S90/960 - Advice please!

[WHM]

Hi
I'd appreciate any advice on the best thing to do with my 1998 S90. The car has done about 138k with a full history, and was a daily driver until 18 months ago. It's been standing since then.
The car won't start unless you remove the starter motor relay and 'jump' it - the flashing arrow is on the dash. I understand that the problem is the quadrant switch, and I have obtained one but not yet fitted it.
The car is a bit scruffy now and in particular has a dent in the passenger door. I have various spares as well as 4 doors, bonnet and bootlid in the same blackcurrant colour with a gold pinstripe (the car is "luxury" spec, so it has a nice set of the wheels unique to the model).
I originally planned to give the car a sympathetic restoration but no longer have the time. I don't want to scrap it or sell/give it to anyone who would scrap it. I'm aware that the wheels themselves are worth money. I'd want it to go to someone who would fix it and use the spare panels etc to make it nice again. Am I being naïve here?

[griston64]

The forum is a good place to offer your car as most people on here are keen to keep these cars on the road

I'm sure someone on here will give it the TLC it's needing

Cheers, Mark

[WHM]

Thanks Mark. That’s what I was hoping. It’s a nice car actually, I just don’t have any free time any more to sort it out

[griston64]

Get some pictures up and some more info

I'm sure it will get some interest

[CharlesStevenson]

You mentioned quadrant switch, by that do you mean something related to the auto selector?

I ask because a 740 auto I had developed a problem with not wanting to turn the starter over, whether the selector was in neutral or park.

I stripped the centre console back and discovered that over time (+200k) the connections that the selector moves past weren't making contact correctly.

As a quick fix I'd 'wiggle' the selector with the trim off (because it allowed more sideways movement) and it would spin the starter every time.

Could this be a 'cure' for the problem you describe?

[rwdkev]

Originally Posted by CharlesStevenson

You mentioned quadrant switch, by that do you mean something related to the auto selector?

Yes, and it's often also referred to as the starter inhibitor switch

Originally Posted by CharlesStevenson

....740 auto I had developed a problem with not wanting to turn the starter over, whether the selector was in neutral or park.

When it's working correctly, the switch is designed to prevent starter motor from operating in all positions except P and N on earlier cars and P only on later cars. It also operates the reversing lights when in R.

Originally Posted by CharlesStevenson

Could this be a 'cure' for the problem you describe?

The other common problem is the contacts getting covered in sh*t or suffering from corrosion and significantly increasing the electrical resistance of the switch. Sometimes this can be overcome by moving the lever repeatedly backwards and forwards (as opposed to the previously mentioned side-to-side) which temporarily "cleans" the contacts.

Originally Posted by WHM

- the flashing arrow is on the dash.

When the gearbox ECU senses a resistance higher than normal on what should be a closed switch position, it stores a fault code and sets-off the orange warning light in the instrument cluster. The orange indicator lights for the gearbox mode switches (E, S & W) will also flash. The gearbox will be set to limp-home mode but it's still driveable and will start-off in 3rd gear (like W).