Hi, new to this forum...also use Matthewsvolvosite. I am super stoked to finally be a volvo owner after months and months of waiting for the right deal.

I bought a 1994 850 Nonturbo, stock everything (I am not a fan of "tricked out" cars) has brand new timing belt, struts, brakes and 125080 mi on it. The only drawback is that today, here in Richmond VA its 85 degrees and I found out the AC does not work.

Can anyone help me out on some suggestions as to how to determine the issue here? I have a Haynes Manuel and am somewhat car savvy, and ready to get my hands dirty!

Thanks for the anticipated help - Forum Looks great Espeicallly MadeInJapan and Tech's posts - already been huge help with some minor issues!

PS: is there any way to tell if your water pump has been replaced?

 

Hi,

I'm not "MadeInJapan" but was born in Japan.

Glad you've found the right deal. As to the A/C, unfortunately on 850 it is guaranteed to fail due to poor design of the evaporator. The evaporator on 850 is embedded in the deepest abyss of the dash and much of the dash has to come out before you can get to it. It is a good 1~2 day job. I'll list some useful URLs:

Evaporator: https://volvoforums.com/m_7364/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm
Comp re-shimming: https://volvoforums.com/m_34431/tm.htm
Parts: http://www.fcpgroton.com/VolvoAC/volvo850ac.htm

The evaporator is at $139 at FCP Groton, and I'm not sure who makes them but you get what you pay for. You might want to do a bit more research before deciding to buy one from Groton. I would also replace the receiver/dryer unit. The compressor may also need to be re-shimmed.

As for water pump, I'm not sure if there's a way to tell whether it has been replaced or not, unless the car came with a maintenance record. However, the water pump on 850 seems to go forever, though I had to replace mine at 143,000 miles. I used Hepu (made in Germany) water pump, but if you need one, I would go with genuine Volvo.

Also, participate in the 850 forum for better & more frequent replies, as this is new members' greetings area and is somewhat dismal.

Good luck,


JPN

 

My son in law talked to the Service Manger at the Volvo dealer about the evaporator, and they actually recommended going aftermarket for the evaporator. Said they have never seen and aftermarket one fail, while the OEM ones fail quite a bit. First thing you want to do is determine if the compressor is good. Do this byjumping the switch on the firewall. You can find a writeup on how to do this on the 850 forum. If the compressor comes on, try putting in some R134A and see if that gets it working. You can buy a cheap kit at an auto parts store. When I did that last year, mine worked four about three days then it quit again. I pretty much knew that meant the evaporator was bad. I paid $1200 to have mine replaced.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.