The odometer (and trip meter) stopped working on my '96 850 last week (310K miles). Broken odometer cable? If so, where do I start?

Thanks,

Bernie

It's not too hard a job to replace the odo gears.
look here for another how-to for the Volvo 850 here:

http://www.odometergears.com/how_to.php

and this place makes the gears. They claim that you need replace
two. When you get the instrument cluster out, It's a good time to
replace any dead lamps.

Bill

Speaking of "dead lamps", I've been sitting on the instrument panel replacement bulbs for a couple of years now. Maybe this is the time to take the "plunge" ...

mine and a lot of others have had the gear break. IPD sells the gear and a good write up on how to replace it. Mine broke a few years ago and i did 74k on the car until i fixed it. I was able to find my true mileage by using the codes from the computer diagnostic unit under the hood.

What strikes me as amusing is how completely irrelevant to Ford, Chevy, pretty much ANY other carmaker...the idea of getting 310,000+ miles from a car is. There's little doubt that you're only talking Volvo when you talk 310K.

There is no speedo cable. Read this thread:

http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic/8398-broken-odometer-850/
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My name is Klaus and I am a V ♂ lv ♂ holic

Thanks to all for your very helpful replies. At this point, minor issues such as the odometer no longer working actually add character to this car. I am interested in getting the car's mileage off the OBD II port though (especially for continued maintenance purposes), but I don't recall getting anything other than fault codes from my OBD reader. I'll have to check into that. Taking apart the dashboard has never appealed to me much, so I think I'll avoid doing that until I have some more time on my hands.

Bernie

'96 850 wagon, 5 spd. (310K+ miles)
'07 V70 wagon, autom. (125K miles)

The entire dash cover does not have to come off. I just removed the torx screws on the left side and those behind the center vents and lifted up the dash just enough to get the cluster out.

Battery does not have to be disconnected, but do not try to drive the car with the cluster out. R&R of the cluster is about 1 hour, replacing the ODO gear on the kitchen table is about 90 minutes - I like to clean the dust off everything while it is apart.

1996+ cars require a Volvo code reader to get the miles. If you put a bunch of miles on the car, you can spin the odo using a short pencil with eraser as a drill bit and turn on the drill. Counter clockwise??

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My name is Klaus and I am a V ♂ lv ♂ holic

yeah, it is not a difficult or time consuming job. I also replaced the bulbs while it was all out for good measure.

You won't be able to read the total mileage from the OBDII port, but the dealer can. OBDI equipped cars (with the black box under the hood) are able to retrieve the mileage by the shade-tree mechanic.

Instrument cluster may not be as hard as you imagine. I too was reluctant but it wasn't so bad. It did take more than half a day though as I was being very careful.

Here is the tutorial that I used a few weeks ago for our '95 854T.
http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/odometer-fix-how-to.html
I found it very helpful.

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"Differences of opinions should be tolerated, but not if they're too different' - Sharon Craig

A broken odometer gear is the usual suspect. The dash will have to be removed and the gear replaced.

After 310K miles maybe it just got tired and quit!!