Hey all, I'm thinking about buying a 95 wagon found here:1995 Volvo 850 wagon. I checked it out today, but unfortunately it was dark and raining. The car has 250K miles and it's owner bought it from a Volvo tech. I inquired about timing belt age, and he said he'd look through his paperwork. He says it might need a drivers front caliper, I didn't feel it in the brief drive around the block. It may be a Volvo thing, but the accelerator felt very heavy. I've read the stickies and was wondering if there were other considerations to take with much higher mileage 850s. I think this car is a good deal, and would like to buy it. Any thoughts?

-Charlie

 

Check out this video. If you are not able or willing to do work on your car yourself, do NOT purchase one of these cars. They are old and needs care, service, and repairs monthly. The mileage is not the issue, age is.

 

Ditto what RSPi said. If you do not like working on cars, don't buy it. That being said, they are fantastic cars that are great daily drivers once all the mechanical / maintenance items are addressed. My 1996 850 Turbo Wagon just turned 262K miles on the original engine & auto trans and still runs like a bat out of hell.

 

Oh, yea, I meant to add... if you enjoy driving, get a turbo model.

 

I do like to drive, but I arrived at this volvo more because it's cheap and in my area. A decent Turbo isnt in the budget at this time. I know the A/C is tied to the defroster, but if it ends up being bad, is there any detriment to simply bypassing the condenser?

 

There's no benefit to bypassing the condenser, so the detriment would be that it doesn't make any sense to do so, and it's a waste of time. Nobody does that. You certainly don't want the compressor operating in a closed freon system with no heat removal. That would be hazardous to the remaining components.

If the A/C is bad, and you want to "do something" to deactivate something, then you could unplug the compressor electrically.

 

Some more general feedback on that ad is I just bought 4 of those cars this summer for fun, to see if I could fix them. That looks like a great deal price-wise. Fair warning, I love to work on cars. To me, there is no risk buying a running car for $850, and I would buy that without any anxiety. There is plenty of risk in taking it to a mechanic (ever). You can never do that.

 

I think I meant bypassing the compressor, by using a shorter belt. My 2001 Outback had a bad AC pump, so I got a non-ac belt that simply routed around it.

I don't have loads of experience in working on cars but I've done brakes/struts and I am mechanically inclined. I'd much rather get this than some Century or Tercel for the same price.

 

Based on the fact that you can do some work yourself, you will likely love this car. I still say get a turbo. If you have done STRUTS and brakes, you can do anything on these cars. Many of the owners have done some great DIY tutorials.

 

Just for kicks, you might want to check to make sure that's the actual mileage. At a certain point, the mileage doesn't really matter...250k vs. 275k isn't really a big deal. Personally, I just like to know.

https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...0-volvo-27012/

Also, for what it's worth, my current ride has 220k on it, and I wouldn't hesitate to drive it to Florida tomorrow. The one I had before this had over 225k, and I drove it to L.A. a couple times, and once to New Mexico. As has been mentioned, mileage isn't the concern. Maintain it, and it will run forever.

Finally, my personal opinion on timing belts...

Unless they have a reciept from a shop, I always put one on. Just having a reciept from the parts store, and saying "Yeah, I put one on" doesn't guarantee anything. Given that a timing belt is cheap (just bought one on rockauto.com for $10, shipped), and the damage that will result from it breaking is very much not cheap, I don't like to take the chance. And if you want to check the timing belt, pull one bolt and the cover comes right off. If the parts are new, you can generally tell.

 

Let's say the parts don't look new and the last documented belt change was over 30,000 miles ago; would I replace just the belt or the tensioner and idler assys as well?

 

When I got my car @ 188k, I checked the ACTUAL mileage with the diagnosis port under the hood and it was the same. Then I checked the last belt change sticker which was @ 130,000. So I changed mine at 205k, which is 5k over. The person that had the car registered before me was an older fire chief so I figured he had ALL parts changed. When I did the belt I checked (tested) all of the parts and ended up replacing the belt & idler roller only.

Replacing the belt only is a risk not worth taking. I usually recommend the belt and both rollers. Then the water pump if it is leaking or more than 10 years old. Then the tensioner if it is leaking or over 10 years old.

My guess is that the belt actually breaks on its own less than 20% of the time. Usually one of the rollers fail to toss the belt.

 

 

I bought it!

I do get a little smoke from the dipstick tube, so the PCV overhaul is on the list of things to do. Also the driver's side seat heater doesn't work, the radio volume **** is loose causing static/dropped right channel, and the washer sprayers are pretty pitiful. If I put a grand in and bring my total investment up to the blue book value I should have a pretty nice car!

 

Lol, I call that the short list.

I put '99 S70 washer sprayers on my car.

Does the radio have the CD player?

 

 

No CD player, its the Base radio. I pulled it out and opened it up, turns out the nut holding the volume ****/potentiometer/circuit board was pretty loose. Tightened it up and all is well. Occasionally the right channel cuts out still, but I can at least hear the radio. Is there a way to solder in an aux input on the base radio, or is that only on the "Premium Sound System" unit?

How labor intensive was retrofitting the '99 S70 washers?

 

The radio can be upgraded from all the 850's, 70 series cars and the 960 series cars.

Yes you can add an Aux input to the tape unit or simple get a cassette adapter for $5, just about the same quality.

The wiper nozzles take about 5 minutes to swap. Just plug and play.

 

After many years of sitting, I'll finally be putting an engine in my 855. It died mid-june 2014 and I've been storing it until I could do something with it. I suspect a blown head gasket, but the engine had a huge amount of bore wear and crankcase pressure. Additionally when I went to diagnose it back then, I was unaware of lawnmower syndrome. Without other diagnostic means, I parked it.

In the meantime I owned another 855, a manual-leather-sunroof car that I ultimately lost to mold. It was a great color, but was pretty beat when I got it.

I was able to save the wheels, roof rack, rear window shades, and a few other bits and bobs


I've got the first car moved into a garage to work on, and I've got the new engine. I tried to diagnose the original engine, but even with oil in each cylinder, it would never build much compression. Never more than ~50psi per cylinder. Next steps are to refresh the engine on the stand, and prepare the car to accept it.




I miss daily driving an 850, hopefully the swap goes smoothly. I'm hoping most of the engine maintenance (seals, PCV refresh, thermostat, water pump) will be much easier with the engine out of the car. Additionally, I'll have easy access to the coolant lines and AC components at the firewall. I'll need to find a drivers seat, and the brakes need some TLC, but that'll all come after it's got a running engine that holds compression.

-Charlie

 

did you double check the timing on the engine with the low compression? if you are notch or two off, the compression won't come up to code. My experience with head gasket issues is that adjacent cylinders will have low compression but not all 5. If you jumped timing its also quite likely you may have bent all the exhaust valves - something you would see with an inspection cam.

Good luck with the swap. The MT 850 is a great donor car for somebody looking to do an auto to manual swap on an 850T. there's some good write ups on line on how to bypass the shifter position center to allow the car to run. Start a new thread and post up on your progress!