Hello all,

I've still been driving my 850 since I bought it off my dad with hours of cutting the grass and other odd jobs when I was a junior in high school (~8 years ago!). I finally got myself a real job and now have some (granted, not a lot) of money that I can put towards getting my car back in top shape by fixing all those little nagging things that I've never had the spare cash to work on.

I was thinking that I'd find a local Volvo mechanic and ask him/her to do some sort of inspection to try to get a list of things that I should consider doing/need to be done to keep this car going. For example, I think the lining around the turbo fan is starting to degrade (sometimes after idling for awhile I can see some blue-ish smoke when I accelerate, my guess is oil leaking around the seal into the engine proper). Anyone think that is a bad idea or that I should consider something else?

Any tips would be appreciated!

 

A friend suggested getting one of those little diagnostic plug ins and seeing what that would have to say as well. Anyone have any experience doing that?

 

Hi and Welcome to the forum.

I know you are not a new owner but you might want to start here.

 

owners manual warns us not to let these cars sit and idle so try not to do that. Turn it off if you are going to be stopped for longer than 3 minutes.

Not sure of your climate but if it doesn't get below 0°, I suggest you use 10W-40 oil.

If you have had the car for 8 years, you already know what is wrong with it, shouldn't need anyone to tell you. I'd start with a full tune up and go from there. Tune up, brakes, suspension, etc.

 

Ditto