I'm stumped. Sunday morning, our Volvo would not turn over. No clicks,nothing. Everything else works fine. No dimming of the headlamps when turning the key to start.Battery shows full charge.I pulled and cleaned both ends of battery cables.No help. Pulled the small blue wire off starter and used a test lamp, checking for juice while the key was turned. Yes, it gets power.Tried bridging the 2 terminals, nothing. Did the shifter shift, park or nutreal, not a click.-So I thought my soliniod was shot . Bought a rebuilt Bosch yesterday.Swapped it in and NOTHING! What is going on? I've read through the related forum posts, but haven't found a solution.

You have a good charged battery, turn the key and you hear no click from the starter. Release the key and everything comes back on nice and bright.

Fought that problem off and on for six months.

Make sure you have the stater solenoid wire on the right terminal if you have worked in that area recently. There is a ballast resistor connection terminal that just begs you to put the wire in the wrong place.

Try this check list,

Connect your DVM to the wire that goes to the starter solenoid on the starter and have someone turn the turn the key while you watch the meter. Should have +12 volts when you turn the key. If you do get 12 volts you are headed into the starter. If you do not get 12 volts you have a connection issue someplace. If you are a brave soul you can take a spade lug on put in on that terminal and just tap the positive terminal of the battery. The starter should engage when you do that but not the greatest way to check the starter.

If you are not getting 12 volts on the wire check at the connections from the battery to the starter, battery to chassis. Go ahead and disconnect the negative terminal on the battery and leave it off for the next part.

On the drivers side of the car between the head light relay and where the 25 amp fuel pump fuse used to be is a power distribution block. You lift the cover straight up to remove it and there are several spade lug connected to that block that send power inside the car. Don't mess around with the connections, get new spade lugs and replace all of them. The are two larger spade lugs on each end of the block that were a bit hard to find but O'Rielly does carry them. If the wire from the Positive terminal of the battery is stiff and discolored, replace it with a new one of the same gauge or a size larger. The wires under there can get eaten up with corrosion and cause you to have all sorts of power issues inside the car.

Reconnect the negative terminal and give it a try when you get all the wires crimped and the terminal block reinstalled.

Still no luck check the Neutral Position Switch, on a Auto Tranny it is located beside the the stick shift under the cover. On the drivers side of the center console is a blue connector that you can snap apart to check it. The switch is a fairly large triangle shaped thing. With the car in park the switch should be closed, if not that will cause the problem.

Jump the battery with another vehicle and see if the car starts. If it does roar to life post back, that was one of the things Inga would do that drove me up the wall. Found an issue with the center connector on the firewall. I can give you a few more things to check if yours does that little trick.

This will at least give you a place to get started just in case the starter is not the issue.


Good Luck,

Paul

If you get dead silence when turning the ignition to "Start," then it's the battery/wires or ignition key/wires. The battery should read ~12.0 VDC or more when left overnight. Go to www.stepbystepvolvo.com and click on "Basics of Diagnosis and Other Hints." It could be a ground connection.

It sounds like the starter is locked up or in a bind.Try rotating the crank back and forth a little,or tap on the corner of the starter with something solid like a hammer but not too hard and not on the side of the starter.

Thanks to all you guys who responded.We just returned from vacation. The night before starting vaca, I got it running.I was not getting consistant voltage to the small wire on starter. I only learned this after the purchase of the new starter! I am assuming it is the nutreal safety switch.After poking a number of wires, I found a female connecter hanging high on the firewall. It would test positve for juice when the key turned to start.The other reason to think it's the NS switch is that it will now start in any gear! The important thing is it is running again and I can give my daughter back her little Geo Tracker.Don't think my backside could take anymore bumps and jumps. Thanks again,guys.