I just bought a Excellent 97 850r (will post pics later) Its perfect in every way, except it smells of coolant in the interior. would this indicate heater-core failure or should I be looking for something else?
This is my first volvo, I've owned 99 Mustang (slow, crap interior), a 87 Merkur Xr4ti I rebuilt her from the ground up with all the best stuff coil-overs, built motor, ecu, ect. and I currently also own a 86 Saab 900 SPG.
Thanks for the help.

 

tumbler: welcome to volvo ownership! The "volvo smell" is very similar to coolant. check down by the floorboards near the center console to see if it's wet there. if it is, you may have heater core issues. However, I think this is the standard smell in most volvos.

 

mine smells like it too, but my core isnt leaking, and my parents 850 also does so its fairly normal, where is the cabin filter located?

 

Wow, Thanks for the fast replies. I'll take a look around the center console. I hope its just the sweet, sweet smell of Volvo. I kinda dig the fact that it may be just a Volvo smell, my Saab smells like old leather.

 

coolant smell here too, only when I press the recirc button for outside air. console is dry so i'll say its volvo smell. my old bmw had an old leather smell which I loved. my 850 has this sometimes.

 

The cabin filter, if you have one, is located in the windshield cow bay on the passenger side. At the base of the windshield ther is a plastic cover that has t-25 screws in it. You can remove the 3 screws closest to the passenger side and lift up on the plastic. If you have a cabin filter, you'll see it in there.

When I checked out S70 after we had the car for about 3 months, it was so full of stuff, I'm surprised the interior was getting any air at all. I would replace it yearly and if it doesn't have one, install one. Ipd sells the filter holder and filters. I think it will save your fan as well as cut down on dirt in the interior.

As for the coolant smell, I get a whiff of it every once in a while as well. I was told that there are plastic to metal joints in the heater coil that causes a slight seepage as they heat up and cool down. Unfortionately epic failure has no warning because of this odor problem.

 

For the record, my 94 850 NT has the coolant smell for sure! And...I sure am glad to have come across this thread! Something I have been wondering about ever since it got cold. No dampness at all on the carpet, just the smell. I might add that my water pump is dripping just a little and will be changed out soon. I was thinking that maybe the smell was being sucked in the vent from the leaking coolant OUTSIDE the cabin. But if there are a lot of other "stinkers" out there then, either way, I'm relived! Thanks.

 

A slight leak from the water pump may not be a problem. A while back, Volvo actually had a leak limit set for some of their pumps. A few drops per day after sitting was not a problem (cold motor static leak). But if it leaked while warm or while running, that was a problem that required a changed. You may want to get it on hand and if your t-belt has 50k on it, do it as well.

 

As for the coolant smell, I think it would be a good idea to open the box and look for fluid. I think I'm going to drill a hole in mine and installing a plug, like the one in the odometer display on the 960's. That way I cam reach under there, pull the plug every once in a while and see if it's wet with coolant before epic failure. I would hate to have to clean that coolant out of the carpet, padding and floor board.

 

Thanks for the good advice. I'm definitely going to do the water pump with the timing belt job. The belt is about 24K over (it was done around 75K with 169K total on the car) and I'm quite sure the pump has never been replaced. Leaking or not 168K is enough for me to replace it if I have to get in there anyway! I just can seem to find the time lately. Marry Christmas to all!!! Rickford

 

My car smells syrupy whenever i turn the heat on after i havnt used it for a while. I read on IPD that this can be cause by an o-ring failure on the heatercore feed/return lines resulting in a little bit of coolant dripping onto the heatercore.

Would anyone happen to know how to replace these o-rings? i looked around the day i changed my t-stat and flushed my coolant, but couldnt find anything

 

Kapka: trust me, you don't wanna get involved in that. if its just a minor drip from time to time leave it alone. A LOT of folks have tried fixing that and it winds up a LOT worse.

 

My guess would be that it's the seals that you install when you replace the heater core. I have read that the heater core change takes less than an hour. Order the seals and replace them with the core replacement instructions.

 

I'll have to look into the recirc button when this happens the next time.

Considering this problem only happened on a 30+ mile ride... and ONLY while the a/c was on. It did NOT happen when fan was off and set to max heat.

Sooo... maybe I'll just ride a bit longer.

It looked like my a/c lines were just a bit condensed another day, so I'm thinking that maybe it's somehow evaporating into the fan. I'm no "tech", so don't ask me how.

The previous owners said they replaced the heater core, but they lied about replacing everything else they mentioned having replaced... so I guess that's really just wishful thinking on my part.