
are in the garage, sleeping and waiting their turn.
@vwestlife My dad’s ’91 Honda Accord has a fully electronic speedo. and so
does my grandfather’s ’92 Chevy Lumina Van. You’d be surprised!
There never was a part 2 as the motor that drives the odometer was ruined
by someone in the past. If you still have the original capacitors, the
ratings are printed on them. You need to know the voltage and capacitance
ratings (in microfarads).
Maybe the cap was in parallel, between the rails, not in series. In which
case open circuit would just cause rippling on the power supply rails.
great video, i wonder if my 1990 grand marquis has a similar problem with
its odometer. always figured something mechanical must be wrong with it
because my thinking was that an electrical problem would kill the
speedometer as well
@1974Alfa5Spd A junkyard cluster will probably do much the same thing in
time, since it isn’t likely to be any newer than the one it is replacing.
All the warranty could probably do is give your money back or hand you
another used cluster. I’m not sure it is possible to get a truly new
speedometer/cluster assembly for a car this old. It would surely be
expensive.
@uxwbill would u consider putting maybe “led”s in the dash, and maybe in
all the places in the ip, maybe u would get some lights that were not
intended @ the factory 🙂
No. The problem you have is likely elsewhere. One good place to look is for
lights that are not shutting off when they should…like a glove box or
trunk light. Though it takes time, you can do a test by pulling fuses one
at a time and waiting to see which one makes the problem stop. It is also
possible to place an ammeter in series with the fuse for a given circuit
and see how much current is being drawn. This second test is faster, if you
have and can use an ammeter.
@uxwbill Wow, I’ve never seen a capacitor in series to an IC. Capacitors
tend to block DC. Maybe it was just the tacho output. I digress, without
seeing a schematic I would be none the wiser.
@uxwbill my bmws are too they start from 1982 or something just like the
one that was at the farm that uxwbill used to comment on
@msylvain59 People tell me that the Frako caps in particular are bad news
after many years. I hear many reports of them quite literally blowing up in
older Studer/Revox tape machines. The gold colored cap was made by Frako. I
hope this failure has not hurt the ITT speedometer IC! The clock in the
instrument panel on this car is all screwed up, and it’s got two Frako caps
on the quartz oscillator board. I would bet that replacing those might get
it working properly again!