Hello,
It’s been ages since I’ve come to the brick board.
My trusty daily driver has been in storage for three years.
I’d have loved to charge the battery and fire it up again .. but alas no such luck.
Was hard to start but amazingly it did fire up and idle fine and warm up and saw the thermostat open up and cooling began... so did manage to get it going.

I notice some of the lights in the dash are faintly light up... and kind of glowing when they shouldn’t be. Reminds me of the time the alternator died.
Does anyone know if this is a diagnostic of this problem ?

Hi,

Was the car stored in-doors or outside in the elements?
Did critters have access to the car?

The faint glowing is a sign of corroded grounds. The cluster circuits are operating but is inhibited in passing enough current to shine brightly.
Any lights in particular?
Clean and tighten all the fuses in the drivers door hinge panel is a place to start!

An alternator light does go to ground to show non operation. When the alternator starts to give out an output that current/voltage opposes the lights flow to ground and the light goes off.
The alternator housing has to have it very own ground since Volvo rubber mounted it.

The other lights work in the same manner but you could be getting some back feed from some other powered circuits if a critter got to snacking!
Look for damage around the wiring looms or sprigs of grass or nest building travels!

A car stored for three years is not a rental condo but a full time home with no mortgage! (-:)


Phil