Being a vintage Volvo wagon addict, I adopted a 1995 850 several years ago. I didn’t realize it for months until after taking turns driving my old 1990 760, the 740, and then the 850 (close together in time) that the Up&Down driver seat button doesn’t function. By comparison I feel dwarfed in the 850. Having lots of experience doing my own repairs I started out one day with manuals and a plan to fix this myself. But it didn’t take long to get scared off by all the warnings about the need to take it to a Volvo dealer owing to the potential danger of the side impact bag being accidentally activated. I asked a local Volvo specialist about replacing the entire seat and he said he could probably repair it himself but it would probably be several hundred dollars. Then, in a distracted online frenzy, I bid on and won a fully functional seat bottom. I’ve tripped over that box in the garage for about a year now. Is this a job that a cautious, average Joe can do?
Thanks,
Carter
It’s not very hard to replace a seat, but before you go to all the trouble, find the wire for the power seat and see if it’s broken - sometimes the wire gets out of place, and the seat rolls over its own wire, which eventually cuts it. Twist the wire back together with a wire nut and secure it with some electrical tape and you have it working again without having to replace it.