Dear All,

I am wondering if someone has an expertise in the following situations:

My car: 1994 850 Turbo T5 Sedan, Auto-tranny, 143,000 plus miles

Problem-1:
I have tried to replace flexible brake hoses and had to give it up. The hoses for both rear wheels are almost out of reach, I wonder if Volvo techs use special tools. The hose for the rear right brake is placed in the middle of nowhere, and long lateral control arm and the fuel tank are in the way, making it almost impossible to reach the connections (ended up braking off a plastic bracket that holds the connection). As for the fronts, I used flarenut wrenches and the connection still stripped (The wrenches were Craftsman Professional flarenut). I also tried vise-grip, but the metal tubing began to twist, and I stopped there. The only way to replace flexible brake hoses on this car seems to sever the metal tubing and replace the entire brake line. If someone has a revolutionary idea, I really appreciate your knowledge.

Problem-2:
The turbo unit seems to have a leak somewhere. When I floor the accelerator, I smell something like gun powder. It usually occurs at higher RPM (above 4,000 RPM), but once in a while it occurs at lower RPM/slower speeds as well. The turbo unit has minor oil seepage on the bottom.

Problem-3:
The car produces high-pitched noise every time it goes over a bump, seems to be coming from the left front area. Recently I have nearly rebuilt the front suspensions and there were no traces of the culprit. When the car is parked, I push down on the front of the car and I can hear it. It sort of sounds like it's coming from inside the fender.

I appreciate any suggestions.

Best regards,

JPN

 

1. Soak the lines very good with rust penetrant and try again. Yes the Rears are a pain. You might even need Heat to get them loose.


2.Sounds like you might be running rich. That might be caused by a Vaccum leak. Check all hoses really well.

3.Sounds like either a bad Strut cap(spring seat) or bad sway bar links.

 

Dear Mr. Tech,

Thank you very much for your expertise, I always appreciate your advice.

As for the brake hoses, especially the rear, I gave up on replacing them by myself. With my current skills & tools (not to mention Haynes manual), I figured that it is beyond my ability. Both the rear hoses are installed in such odd places & angles. As for the fronts, I might try using PB Blaster and propane torch, but I never thought that a flarenut wrench would strip a brake line connection. I wonder if Snap-on wrenches would have made a difference. The hoses only have superficial cracks, so it is not imminent to replace them.

As for the Turbo, I'll check the vacuum connections to see if there are loose connections. But this particular car doesn't have much vacuum hoses, only a few under the throttle valve cover. Judging from the gun-powder smell, I am assuming that there may be a leak around the turbine and hose connections.

As for the front-end noise, there are no visible signs so far (chafing, scratches, rubbing, etc...). Almost all front suspension components have been replaced recently, including the upper spring seats, upper strut mounts, the tower caps, special washers, bump stops, and ball joints with all new hardware (self-lock nuts & bolts). The only thing that was not replaced was the sway-bar links, but the boots on the links are in good shape and there are no visible marks around them. The noise sounds like it is coming from inside the fender, or around the bumper unit.

I'll let you know how things went when I'm done. Thank you once again.

Sincerely,


JPN from Yokohama, Japan (currently in Chicago).

 

With the car in the Air pull down on the sway bar and see if you feel any clicking or movement out of the sway bar links. If so then most likely the sway bar links are the cause of the noise.

 

Dear Mr. Tech,

Thank you again for all your advice and taking time to reply.

As for the brake hoses, I decided to postpone until they really quit. I just flushed the brake fluid using Motive Products' Power Bleeder. For the brake fluid, I used ATE's DOT-4 Blue Racing and it was easy to do, as the fluid had different color than the original. Some gunk (half solidified) came out of the bleed valve, and I assumed that the fluid was original from the factory. The brake pedal, though, didn't feel much different before & after the job, even though I followed the instruction precisely and made sure that there were no bubbles coming out of the bleed valve. The pedal has about 2 inches of free play, and the brakes start working after that free play and gets stronger as I press the pedal harder, so it does stop the car ok. I wonder if there is still some air trapped in the system, or if the master cylinder is in need of servicing in the near future.

As for the turbo, I still don't know where the gun-powder smell is coming from. I'll do a bit more inspection around vacuum connections. I read previous threads and found your entry describing that the oil seepage from the turbo inlet is normal, so that took off my concerns a bit. But I really like to have a fluid leak-free engine.

I found the culprit for the front-end noise. It was actually a bolt that was not engaged with one of the front bumper attachments. I found it by accident, when I was inspecting around the turbo unit from underneath the car. So I tightened the bolt and the noise has disappeared.

Today, I went to a Volvo dealer to have wheel alignment done. It was not cheap, but when it comes to precision tasks I don't go to generic garages. One wheel was slightly out of spec, and after the alignment was done the difference was noticeable. The car now handles much more precisely than it did before the job. I made sure to receive the readout from the test equipment, and the technician was happy to give it to me.

Now there are only a couple of things I need to fix on this car. I'll clean up the bottom of the engine with degreaser to make it easier to detect fluid leaks. ABS light has been on for a long time, I assume it's either the module or one of the wheel speed sensors (both are ridiculously expensive and seem to have poor reputation). Check Engine light also came back on, after about 3 weeks since I changed the distributor cap, rotor and plug wires (plugs were replaced with Bosch Platinum last month). I do not notice difference in drivability, so I'm assuming it's O2 sensor (about $200 each, front & rear). I think I can get the code for ABS, but for the engine I don't think the diagnosis terminal in the engine compartment works on 1994 models, and the diagnosis plug in the center console requires special code reader, different from the current one (OBD-2 came in effect after 1996?).

It's starting to get cold in Chicago area, so I'll have to find good days to work on the car, on my days off.

Thank you once again for your expertise.

Best regards,


JPN

 

You should be able to pull codes. OBDII didn't start till mid year 1995.