FLASHING YELLOW ARROW

I OWN AN AUTOMATIC 1994 VOLVO 850 TURBO. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY THE
YELLOW FLASHING ARROW LIGHT IS ON. THE LIGHT WILL COME ON WHEN I'M ABOUT 5 -
10 MILES FROM HOME. WHILE DRIVING OFF AFTER STOPING IT TAKE OFF REALLY SLOW
LIKE IT'S IN A LOWER GEAR, ONCE IT GETS UP TO SPEED IT'S OK. I'VE BEEN TOLD
IT CAN BE ONE OF THREE THINGS, THE PNP SWITCH, OVERDIRVE RELAY, OR THE
FAILURE SENSOR. I'M HOPING SOMEONE CAN TELL WHAT'S WRONG WITHOUT ME HAVING
TO TAKE IT TO THE VOLVO DEALER. PLEASE HELP!!!

TONI

 

The flashing arrow means that the computer has detected a problem with your
transmission, and has put the car in "limp home" mode. It makes the car
start out in a higher gear (probably 3rd) to attempt to prevent serious
damage to the transmission, and that is why you are sluggish off the line
but when you get up to speed it seems ok. It could be a lot of different
things from not so bad to really bad, but you will need someone with a
diagnostic computer to find out what is wrong. It does not have to be the
dealer...any good independent mechanic should be able to tell you what is
going on.
..

 

Mine was a 1996, with 70,000 miles on it when the arrow started flashing.

I had it towed to my mechanic, who couldn't read it with his computer, so he
sent me to a tranny shop. I had it towed to the tranny shop, where they
couldn't read it with their computer, so I had it towed to a dealer. The
dealer kept it for a week and told me I needed a new tranny for $2500, so I
had it towed to another dealer. The second dealer looked at it for an hour
and told me I needed a new tranny for $2800.

In the end, I sold it to a junkyard for $300 (the stereo was worth about
twice that). At least he towed it away from the dealer for free.

All told, it cost me about $300 in towing charges. Plus I lost about $3500
on the value of the vehicle.

In retrospect, I bet it was the PNP switch and the two dealers were too dumb
to know it, or too clever to tell me. I wish I had towed it home and tried
replacing the PNP myself.

I've owned a lot of Volvos, and spent a lot of time and $$$ fixing them.
This one holds the record.

--
-RL (1976 264, 1976 262, 1978 264, 1987 240, 1989 240, 1996 850, 2005 Acura
TSX)

 

SO WHERE EXACTLY IS THE PNP SWITCH LOCATED? IS IT VERY COMPLICATED REPLACE?

 

The limp mode is the same as Winter mode. The car stays in 3rd gear and
has very poor acceleration. It doesn't hurt the transmission to run in
limp mode.

Mine was the PNP switch. With the PNP switch, the car resets itself from
the limp mode when you shut the ignition off. My PNP switch was only
bad in 3rd gear on a 4 speed AT in a '95 850. Sometimes when I would
downshift the AT into 3rd when slowing down, it would go into limp mode
and start the yellow light flashing. It would continue flashing for
about a week even after it reset itself.

My dealer blindly read the error code and mistakenly replaced the input
speed sensor and the output speed sensor before someone in this group
told me what it was. They charged me for the first two needless
repairs, but the final necessary one was free.

The PNP switch tells the computer which gear the transmission is in.
Then the computer takes the input speed and the output speed and
computes what the gear ratio is. If the ratio disagrees with the PNP
switch information, then it generates an error. It can be any of the 3
parts, but seldom is the transmission itself. If it does it in any
gear (L, 3, D) then it could be one of the speed sensors. If it only
does it in one of the 3 positions, then it is the PNP switch.

I also had a '93 850 in which the AT did completely fail. The car would
not go anywhere. Then they put in a rebuilt AT. It was worth it. The
car was worth twice as much as the rebuilt AT. That is one problem with
Volvos, their value is enough that they are almost always worth fixing.
The catch is that you must sell them to recover your investment. But I
have been lucky and always got all the miles I wanted and then sold them
for top dollar privately.

The only problems I have had were a soft cam shaft in a 240 and a bad AT
in the '93 850. I both cases I got about 80,000 miles before the
problem occurred. My other 8 Volvos have not had any major problems.

 

hi
i had the dreaded flashing up arrow, after it came back from a
service,

it can sometimes be cured by putting the car in neutral, switch the
engine off, then move the shift lever back and forwards through all
the positions about 10 times, it is the contacts on the pnp switch but
you usualy cannot repair it by taking it off, but this little tip has
fixed mine and 2 other volvos.

col

 

I had the same scenario on my 92 960. Except instead of going into
the limp home mode, it would do strange things, like jumping between
gears while driving on the freeway, refusing to downshift, and
sometimes not releasing from lockup even when I tried to
stop.......had to put it in neutral to stop or kill the motor. The
repair shop and the dealer both said it needed a transmission
replacement. I can't afford that. I replaced the PNP switch myself,
and it made no difference. Same with the transmission control unit.
I could read the fault codes on the built in diagnostic system, and
they were numerous, and inconsistent. I'd clear the codes, and the
faults would return within a couple miles.
After some very time consuming testing of the solenoids, and the
wiring harness, with a simple ohm meter, I found all the wires in the
harness to the transmission were shorted together at various levels.
Not dead shorts, just some bleeding through. I removed the wiring
harness that goes into the top of the transmission. Just above the
solid bushing that goes through the top of the tranny, inside the
right angle rubber boot, I found all the wires had the insulation
cracked and missing. This boot would get moisture in it when I drove
in the rain, and I'm sure the water, (and wisconsin road salt),
shorted the wires together in different and exciting ways.
I replaced this wiring harness, and things were better but not
cured. Further testing showed some shorting in the wiring between the
harness connector and the control unit. I bypassed these wires, and
put new wires direct from the transmission to the control unit. Now
only one fault code came up: Open solenoid #2. I replaced this
solenoid. Now it runs like a dream, no fault codes.
Cost of the harness was about 200 bucks. Solenoid another 200.
Used transmission control unit, 100. And just a stupid amound of time
testing different things. But I've got more time than money.
Hopefully this fix lasts...........I've only got 2000 miles on it
with no tranny fault code blinking. But, before, I never got more
than 10 miles.