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Hello All:
I own a 1995 Volvo 960. The problem that I'm having is the insulators that are used in the plastic electrical housings. I got the dreaded up arrow and limp home mode. When I attempted to read the codes via the "morse code" blinking light system; I discovered the wires had detached from the plastic housing. After opening the housing, I saw that all the wire insulators had simply disintegrated. Currently, 1) I need to know what color wire goes into the numbered socket for the morse code to work again. 2) Does anyone know where I can purchase the rubber like insulators? Any assistance you can provide is much appreciated. My aunt purchased this car new and I enjoy driving it.
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I pulled apart one of my diagnostic sockets to see the rubber insulators you're talking about. I take it just the rubber sleeve insulation is the issue (either went gummy or went crisp) and the wiring, wire insulation and metal connector sleeves themselves are okay. Also, the plastic diagnostic sockets sound like they're still okay.
Note that the socket base is a two piece assembly. The bottom piece is the actual wire holder which clips into the upper piece which is a mounting cap (black cap with the LED is socket A, socket B cap is usually grey). The bottom piece simply has the rubber insulated wires clamped in place. There are four square tabs that hinge out (two on each side of the socket base). The tabs click in place over the rubber insulator sleeves to firmly hold the connectors in place. You can easily pry the tabs open by inserting a screwdriver in the holes underneath.
If I'm envisioning your issue correctly, I think you might be able to just remove what you can of bad rubber insulation then wrap sufficient electrical tape around the connector to serve as a new sleeve that you can then firmly clamp in place. Could be an easy fix and you wouldn't need to cut and splice any wiring.
All that remains is figuring out which sockets the wires belong in. I can't seem to find an appropriate factory wiring diagram for a 1992-1995 960, so the best I can offer you is a list of the 1995 940 diagnostic connections. The sockets, pins and functions will be the same, just the wire colours may be different:
Socket A -green/grey or green/white to pin 2 (fuel ECU), blue/pink to pin 3 (ABS), blue to pin 4 (+12V), yellow/red to pin 6 (ign ECU), black to pin 8 (ground)
Socket B -yellow to pin 2 (cruise), grey/orange to pin 5 (SRS), blue/white to pin 6 (power seat)
Now if the plastic socket bases are crisp then those click tabs may easily break off. It's at that point you would need to get a used socket from a donor car. Any 1989-1995 700/900 with the A and B OBD-II sockets under the hood should do, although note that the wire colours may vary by model and year and the wires present at socket B may vary by feature (like having power seats). It would be your choice whether it's worth cutting and splicing the wires or using the electrical tape bandage method I've suggested above. I found it very easy to snap apart the socket bases and open the side tabs, so I'd suggest using tape.
Another option is to use hot melt glue (hobby glue gun) as the insulator sleeve and if needed use a zip tie around the base to hold it all in place.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now
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Dear Dave Stevens,
Hope you're well and stay so. Possibly to leverage your excellent analysis, heat-shrink tube might be substituted for the deteriorated rubber insulators on the OBD sockets.
Heat shrink tube can be cut to a specific length. Once it is has been "shrunk", it clings tightly, so will not be displaced as the repaired wire is pressed into the housing.
Two (or more) concentric pieces of heat shrink tube might be needed to replicate the thickness of the failed rubber insulators.
Hope this helps.
Yours faithfully,
Spook
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Great minds think alike, laugh. I thought of using 3-4 layers of heat shrink, too, but it makes for a hard surface I think may be too stiff for the job of being firmly held in place by the side tabs and might too easily push out. 6-8 layers of softer black electrical tape strikes me as being a bit more clampable (for lack of a better word). If that failed then my second choice would be using heat shrink held in place with hot melt glue, but that's more than a 5 minute job.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now
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HI Dave,
Somewhere on this site is a post about replacing the insulation gone to cream cheese with small vinyl tubing which I believe he called aquarium tubing. I thought it might have been you, but apparently not.
I've never tried it myself, as I still have a dwindling supply of cut off ends from the junkyard, but sooner or late I'll need a remedy myself.
I'd look for the post, but I'm hopelessly bad at finding stuff using the search function. I spent about 3 hours looking for Art Benstein's post about oil cooler line bending dimensions without any luck. I suppose I could ask him, but I hate to make a nuisance of myself for something I should be able to do on my own.
regards, Peter
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Dear Scott Gravitt,
Hope you're well and stay so. According to Volvo VADIS - a superseded dealer parts/service database - the on-board diagnostic housings are Volvo #3545006 and #3545007.
These housings were used on 940s as well as 960s, S90s and V90s (from 1992-98). You should be able to find the housings - and perhaps also the wiring harnesses (with the connectors) - at a salvage yard.
I cannot find a parts diagram, that shows the wiring harnesses that go into the housings, so do not know if a harness from one model/year matches exactly a harness from another model/year.
Make clear to the salvage yard folks that you truly need the complete wiring harnesses, that go to each of the diagnostic boxes, as well as the boxes themselves . If you can get the complete wiring harnesses and the boxes, that will spare you having: (a) to splice the wires and (b) to figure out which wire goes to which opening
I'd seek these from a salvage yard in an region where average ambient temperatures are "low", e.g., not in the desert southwest. In that region, years of exposure to high temperatures will have embrittled the plastic, so cutting plastic parts' remaining service life.
Before installing, use an aerosol corrosion-remover to clean the connectors at both ends. DeOxit is such a product. A few treatments should ensure that an invisibly thin coating of oxidation does not disrupt operations. Do not trust "eye-balling" the connectors: sometimes the oxide layer, though present, is not obvious.
Hope this helps.
Yours faithfully,
Spook
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To follow along with your thinking, Spook, although I can't find it in parts schematics, I can see from electrical manuals and by looking under my hood that the wiring attached to the diagnostic sockets is part of the large "left wheelhouse harness" in the engine compartment.
To replace the sockets, I imagine cutting and splicing is the most practical option. There's about 4"-5" of wire that leads out of the harness. Solder and heat shrink could make for quite a tidy splicing job. You wouldn't need an electrical manual if you carefully match socket position. The wiring color may or may not match between models and years from a donor car. When looking in yards for donor cars, as much as the socket itself is listed for usage in 1992-1998 940, 960 & S/V90, don't forget that the last year for the OBD-II LED diagnostic socket in the North American market was 1995. Also, the engine compartment wiring harnesses for the 940s and 960s are quite different.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now
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