Hi everyone,

I've a '96 850 Wagon and she's treated me quite well. Unfortunately, someone disrespected her and blew out the tailgate window. Glass shops want, appropriately, $850+installation to replace the glass, so I'm going to try to do it myself. Thanks to this forum, I realize that it's a bad idea to try to replace the glass without experience -- I found the same model car in my local junker, and will try to just swap the whole tailgate door. UNFORTUNATELY and of course, the handle's broken on that sucker...but there's also a pristine 2002 V70 in the junkyard. Does anyone know if the '96 850 Wagon and the '02 V70 hatch doors are compatible?

It appears that the 3rd tail light is located differently, as is the mister, but mechanically, they appear quite similar. Any advice? Or should I just take the broken '96 door and swap out the door handles? I'm pretty novice on all this, but I can be crafty/thrifty when I need to be. Which is always. Because I am poor.

Many thanks!
Eric

 

I'm in the same situation....broken tail gate window.

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...attered-82353/

 

It's a damn bummer, man. I'd read elsewhere on this indefinite void called the Internet that the 850 and the V70 ARE compatible -- and when I was taking the V70 apart at the junkyard yesterday, that appeared to be the case...I'll let you know if/when that happens.

And for the record, the junker door was about $85, plus $15 for new suspension arms, which my wagon needed, anyway.

 

Yes please let me know if that is the case.....the 850 and v70 are interchangeable. If you can provide a link of that, that would be great. It would just open up more options. My g/f thinks she found a v70 hatch, our color, naultic blue. The guys at that junk yard asked her if our had a sensor on it. I didn't know what to make of that, or what the sensor could be for, or what it was in reference to. I'll post here about that when I find out. We are suppose to go down there today to see about it, we'll see. Price quoted to her for the hatch w/ glass......$100. I wonder if they could change them out and how much they'd charge for that. Will advise.

Bob

 

Hey,

Just to let you know, the hatches were NOT interchangeable -- I've been back and forth to the dump 4 times, took my old door off, tried to fit that sucker on, and to no avail. $85 in the toilet. I'm going to hold out for another 850 to arrive at the junker, but until then, it's plastic sheeting for me. Blah.

Good luck!

 

The 96 850 and 02 V70 are two generations apart. your 96 shares parts from 94-97, the 98-00 V70s share, and then the 01-07s... The sensor they are talking about is that the V70s came with a glass breakage sensor... You should be able to find an 850 tailgate - use Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market - it will list prices, exchangeable years and you can search for yards geographically. Also, bookmark Shop OEM Volvo parts & accessories ? Volvo Parts Warehouse - you can search part numbers by year and get good diagrams as well. Another trick is to search ebay as many stores will list compatible model years.

 

MT - Thanks for the info and the links. Although I realize your post was in part directed at the OP'er - but I will use them in my aide in trying to expand my options as to what car one can be gotten from if the one that the yard has gotten for us doesn't work, and to aide in installation if it's expensive for them to do it. But I can't imagine trying to buy a hatch from a place non local and having it shipped to me, so I'll probably avoid that option.

 

Something I've found to be strange is that with the rear hatch window missing, I've noticed a weird smell, especially during acceleration. The close thing I can compare it to is ammonia. Note; it might have something to do w/ my low compression in my #1 cyl which I think is due to a bad intake valve seal. It's one of many things on my list of things that need fixing. That one will just have to wait until I have to $ to do it.

 

did you try a compression test on the #1 cylinder without and with a small amount of oil (ie a tablespoon or so)? the idea is if you put a small amount of oil into the spark plug hole then run the compression test, the oil will help weak rings completely seal for a bit raising the measurement. If you have a bad valve, it won't change. You mentioned the valve seal - normally that refers to the seal around the valve stem that sits on top of the valve guide - when those wear out you can get a small oil leak into the combustion chamber when the car is cooling off - leading to a puff of smoke during start up - but that's not in play for compression. (old BMWs were notorious for leaky valve seals - they'd put out a blue puff when the driver lifted the throttle on a downshift...).

 

Wow, this thread took a turn.

As for the rear hatch, all of the '93 - '00 will work.

 

Volvo does not allow rear windows to open for safety reasons. Exhaust gases and such will circulate into the car...

If you have a burnt valve at #1, it would be best to unplug the fuel injector for that cylinder to avoid dumping raw fuel into the exhaust.

 

 

Not to hijack this thread from emill24; I'm sure he and I will continue to chime in about our rear hatch problem and things we find out ( I will below ) but to answer the above qoute....

Yes, I've done a compression test, first w/o, then w/ oil squirted into the cyl. The compression did not go up. But also, I have not noticed blue smoke coming from the exhaust during start up or any other time.

