Hello.. I have a few questions from my father. My father's has a 1995 volvo 850 Turbo that has been sitting for about a month. He has not been able to drive it because he was in the hospital for some time from having a mild heart attack. He is feeling 100% better and ready to get back on the road but today when he went to go start his car for the first time in a month it was puffing out white smoke. It went away as soon as he started to drive it and has not come back, he is wondering is that nomal? The car does have 179,000 miles on it. Next his CE light is on and has been for about 2 months. He feels that it might be the sensors because the car has a real strong smell coming from it's exhaust pipe. He said that the fumes are so strong that he can't open the garage and let the car run, he has to take it fully outside. And last when he cuts his wheel either all the way left or all the way right there is a slight clunk..he thinks this might be CV joints? Now here is the thing my father's friend is on a budget and really needs his car is it expensive to replace the sensors and the CV joints? Sorry for the long post

 

The checkengine light the codes need to be pulled to see what the cause is.

http://www.troublecodes.net/Volvo/

Follow link to learn how to pull codes from the car.

The white smoke maybe just condensation from the car sitting for so long.

The clunk noise is it only when sitting still or driving?
Is it with the wheel turned all the way or when slightly turned.

 

Hi,

Glad your Dad is doing well!

I think the smoke after startup is kind of expected after the car was sitting for so long. Could have been some oil that had settled in the combustion chambers and then burnt off. This could happen after 179K miles and I don't think it's too much of a concern.

I wouldn't change the O2 sensors until it's properly diagnosed. Since the car is a 95, you can read these codes on your own from under the hood to see for sure if it's the O2 sensors. Volvospeed.com has a good writeup on how to do this or pick up a Haynes manual.

Not sure about the CV joints but I would check the sway bar end links and grease the steering stops.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks I will have him look into this asap. Also the clunk noise is when he is sitting steal and turn the wheel all the way to the left or right. If he does not cut the wheel all the way he does not hear anything.

 

Could very well be the sway bar links or the upper spring seats.