Hey knowledgeable volvo community-

I have a 1990 Volvo b234 GLE

I noticed in the last week or so that occasionally, a few of the dash lights are very very dimly on- the battery light, and I think the abs light maybe another. This evening, I was driving along, and the ABS light came on all the way(and the ABS stopped working), and shortly after, the interior lights went off (dash light, I think the light behind the climate control too) it was very dark in my car all of a sudden even at night, and then my stereo just turned off... I also heard this weird clicking sound from under my seat so I turned off (or on?) the heated seats and it stopped.

I made my way quickly back to my house- the car seemed to be running pretty poorly, and somehow I made it up my driveway. I went into reverse to adjust the car, and it just died. I went to turn it on, and all i got was the starter clicking, nothing.

I just went back outside to grab a few things (it's been an hour or two) and I thought, "why not" and I started it up. It started up, again with the battery light dimly lit, but I think the ABS light had turned off. I backed it up, got it nice and straight in the parking spot, and I turned it off. It was running a little rough..

Any thoughts on this? battery? alternator? electrical gremlin? Another piece to the puzzle is that it's winter here in minnesota and a few weeks ago when it was about -10, I had my air all the way up, my heated seat on, and my phone charging when I turned the car on... As I was sitting there in the parking lot, all of my dash lights came on and the car died. I unplugged the phone/turned off the air/lights and it started up fine and I didn't have any issues.

Thanks!

Z

Test the battery with the engine running to see if you have about 14 volts indicating the alternator is working. Fully charge the battery and go to auto zone or similar to test the battery and charging system.
Dan

Well, I cleaned all the connections between the alternator and the battery- including the terminals... I was getting about 12v off of the battery with the car off, and with it on, I'm getting 11.4 or so. So I would say that's it's new alternator time, yeah?

It may be the voltage regulator / brushes that has either failed or the brushes have worn down to where they need to be replaced. You can get brushes but it is easier to replace the whole regulator, get a Bosch voltage regulator for $30 to $40.

Dan

try making a better negative connection to the block from the alternator
\\

You can take the alternator to Autozone for a check but you'll have to remove it first.

I had a similar problem once. It turned out that the positive lead on the starter was loose.
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They should be able to tell you if the charging system is working, a voltmeter on the battery at idle will tell you that.
Dan

Without doing some basic voltmeter testing, we are all just guessing.
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