Well,
the local Volvo shop I go to has spent many hours trying to find and fix the cause of the “fast idle”. The owner himself spent hours tracing down wires and testing various sensors. I have to say this-they have in essence ‘donated’ much of their time in pursuit of this issue. They kept the wagon twice, 2 days at a time, and gave me a free loaner. They did replace a sensor and the ignition sensor computer thing-which I paid for and a small amount of labor.

Today after having the wagon the 2nd time for 2 days they are still somewhat stumped BUT the issue has become better, not perfect. The high idle issue seems to have minimized after the owner took his time and made adjustments in accordance with the installing of certain sensors .

There is one “culprit” that may have an answer,if fixed; problem is, it would mean a great deal of $$$ for our pocket book, like about $800. The sensor I think its called the nox thing, may be picking up something from the back end of the crankshaft. As most any car gets older it gets a bit “looser”; parts normally wear,and the worn bearings on the crankshaft way be ending a signal to the sensor that is interpreted incorrectly and the sensor sends out a signal read from that vibration and thus the fast idle pervades. The fix (maybe-?) is to replace the bearings, an $800 job parts and labor job as you have to drop the pan and get at the underside of the motor.

Since the wagon is running relatively well, we have decided not to lay out that $$ and just drive it easy and hope for the best. The wagon otherwise really is in excellent condition inside and out. With caution we might be able to get a few more years out of it. I will say the owner of the shop himself put in many hours and charged us nothing today, saying as how he couldn’t find and fix the issue, tho he did, in the total of the 4 days he had it replace some things. He spent many hours tracing circuits and wires with meters and just couldn’t find and fix the idle altho the fast idle has subsided somewhat.

He asks for no $$ for the hours of labor he put in today, but we will go back next week and see to it his efforts are “rewarded“. Just doesn’t feel right to walk off with out doing something for his labor. I had a loner car from him and a couple times I drove there and his head was either under the dash or dug down into the various parts of the engine. .

I've called once in awhile and the lady at the phone said he would call me back as sometimes when I called he was fast at it trying to find and fix things in our wagon. I tried not to bug him too much just leave him alone much as I could to let him carry on . All in all we feel he has done what he could, and it's our decision to call it quits. (Probably should have quit many $$$ ago!)

I do thank ALL the Brickboarders for suggestions of which many I did copy-paste and took them to the mechanic/owner. I even copied Arts' pictures and the owner looked at them and said it made great sense to him which he did use to check it out. The 'bearing' thing is just too hefty a price for our pocketbook.

SO, thanks again everyone. I hope sometimes I can offer a useful suggestion or two to other 'BBers .