I'm wondering if these could be related.

I took a long drive the other day, and after about 20 minutes of the a/c running, it started blowing out this white smoky mist stuff.... so I turned off the a/c. Seemed to stop, but I had to turn the a/c back on. After a minute or so, the smoky mist would come out again... so I had to keep alternating the a/c on and off every minute for the remaining 10 minutes of the trip.

It didn't do that on the way back, but I'm wondering if this could be related to my loss of coolant recently. Seemed to do OK until the past few months, when the coolant was getting low.

I've just been refilling with water into the reservoir, as I don't see a cap on the radiator itself. Should I do a full flush and fill with proper Volvo-specific anti-freeze?? Will any other anti-freeze work just fine??

Should I check for leaks first?? ..... or could the loss of "coolant" just been the water I'm adding actually evaporating??

 

You must have a bad heater core.

 

What he said. If you're getting mist out the vents with the blower going with or without the AC turned on (it should still come out if you turned on the heat) it's almost always the heater core. It's a small pinhole leak in the heater core and the air flow picks up the mist and blows it out the vents. Really makes a mess if you need to use the defroster as it's blowing moisture onto the inside of the windshield you're trying to clear.

You can get the Pentosin antifreeze at Oreillys but you'll pay ..... less than the dealer but it's still up there. I think Pentosin is the brand Volvo recommends in the manual.
I'd recommend going with something that has "mixes with all makes, all models" on the label. House brand, Peak, Prestone, Fleet Farm, whatever it's just easier.
BUT, some people will tell you that you should stick with what the engineers have specified.
Personally I go with a name brand all makes models in all my cars and if I get a GM with dex-cool it gets flushed and replaced. I'm not a fan of dex-cool but I remember when it first came out and people were making jello in their cooling systems by adding "regular" antifreeze.

 

The mist definitely stops whenever I turn the fan off and temp to max heat.

Sooo... that should mean that the heater core is NOT the problem, right?

The mist just smells like coolant. But after a trip that was half the distance of the trip in which I experienced the mist, I noticed one headlight was out while in a parking lot.... so I checked it, and the/c lines looked like they had an awfully large amount of condensation on them.

Will topping the reservoir up with water only cause the "diluted radiator solution" to evaporate faster??

Could my head gasket possibly be leaking after a certain point??

My temps don't seem to be overheating or anything, but I'd like to not see the radiator dash light pop on every other day. It's fairly annoying.

 

Coolant leaks lead to over heating. Over heating leads to blown head gaskets.

Change your leaking heater core and stop the leak. You can verify that by checking the core for leaks.

 

As I was headed to Firestone to see if they could do an alignment (specifically what parts I need to replace for them to do an alignment ).... my car's air blower starts kicking out some condensation, like it's done a few times before. I've read that others think it's just a Volvo idiosyncracy, so I tended to agree with them since I've been able to take quite a few 100 mile trips since this problem started (2 months ago) without even seeing the slightest problem.

ANYWAY....

Today the condensation didn't stop. I didn't get too far, so I was able to make it back home without problems. I decided to fill 'er up with some water, but I poured over 30 ounces of water in before realizing that hopes and dreams weren't going to solve this. Went to the inside and the front carpet was all wet.

Started taking everything apart, now I'm just trying to figure out which heater core to order and where from....

Advance Auto -- Ready-Aire brand comes with Lifetime warranty for $62 + tax (this price doesn't include o-rings, but I think they sell some they could match me up with??)

Rock Auto -- URO brand comes with 2-year warranty for $64 (apparently it *does* include o-rings)

FCP Groton -- OEM brand (Behr) with Lifetime warranty for $119 (this *does* include o-rings)


Either way, it looks like it'll take a week to get here, because I'm not spending extra on shipping.....


What to do? What to do?


I think it's pretty much down to Advance Auto parts or FCP Groton.....

 

You listed to experienced Volvo enthusist before things get bad and take care of it when it's a small leak instead of a gusher.

On a helpful note, you can pull the lines on the other side of the firewall and hook a 5/8" hose to them to bypass it for a week or so. Also, you can go to the salvage yard and pull a newish one from there. I have a 3 year old Volvo core in the back of my wagon right now that I got for $15.

 

i also am starting to smell coolant when heat first turned on, havn't lost any coolant yet but im assuming its getting close to starting to leak more so planing on changing it BEFORE it becomes a bigger prob..was wondering average time on doin it? i kno it depends on skill and speed, just lookin for a round number

 

Awesome advice!!!

There's a "no spark - ignition" problem in a '94 850 that just so happens to be a 5-speed... about 80 miles away from me.... and I think I might pick it up for $400 or so, since I've got an automatic. I might actually be able to fix the spark problem and have two 850s, which would be like a dream come true. I guess I'd need one of 'em to be a wagon for it to be my real dream, but whatever.

Looks like I'll try to pick this $400 no starting car a bit sooner, and it might actually solve most of my problems.... unless I actually get it to start, then I'll still have to buy a new heater core. No salvage yards in my immediate area have any Volvos, so more reason to just buy the whole parts car.

 

Always go with OEM replacement parts, if you can, with regard to radiators and heater cores.

 

I likely would have gone with the OEM one from FCP Groton....

But this post at Matthew's site changed my mind:

For $39 shipped (plus ebay bucks back), new & improved design, and even including the o-rings, foam, etc..... the choice was rather easy for me. Didn't hesitate in ordering at all after completely reading thru those 2 links.

 

I read that today as well. BoxPin said he has 3 of them installed.