Volvo 480 Club Europe

Hi everyone,

This is not a critical issue but it was very strange when it happen to me yesterday.
So I have an old 1990 Turbo that Im scrapping, the engine has always started and run very well but last time I wanted to move it I couldn't get it to start. I didn't do much investigation since it's been standing for many years so it could be a lot of things. But yesterday I wanted to use tachometer from the 1990 turbo and put in my 1988 Turbos dashboard since that one is showing to high RPM.
So I just took the whole dashboard from the 1990 turbo and connected it in the 1988 turbo to test that the tachometer worked before dismantling both dashboards. The problem was that the 1988 turbo didn't start now, first I thought something else was wrong but then I remembered that I had the same problem on the 1990 turbo. And behold I switched to the original dashboard and it started as it should.

What in the dashboard can make car not start? I didn't think that it could have that effect.

Regards Jonas

I would guess our man Brinkie would know for certain, but I'm guessing they probably changed the pins around and something is now going either open circuit or to ground when it shouldn't be....

I had a previous 480 whose instrument panel would have benefitted from Brinkie had I known of him at that time. Every so often the speedo would die and the idle would get rougher - pushing home the connectors on the back of the instrument panel would cure both problems. I assumed that the circuitry to the ECU has to be good through the instrument panel, because eventually changing the panel solved the problems permanently.

So I agree with Jeff above - get the contacts on the 1990's instrument panel PCB carefully checked...

David

The ability of a Volvo 480 to start has NOTHING to do with the instrument cluster. You car should start and drive fine without an instrument cluster fitted at all! It could have trouble charging the battery as the alternator must be ignited either through the tell-tale lamp or the 120 ohm resistor on the circuit board. But it does not and should not interfere with starting the engine.

Also I am VERY curious how you did manage to put a 1990 instrument cluster in a 1988 car, unless you have a late 1988 car (model year 1989) which is fitted with green and grey connectors. If that is the case, the instrument clusters are fully interchangeable. Since they both have turbo engines and both are fitted with 48 litre tanks... oh wait, if you have a late 1990 car it could have a 60 litre tank and a different gearbox ratio which needs a slightly different speedometer. Anyway, they are compatible for testing purposes and should by no means cause a dead car.

I think Volvo outsourced the electronics design to Sirius Cybernetic Corporation.
“The Encyclopedia Galactica defines a robot as a mechanical apparatus designed to do the work of a man. The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With". The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes"”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

brinkie wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 01, 2018 3:32 pm

I think Volvo outsourced the electronics design to Sirius Cybernetic Corporation.
“The Encyclopedia Galactica defines a robot as a mechanical apparatus designed to do the work of a man. The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With". The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes"”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Curiously, an edition of the Encyclopedia Galactica which conveniently fell through a rift in the time-space continuum from 1000 years in the future describes the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as:

"A bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came."

Only their complaints department survived the general economic implosion of the company as a whole.

Share and Enjoy!

brinkie wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 01, 2018 3:32 pm

The ability of a Volvo 480 to start has NOTHING to do with the instrument cluster. You car should start and drive fine without an instrument cluster fitted at all! It could have trouble charging the battery as the alternator must be ignited either through the tell-tale lamp or the 120 ohm resistor on the circuit board. But it does not and should not interfere with starting the engine.

Also I am VERY curious how you did manage to put a 1990 instrument cluster in a 1988 car, unless you have a late 1988 car (model year 1989) which is fitted with green and grey connectors. If that is the case, the instrument clusters are fully interchangeable. Since they both have turbo engines and both are fitted with 48 litre tanks... oh wait, if you have a late 1990 car it could have a 60 litre tank and a different gearbox ratio which needs a slightly different speedometer. Anyway, they are compatible for testing purposes and should by no means cause a dead car.

I think Volvo outsourced the electronics design to Sirius Cybernetic Corporation.
“The Encyclopedia Galactica defines a robot as a mechanical apparatus designed to do the work of a man. The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to Be With". The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes"”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Battery and everything electric in the car works as it should, it was only rev counter that was not working correctly so I wanted to test another cluster to see that the rev counter worked before exchanging it.

I know it sound strange and that's why I had to write and ask here. The only thing I know is that I took the cluster from my 1990 turbo (early model 48L) and put into my 1988 Turbo (not green and grey connectors, one connector was red I think). The car had been started 5min before and now with the other cluster it didn't start and 5min later with the original cluster I started again.

I didn't think there was any difference on the cluster between these 2 models but I guess you learn something new everytime you do stuff anything on a Volvo 480 .

Well, if you have tried to plug an instrument cluster with green and grey connectors into a wiring loom with a yellow and red connector, that might have blown some fuses...