I just fixed the odometer on my 95 850 Turbo and it is a very simple and inexpensive repair. First, I went to odometergears.com and ordered the Volvo 850 gear. Twenty-five dollars seemed alot for a tiny gear that came taped to a business card, but it was much better than the other options.

Second, I followed the instructions from Bay 13 at volvospeed.com to remove the instrument cluster from the dash. Once that was done, I opened the back of the cluster and removed the odometer. I replaced the gear (the other one didn't look bad, but I guess you have to use a magnifying glass to see the damage) and reassembled the instrument cluster. (Hint: I forgot to reattach the wire from the odometer to the instrument cluster and had to redo part of this after my first test drive.

Bottom line: The odometer works great and all I invested was 25$ and about 2 hours of effort. My Volvo dealer gave me a quote of $350 to replace the instrument cluster and my ind. mechanic said that it would cost about $200 and he would need the car for 7-10 days while he removed the cluster and shipped it off to a repair facility.

the odometer will fail if the trip odom it is ever reset with the car moving (I know i did this to mine)and the first thing the mechanic asked is did you reset it while moving, it has a plastic gear that strips out if reset (resetting turns it backwards, driving turns it forwards)

you can send the inst cluster to Overseas Speedometer in Austin Texas and they can fix it for like 100.00 if i remember right.

Dan

My 1995 850 goes into the shop Monday to repair the AC evaporator; Broken odometer and leaking gas tank hose.

The odometer is replaced as a unit on the 1995 850 - $195 from dealer.

Apparently, another common problem on the 850's is the odometer crapping out.

Mine broke at 76K miles.

Two things go wrong : 1) electric motor breaks in the odometer unit or/and 2) a small gear breaks


Gotta love these Volvos for their eccentric problems !