I got this car in May of last year (2014) from someone locally that belongs to a 'Volvo club' based out of a synagogue that buys Volvos that have had a problem, like a blown head gasket (in my case), does the repairs, then resells them. When I test drove my V70 the check engine light was on and I felt it missing slightly. I asked if the gentleman if he had a code reader so I could see if there were any codes. It said missing in #1 cyl., but I already could tell that. So I asked if I could take it to a shop around the corner to have it checked it out, and he said "sure". While there, they took all the plugs out and they all seemed fine w/ no sign of oil in any of the cyl.'s. They performed a compression and leak down test and both were fine. For a while they couldn't figure out why it was missing. They also checked the fuel injectors. Upon a second inspection of the plugs, they discovered the #1 cyl.'s plug white insulator was loose. When you'd hold it right side up, it covered the tip of the plug. When you'd turn it upside down, the insulator would fall back to where it was suppose to be. I thought, cool, it just needs a new plug. I bought it, drove it home, and didn't drive it for a couple of days. The next time I drove it to go get some plugs, on the way back, on the freeway, the check engine light started blinking and the service light came on. When I got home to change the plugs I discovered the #1 cyl plug was oil soaked! I took it back to Nick at the 'volvo club' and we did the compression checks as described above in the first sentence of this post. While there, I saw how he 'adjusted' the gap of his plugs if it needed to be closed some.....by banging it against the concrete bench that was there where he worked on the cars! :O This is probably why the insulator was loose on my #1 cyl.'s plug. I pointed this out to him and we figured by the insulator going up and down w/ the compression strokes, likely a little piece of the ceramic insulator had chipped off and done some damage to the intake valve of that cyl. I say this because there was also a ping noise that sometimes occurred about every 10 seconds in the intake manifold. It is probably that chip of ceramic insulator bouncing around in there. He refused to refund me my $ and take back the car, saying it was fine when I bought it, but I got him to agree that if I bought the parts (head gasket kit set, etc.) he would do the work if I helped him. But later when I would try to get him to commit to a time to help me do the work on it, he always had an excuse as to why he couldn't.

The reason I've explained all of this is to show a lesson learned that maybe others can benefit from, which is, don't drive the car AT ALL if a similar situation is found until you change the plugs.

Nick said, "Don't worry, you can keep driving it w/ no problem, it's not going to do anything". Except for the slight missing, it's seemed to have driven okay. It probably doesn't have as much power as it should, but other than that, I hadn't put much thought into it, since I haven't, and still don't yet, have the money to have the work done on it to fix it. I've known that w/ the check engine light on, it's not going to pass smog when I have to have it smogged, and am hoping that it won't be this year when my registration renewal is due since it had a new smog certificate before I bought it.

I haven't thought about it much until recently since the rear window has been gone, but now, w/ the un-burnt fuel having gone through the cyl., it likely has done damage to my catalytic converter, which is likely why there is a weird, sometimes strong smell w/ the rear window missing. I've recently read that this kind of situation can lead to a smell ranging from a slight sulfur smell to a stronger smell, more like rotten eggs. I asked my girlfriend if it smelled like that to her and told her, to me, it smells like ammonia. She said, "No, to me it just smells like gas." I guess I will disconnect the fuel injection connection today to prevent it from doing anymore damage and hopefully it won't miss anymore that it already is.

Also, another lesson for others, I probably should have disconnected the fuel injection connection right away to prevent any un-burnt fuel from going through the cyl.

Back to the topic of this thread.....I found a junk yard that has a hatch like mine w/ no glass in it for $160 and just the rear glass window for $140. They said a place three doors down can probably put the glass in. Since the glass got shattered the hatch hasn't been locking / engaging, i.e., when the hatch is closed (even hard) you can still just lift it up w/o having to use the handle or door switch to open it, but I figure it is due to the inside hatch interior cover being loose when it happened, or that there is still some broken glass pieces in there in the bottom of the hatch, which I know to be true. I figure I will just buy the rear glass and pay the other place three doors down to install it onto my hatch.

Bob

 

So, let me get this straight... you purchased a car will a known misfire. Also started a car with a known bad spark plug? I really hope you didn't pay more than $500 for the car.


A rear hatch can be purchased from a self serve junk yard for $50. Replace the entire thing, regardless of the color.


The guy that sold you that car didn't refund the money 3 days later, likely because he didn't have the money. People that live from week to week, as 70% of American's do, spend money daily.


The lesion I see here is... do not purchase a car that has a CEL or misfire that you are not able to fix yourself. Unless you pay salvage yard price.


Also, the plug was not oil soaked, but fuel soaked. That is a common misdiagnosis's.


Last but not least, I don't think there is no such thing as a slight miss. It's missing or not. One cylinder missing is drivable, 2 is horrible and not drivable.


Get the head off and replace the burnt / damaged valve.

 

You're probably right, I shouldn't have bought the car. But I figured it just needed a spark plug. The plug was oil soaked. When the plug was taken out and I touched the wetness on the plug it was brown, oil, not gas. I can tell the difference.

Thank you for the advise of checking a pick your own part place like Ecology. I run a small business and my g/f, who is pretty capable of looking into such things, went down to the part of town where the junk yards are to check into it. But I will do that and see what the price is.