Sometimes your 850 windows may start playing up.
The symptom discussed here is that the window tends to be OK winding down, but not up.
This is most often the driver's window, which of course gets the most action.
It at first appears intermittently, and gets worse.

The problem is most likely in the switches in the centre console.
The contact points carry a fair bit of current and over time they can lose the will to stop feeding power to your window motor.
The reason why the upwards movement is most affected is that this is the contacts that deliver the most current, as the motor does more work to raise than to lower the window.

There is a temporary fix, that may or may not work.
The problem may not be strictly related to worn contacts.

You may think that it might be good to spray WD40 or some similar into the switches. DON'T.
This will only make the problem worse and may stop the upward movement of the window completely.

What you can do is hit the contacts with a hair dryer.
Heat up the whole region a fair bit, but not so much as you start ruining the walnut veneer!
The switches themselves can take a bit of heat: I used the wife's hairdryer with one of those concentrater attachment thingies.
Move the switch back and forth with your bare hands whilst you are switching the switch back and forth with the ignition OFF.
If it gets too hot for your finger then move the air stream to the alternate side of the switch (and use a different finger!).
The reason I say to just use your bare hands is that if you are moderating your hot air to the switch area to save your fingers then you probably aren't going to melt or delaminate anything.

The hot air gets rid of any moisture that may be causing lack of conductivity.
An alternative would be to try and blow the switch units clear of filth at the service station, with an air compressor.
If it's just garbage in the switch, this may also work.
[You may have been careless with that mud-chocolate donut... mmmm]
In any case, either solution may also move any little bits of crap that have fallen into the way, thereby giving your contacts free reign to operate.

But of course, sometimes the contacts themselves are too worn and it's a lost cause.
Then you have to buy the entire switch assembly (i.e. $$$ as it's a sealed unit... at least a couple of hundred aussie $'s. Unless you are quite skilled with electrics and fabrication, and can recondition the unit yourself. Can anyone out there report on having done this?).
Volvo is one manufacturer who loves to amalgamate small probs so that they become larger more expensive ones.
So much for eco-sensitivity.

Also check out the OzBrick page from Chris on the V70 switches, where Volvo with similar finesse have incorporated the fuel cap door electric line into the driver's window switch!

If this quick fix works, of course this beats buying a new switchgear unit (and installing it, which is a bit of a pain too, as you basically have to take apart the centre console. Haynes manuals for the Volvo 850 have adequate instructions on how to do this.)

 

If the quick fix doesn't work, there is another way to fix the switches without resorting to buying a whole new switch cluster. But it's not as quick! Here's a page on reconditioning the center console window switches.

 

Good luck
Michael
OzBrick