Hello All,

I'm a new 1995 850 Turbo Sedan owner and have found this site to be very helpful. My last car was a suburban and due to a change in jobs I need a more commuter friendly vehicle. I was looking at hondas, they were sensible and seemed practical, ....boring. I bought the car in Southern CA 3 weeks ago with 97,000 miles, brand new tires and in good shape inside and out. After the first day of driving tracs and ABS lights and check engine came on. I took it in to a volvo mechanic because I'm about to drive it to its new home in Portland, OR. The original owner left all the service receipts in the glove box, she had maintained the car well at an independent volvo shop in LA, lots of new parts and new timing belt at 70,000 miles. I was surprised when the mechanic told me the distributor cap and wires were original but we replaced those and some new plugs, codes read evap (purge valve) was bad, as well as Mass Air Flow (ouch), replaced. (I'll clean the wheel sensors when I get home to portland, hopefully that will help solve the abs problem, my abs controller has been replaced once because it has junkyard numbers on it, so I'm not sure that is what needs fixed)

Now she's on the road!

California coast tomorrow, Coast Highway Northbound To Portland!

2 dogs 2 people and 1 sweet car

Thanks to all members

See you on the road

 

Have fun. The gas mileage should be much better than if you were driving that Suburban..

 

The ABS/TRAC control module is a known-to-fail item. While some people state that those units on '95 and earlier would not fail as frequently as the newer '96-'97 units, some others, including myself have been reporting failure.

There are some on-line vendors that fix & upgrade these units, but most seem to deal only with '96 or newer and do not seem to bother with '95 and earlier units. In case you could not find anyone to fix it, you have 2 choices:

- Buy a new unit.
- Fix it yourself.

http://www.fcpgroton.com/volvo850brakes.htm

I once asked this guy to see if he could repair the unit on '94 and he said no.
http://home.earthlink.net/~vicrocha/

If you wish to keep your 850 in a good condition for as long as possible, I would follow scheduled maintenance. See my 1st & 2nd posts in the following thread, which you may already have read:

https://volvoforums.com/m_48928/tm.htm

Also, since your 850 is of turbo, I would recommend using full synthetic 10W-30 & MANN filter.

If you still haven't left for the trip, I would grab 2 qts of oil as well as a bottle of 50:50 coolant in the trunk (the pre-mix is a rip-off). Or you can get them at a fuel stop, though those places charge a bit more.

Have a safe trip.


JPN

 

Don't replace the ABS module, have it remanufactured.

 

I don't think anyone will touch a 95.