My husband was driving my 850 wagon and pulled in to a parking spot and turned the car off. He let our Brittany Spaniel dog out of car by opening the driver's side door. The dog jumped over his lap and he thinks the dog hit the buttons that operate the seat positions. The seat back began moving forward as the dog jumped out, pushing hmy husband forward without him touching the buttons! The seat back appears to be as far foward as it will go and it stopped all by itself. Now none of the buttons work. We checked under the seat and around the buttons to see if anything was stuck - Nothing was there except the usual garbage from our kids. We checked the fuses - they appear to be fine. Any ideas before I take this to my mechanic???? HELP!!!!!??? We managed to drive the car home but it's pretty uncomfortable!

My bet is on the seat switch itself. Dogs put a lot of pressure down with each foot. It could have been enough to push the switch down and break it so the seat moves all the way to full upright; it was the dog's fault. Remove the switch and fix it.

Klaus
--
98 V70Rawd(101Kmi), 95 854T(85K mi), 75 164E(173K mi)

Hello,

Sounds like the cable for the backrest motor came loose (common problem). The sheath on the cable stretches over time and eventually leaves the drive gear inside of the cable, rather than sticking out of the end. I did the same thing in the wife's car. Tried to clean behind the seat and put the backrest fully forward. It stayed there. She adjusted the front and rear height so that it is barely noticable now. The new cable is around $50-$60 from Volvo and the upholstery needs to be removed from the backrest to install (recommend removing seat from vehicle). It could be a faulty motor (as another reply stated; listen for the motor running when pressing the button), but it's doubtful. My money is on the cable.

I hope this helps...

Joe S.

Volvo Master Technician - 1988 760 Turbo w/267k, 1981 242 Turbo w/243k

If you hear a faint "growling" motor noise then the seat back cable has come out of position. If there is no noise then it is "most likely" the switch or the module under the seat.

Either way I suggest having it towed. With the air bag and the unconfortable position it would make a fender bender a very bad thing.

Same thing happened to me. Replaced teh control module (that houses the 1-2-3 and up/down controls). Still nothing. Replaced the "brainbox" that is underneath the seat. Voila! If it is doing NOTHING, it is NOT the cable. The cable only controls one aspect of the seat movement (the reclining aspect). If teh seat is "dead" with no motor whirring, it is eitherthe control module or the brainbox. If it's the module, 3 minute fix. If it's teh brainbox, tricky, hard to reach screws underneath. But, salvage yards will have them under $100 (and probably under $50).