We have recently purchased our 850-1996 without a user manual. Now my wife tells me (over the phone) there is an orange-coloured indicator coming up on the dashboard. It says somethig like PBS.

Does anyone know what this means ?

I hope the car is still drivable. It has been serviced just a few days ago, and a ball-joint was changed along with the matching arm.

Andrew

Andrew,
I hate to be a bearer of bad news, but our 96 850 very recently had the light illuminate also. Additionally, the TRACS light would illuminate. There was no pattern to when the lights would come on.

IF you are lucky, when the ball joint was replaced, the sensor wire or circuitry was damaged, thus causing the light to come on. BUT, be prepared to take the car to a reputable dealer, or service center. They will take an hour or less to plug a code analyzer into the ABS circuit; the results will be a faulty sensor or the ABS computer. Ours was the computer. $600+ for this.

My repair shop says if the results indicate a faulty Rt.Rear wheel sensor, they have learned the computer is usually the faulty part, not the sensor.

This was the case with ours. Very expensive. We love the car otherwise

The repair was done by the most reputable Volve garage in town (Sydney). They charge an arm and a leg, but they care for their customers. I've rung them, and it went like:
- is it the Orange indicator ?
- yes, that's what the wife said.
- did you fiull this car recently ?
- yes, my wife filled it before going out of town.
- it must be the Oxygen Sensor...
Too much fuel in the engine, incomplete combustion, etc.

My wife says the indicator did not come up on her way back. In the evening, I've finally had a look at the car myself. To be sure, all indicators are orange coloured, there is no PBS but there is ABS (next to the big P). But there is no indicator specifically for the Oxygen Sensor. Perhaps it is lumped together with other engine trouble things.

It could still be the ABS, since it is the right-most indicator, as my wife said. I understand they could have damaged the wiring when changing the ball joint. But damaging the computer ?

Does anyone know whether ABS trouble is intermitent ? If you have a damaged wire, could you have the warning light coming on and off again ?

Mine's currently intermittent.

I currently have green "Post-It" notes stuck over the lights to make them less distracting at night.

As has been posted on threads here many times before, this is an extremely common failure on 850-70s, it's likely a defect in manufacturing the ABS controllers, it's a safety issue and it's really unconscionable for Volvo not to do a recall for this.

I'm not going nuts over this because I've driven cars without ABS for 29 years before the Volvo and it was going into the shop next week anyway. Still, I want to get it fixed because I like having ABS.

My "usual equation" for driving Eurocars out of warranty seems to average about one ~$600 repair every ~6000 miles driven. That's in addition to maintenance and wear and tear of stuff that can routinely be expected to wear out. Still a lot cheaper than leasing a new BMW 745i, but not nearly as cheap as running an old Toyota.

-Samurai Jack

I think you mean "ABS", which is a warning light for the anti-lock braking (ABS)system. The car is still driveable, but your ABS may not be functioning, or not functioning correctly. There is a common problem with 1996 model ABS control units. Do a search.

Gerald C