Hello,

I have been looking for my next car. I've had acura, saab, subaru, mercedes, and mazda.....Non of them were perfect for me. All of the cars that I owned have their own characters though.
I have been looking some bmws then I saw a 850r on craigslist.
I've always curious about volvo 850r when I had my saab.

I read the sticky, buyers guide, and I need to check RMS, Clutch & Oil Leaks....can I find it out just looking at below the car without lifting? I know I better take the car for PPI, but I am just wondering whether it's easy to check it.
Do 850R came with manual? I've only seend automatic...

How strong is automatic tranny of 850r? I am a fan of manual, and I don't really like buying an used car with automatic, but I guess I don't have that much choice when it comes to 850r.

And last....how happy are you guys with your 850r???

Please let me know.

Thank you.

 

Would be best to look at it on a lift.
The Auto's are ok overall.
I would convert to a manual like I did.
I love my car. There is alot of mods you can do but they are a little pricey.

 

The 850R sucks!! you'd never want to own one!! tranny is no good for soo much power!. Volvo? why would you want a Volvo when you can buy a Yugo?

Now.. where is that ad on craig's list??? LOL

I'm sure others on the forum have more to offer than I. I did see the car I really wanted in Solomons Island, Maryland. A V70R with a 5 speed. Wow a wagon with a 5 speed. This midlife crisis is hell.

 

The auto trannies can handle the power. There are lots of 850R on VS that are heavily modded and pushing close to 300hp with auto trannys. And R's don't really have that much power, they're not that much stronger than the Turbos/T5s.

 

The R is only about 20 more HP than the regular Turbo model.
I estimate I am pushing 280HP at the motor and tranny was still holding up when I pulled it to swap the manual in.

 

Thank you for the advice.
So I need to take the car for PPI if I really like the car.
I chose 850r over other models, not because of only the 20more hp, but the uniqueness of the interior&exterior.
I am glad to hear the auto tranny is good.
I will check the car and inform here how it was.

Thank you.

 

I just had a phone conversation with the owner, and he seems know about his car pretty good. He answered all of my questions. He said he worked on his car most of time, and took care of the car very well.
When I asked about the main seal, he said that it had leak at 60k miles and dealer fixed it with better parts and no leak since then.
He also said that pcv system only go bad if owner doesn't take care of the car. He said the car has no problem with pcv system right now.
So I am going to test drive it tonight and see how is the car.
I hope it's well taken care of like the owner said.

If I can't find a volvo specialist shop around the owners house for PPI or diagnostic check, can I just take the car to any shop??

 

Sounds like the guy really knows the car, which is always a good thing.

And yeah, just take it to an Autozone who will pull the codes for you for free, or at least they should.

 

Try to find a shop that knows a little about Volvo's in the area to look it over. This way they can check the common problems.

 

I found a good volvo shop near his house. After I test drive and check the car, if I like it, I will ask the owner for permission to take the car and do PPI.
Thank you for all the advice.

 

Hopefully all goes well!

 

Hi, I just got back from test driving. Unfortunately, it was rainning really hard so I couldn't push the car the way I wanted.
However, the car was in really good shape for the age. The owner was an old guy with a really nice garage. He explained stuff that had problems with the car, and he repaired all of the problems. He is the 2nd owner and he had the car since 1998.
I am going to take the car to a shop on Tuesday, and if it comes out ok, I will negociate the price and go from there.

I have a few more questions from test driving.
1. He upgraded the front brakes with 308mm one so it stop pretty good, but the rear brake ceramic pads made squeak noise sometimes. Should I concern about this?
2. AC blows cold, but when I turned on the engine and turned on the AC, I heard this click sounds. It sounded like something turned on and off around the engine bay. Is this normal?
3. While I was driving the HWY, I tried to step on gas, but car didn't really go. I didn't floored it due to heavy rainning, but I expected more from a car that has 240hp. The turbo gauge goes slight over the white line, transmission shifted smooth, but car seemed lack of power.
After I finished driving, I found out that I had been driving the car with economic mod....how much differenced does this eco and performance mode make?
I just didn't feel any punching power or go power of turbo car when I drove it. Any advice on this?
4. When I tried to park the car, I heard buzzing noise coming from either engine bay or instrument pannel, but it was rainning and hard to tell what it was. Any idea on this?

I liked it, except the power of the car. I guess PPI will give me good answer on some of the things that I asked, but I would like to know what you guys think about it.

Thank you.

 

If the brakes didn't squeak at least once or twice, then I would question the fact if you were even driving a Volvo. Squeaky brakes is common, different pads or anti-squeak brake fluid will solve that. The only thing sport mode does is allows higher RPMs before shifting. It may need a tune up. The needle "should" go about half way into the white, it could have a small vac leak somewhere, but at the same time, all cars are different.

 

Have the PPI done and drive it in the dry.

 

Thank you for the reply.
I actually don't really remember how the turbo gauge looked like, but I remember the needle went more than half.
If it has vacuum leak, can PPI find it out?
Only difference between sport mode and eco mode is the shifting point of tranny, then this car has some issue with power. It didn't feel like driving 240hp car.
I had a saab with manual, and it had 189hp, but it felt great. I could feel the turbo kicked in. I didn't feel anything like that with the volvo, and throttle response was somewhat lame. I thought it was like that because it's an automatic, but I guess that is not the problem.

 

They might be able to find it mention it to the shop when you take it in.

 

Ok, I will. How much does PPI usually cost?
What do they check?

 

My shop charges like $45.00 but I believe other shops vary.
We check the entire car over mechanical and body wise.

 

I called 2 different places for PPI, and one shop estimated $135 and another one was $55 so I am taking the car to a shop that costs $55 tomorrow. I told the mechanic that I felt like the car has no power, he said that he will test drive it and check it for me.
I really wish to drive another 850r so I know whether the car has some power issue or not. I just don't know how automatic should feel since I've driven only manual cars....

What is the differences between diagnostic check and PPI?? I believe PPI is just visual inspection....then what is diagnostic check?

 

It mainly depends on the shop doing it and what they look for.