I couldn't find anything on this topic, but maybe that's only because I had difficulty phrasing it in a way that a search engine would understand.

I'm looking around at various used 850's. I want a wagon, but the sedans are cool, too--basically, my wife got a minivan when our third son was born last March, but I've been stuck with her '95 Camaro. I've always hated Camaros, and now I can't even pick up the kids from the sitter without major operations. As I look at used 850's, it has occurred to me that I'm looking at high-mileage cars and I'm not sure what I should be paying attention to.

I gather that heater cores and evaporator cores can be problems. What else should I be checking out before I buy a used 850 wagon or sedan?

 

Vent systems.
Dash boards (mounting tabs sometimes break)
Suspension parts.

I know others will add as well.
Also go through the related posts at the bottom of this thread for more info.

 

Yeah, the evaporators seem to be bad in all 850s. Probably the most important thing is to see some documentation that the car wasn't neglected. Make sure the owner kept up with all the fluid changes, including tranny fluid. If there isn't any documentation that the timing belt was changed, then plan on doing that once you buy it. The suspension, when worn out, can be expensive to fix. And if you aren't capable of doing your own repairs, an inexpensive import can become a very expensive car real quick.

 

Get a turbo or an R if you can find one. I have never owned one and neither have my kids that was not a turbo model. The vin should have either 57 (turbo) or 58 (R) in the 6th and 7th postitions. When my daughter bought a 95 wagon last summer she test drove a non-turbo model that was in excellent condition and said no way. Her and her husband (who is a mechanic) ended up buying a 95 Turbo wagon in OK conditon. My other daughter has a 99 S80 T6 twin turbo and my son has a 98 V70 R. I have a 95 850 T5R, a 97 850 R and a 98 V70 GLT. The V70 has the Low Pressure Turbo and it's ok. The 97 850 GLT has the LPT, but the earlier model 850 GLT's do not have a turbo. The 98 V70 and S70 are basically the same car as the 850.

I totally agree with jmana on what to look for. Once you find one that you like and are ready to buy, have a Volvo mechanic (dealer or independent) do a pre-purchase inspection to see what before buying. This will be money well spent. It should cost you around $75. If he finds something that would stop you from buying the car then that $75 probably save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars. If he finds little things wrong it will give you bargaining power for negotiating a better deal and you will also know where to focus you attention on getting things fixed.

A 10+ year old car is going to need some work and that is to be expected, but how much is what you want to know.

 

Exactly. Thanks, guys, that's the kind of thing I was looking for. I don't expect perfect, I just want to know what I'm getting myself into.

I'm not bad with a wrench, but electrical gremlins usually defeat me. I did notice that it looks like there's some room in the engine bay with the I5; that's unusual. I've only driven a '96 turbo, and I admit I liked the power, but I had thought it would be better from a reliability point of view to eliminate the turbo as one more complex piece of machinery that can go wrong. Was that wishful thinking?

 

If it is taken care of, synthetic oil is used (and changed regularly) and the car is not shut off immediatley after a hard run (Turbo still spinning) a Turbo will usually last a long time

 

I have never had a turbo go bad on me, and I have had seven turbo Volvos. I would not own one that was not a Turbo, and I would pay to replace the turbo if it went bad.

 

I just bought one with 96,000 and the turbo was recently replaced, I was kind of surprised that it went bad that quickly, especially considering the car was serviced by the dealerup to80,000 miles. My other car with over 200,000 miles has a wistle that I suspect to be the turbo, but it still works fine and it's been doing that for several thousand miles.

 

https://volvoforums.com/m_48928/tm.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbocharger

Best of luck finding a decent turbocharged 850.


JPN

 

The problem I kept running into when I was looking for an 850 was the rear main seal leaking. Out of the five we looked at two had the seal leaking. We got one that didn't but ow it does. I think it's one of those inevitable things with this model, like the ABS control unit and the odometer.

 

Stay away from the 93/ early 94, known to develop transmission problems. IMO.

 

How early in 94? The car I just bought is a 94, hope it doesn't have a problem tranny!

 

I had a 94 Turbo with 206K on it and never had a single problem with the transmission, and never once changed the fluid or even had to add any that I remember. The engine quit on my at 206K, but the tranny was still fine.

 

Then stay away from European cars in general. Their electrics stink and there is lots of data to back that up.