Hello All,

I have a '96 850 GLT wagon with a 5 speed manual. With 245,000 plus miles on clock, the the odometer and trip distance read out have stopped working. I'm pretty sure it is the grear that turns the odometer digits that failed.

I recall seeing ads from some company stating the original odometer gears supplied by Volvo were defective - to soft? Any way, this company claimed its ogears were far superior to those offered by Volvo. I need to know:

1) What is the name of this company and how do I contact them?
2) Are its gears really better than Volvo's OEM?
3) How much do they cost?
4) How do you install these gears? Is there a series of photos showing "How to" on Bay 13 or some similar site?

I'm not driving the car till I get this fixed, so I'd appreciate your responses as soon as you can Thanks in advance.

Hugh

I replaced the odometer gear on my '95 850 with a gear I purchased from www.odometergears.com for $25. I used the instructions for instrument panel removal found in "Bay 13" at Volvospeed.com. Very easy and straight forward. There is just one thing I would do differently.

On the odometergear.com web site, they discuss replacing both gears at the same time. I replaced the gear that most commonly fails and everything was fine - for about two years until it failed again (I think my son hit the reset button while the car was moving. This time, I ordered both gears. The one that failed this time was the one I hadn't replaced two years ago. The odometergears.com gears do appear to be of high grade plastic and replacing just one with a stronger one will probably result in the other failing at some point.

There is only one gear to replace. Volvo's is yellow and softer so it's silent. This gear drives all the others, but they will be fine. IPD claimes the one in their kit is tougher........just don't push the trip reset while the car is moving would be my advice.

Oh, the little gear is in the IPD kit. I always see it in the catalog, but my haynes book explained how to get cluster out, so I just figured it out. Replace the dash lights while you are at it. IPD sells a light kit too. You just have to take the vents out of the dash and take the screws out that hold the dash pad on. Two screws are hidden under caps on the sides of the dash under a cap. Lift up the dash pad when it's loose and the cluster is just held in by a couple clips. The rest is just torx screws.

fcp groton or ipd and other companies have them? No problem with aftermarket that I have used. Price: 35-50 $'s. Instructions: ipd has them and so does volvospeed. Takes time and patience, but not too bad.

dick

Dick and Gwen,

Thanks for your replies. I receive iPd catalogues, so subconsciously, that's probably were I recall see the ad for the odometer gears. Do you have to take the dash board apart in the same way required to replace the dashboard light bulbs?

Hugh

The instructions may be seen via a link at FCP Groton (look in miscellaneous parts listing) (links to Matthew's site's instructions I think). I used FCP because I combined the order with other stuff, and shipping is essentially $0. Cost was $25, same as odometergears or whatever, but the others charge $6-8 shipping. The series of pictures pretty much shows you everything. You will need a small torx bit - forget what size - T7 or something like that. Recommend you get a good torx assortment if you don't already have one, or have a car available to drive to get one if you need it. Good luck.

Don '95 854T 168.2K

Hugh :

IPDvolvo has a great kit with a dvd that shows you how to put in a new gear. I got a new unit off ebay search for volvo 850 instrument and took the gear out of it. Kind of fun.

IPD's number is 1-800-444-6473