Reading Mileage from a 1997 Volvo 850R
I'm a huge fan of Volvo 850's, but they aren't without a few flaws. One of them is the odometer: the mechanical odometer is driven by a small electric motor in the gauge cluster, and it has a tiny nylon gear that loses a tooth, causing it to stop counting miles. Fixing it costs a couple of bucks, but it's a pain. The dash has to come out, which takes a couple of hours, and comes with the inherent risk of breaking things. As a result, there are many 850's on the road with inaccurate odometers. Pre-OBDII Volvo 850's (1993-1995) provide the ability to plug in a fly wire under the hood, press a special button pattern, and then watch an LED blink back the mileage, which is stored digitally in the gauge cluster. Then, you can fix the odometer gear, and roll up the mileage to the correct number in the process. Sadly, OBDII Volvo 850's (1996-1997) lack the fly wire, button, and LED. Fortunately, there's a way to read the mileage through the OBDII port wit