My car has gone bananas. For a few weeks it would start and run fine but when I would stop the car a few minutes (like run into a store or get gas) it would turn over but it wouldn't start when I got back. It would take several tries but eventually would start. It also felt like it was going into reverse gear really hard.
Now the check engine light, service engine light, and low gear (flashing arrow) light is on as soon as I start the car and it feels like it's running in low gear ........ but the starting problem and hard reverse no longer exists! What is going on?

codes. get the codes. your flashing light is most probably a pnp switch. hard starting, check the fuel relay, that is the easiest.

Limp-home Mode.

Need to read the codes and work from there.

do you have any codes. i had a volvo 850 and i ran into many starting problems. my first problem was the fuel pump relay the possible symptoms are the car cranks but it won't start. it tries to start and then it dies. those are the causes of a bad fuel pump relay which is located in the left side of the drivers. sometimes the car starts and sometimes it won't. another problem that it can be is the alarm system. my volvo sometime it won't start and it was because i did not had the alarm remote and the alarm system avoid the car from starting. in the case of the arrow flashing it looks like its the pnp sensor that its bad. check the codes for the transmission. you can check bay 13 it tells you how to check codes in your car. usually when the transmission its stuck is the pnp sensor i had that problem with my volvo and fix it when replace the pnp sensor. hope this helps any questions contact me.

Guys, what is te function of the pnp sensor?

Thanks for the feed back.
Well the flashing arrow has now stopped and the gears seem to be shifting fine for now. However, the starting problem is still there. If I have received these codes correctly I got 121 off #2, 212, 213, and 214 off #3, and 122 of #7. Same symptoms. I'll go out in the morning and it will start just fine, run ok, and when I stop after driving and go back to start the car (ike after getting gass or running in someplace) it will turn over but not start. Sometimes it will start and run for a couple seconds really rough and then die. Eventually after a while it will start and run fine. Any suggestions?

http://volvospeed.com/Repair/pnpswitch.php
http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/chat/phpB...p?p=57963#57963

"P"ark "N"eutral "P"osition switch
... thats what the haynes book stated

read through these links for lotsa info.

it seems that if the PNP is out of adjustment/alignment these 850's will act up quite a bit. a friend of mine picked up his 850 sedan super cheap because the seller didnt want to fix it, thought the tranny was fried, it wasn't. ($2000 for a '94 850 sedan w/ 100k) lucky fella, eh?!! he fixed the PNP and it has been driving great for 2 years.

good luck!

Thanks, woodsytf. Very informative! :thumbsup:

Have you considered a faulty coolant temperature sensor?

If the coolant temperature sensor has gone faulty, the vehicle will generally start O.K. but, as the the coolant comes up to normal operating temperature, the faulty sensor 'tells' the EMU (engine management unit) the engine is still cold and as a result the EMU will provide the engine with a rich mixture to keep what it sees as a 'cold' engine running. But a rich mixture to a hot engine has quite the opposite effect and because of this rich mixture, the engine will start to falter and in many cases will cut out.

DTC socket#2; fault code 1-2-1 = MAF sensor absent or faulty
DTC socket#3; fault code 2-1-2 = RH front wheel sensor - no signal when moving off
DTC socket#3; fault code 2-1-3 = LH rear wheel sensor - no signal when moving off
DTC socket#3; fault code 2-1-4 = RH rear wheel sensor - no signal when moving off
DTC socket#7; fault code 1-2-2 = Temperature signal interval too long

Try to cancel these stored fault codes and see which of these fault codes ones will cancel (hopefully, all of them) and which fault codes won't.

This will give you some idea of what to do next.

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the fault codes thrown by the wheel sensors as these crop up with regular monotony - just cancel them as they will probably show up again in the not-too-distant-future anyway.