Volvo 960 Estate 24v
Will attention to the battery cables sort the Volvo’s starting problems – or does the fault lie elsewhere?
1995 VOLVO 960 24v AUTO
A sturdy old Volvo with a Scandistrength heater and electric bum warmers in the seats may be an ideal winter companion, but my 960 decided to try and hibernate during the opening months of the cold season with a bewildering issue.
Simply put – every so often it wouldn’t start. The dash lights would dim and there would be a click, but no cranking. Eventually, rowing the automatic shifter, turning off all electrical items and/or randomly pressing the transmission mode buttons would suddenly prompt it into life, but there seemed no pattern to its inaction. After having to push the Volvo off one too many petrol station forecourts, I parked it at home and left it. For quite a while.
An understandable course of action, perhaps, but a silly one, too, because the battery ran down, meaning the remote control unlocking wouldn’t work. At which point I discovered that none of my keys worked in the doors. Well, until I tried one of the keys on the tailgate, which did, thankfully, unlock. This allowed me to rather inelegantly crawl through the car and manually open the driver’s door and bonnet, much to the amusement of one of my neighbours. Thank God it isn’t a saloon.
Charged up again, the Volvo started first time. And then wouldn’t fire up again. I retreated to t’internet to look for explanations. The Volvo forums suggested the starter motor as one possibility, but a more likely culprit was the gearbox PNP switch (essentially the bit that prevents the car being started in anything other than neutral or park). Worryingly, the general consensus was that these are absolute pigs to replace.
However, there was also a mention of 960s being susceptible to low voltages, with the recommendation being to clean, grease and tighten all battery connections – which I did, and so far, the problem hasn’t come back; I’m stopping at garages with confidence again. I suspect the PNP switch is also dodgy because my car also has another classic symptom – sporadic reversing lights. But let’s see how far I can get having just done the easy stuff first.