Any Volvo 850 owners around here?

"edu-petrolhead" (edu-petrolhead) 11/13/2014 at 14:57 • Filed to: question

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I'm only inches away from buying a manual (!!!!) Volvo 850 SW 1995. Quick question: To service it at home, do I need any special Volvo tools or can I repair it with common tools?

Some wallpapers for you in return

505Turbeaux > edu-petrolhead 11/13/2014 at 15:01

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cool, I know the 95 manual well. Let me know if you need any help with it or pre purchase advice.

Check for oil leaks, PCV breather system is often neglected on these and not hard to do (and cheap)

mostly common tools if that includes torx

edu-petrolhead > 505Turbeaux 11/13/2014 at 15:09

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Great! The car I'm looking is 750km away from where I live, so it will be quite a longshot. I'm yet studying the possibilities, and knowing what to check will help me to negotiate.

This is the car: http://cidadesaopaulo.olx.com.br/volvo-850-1995…

It's in São Paulo, and if the e-mail negotiations go well, I can take a plane and drive home, hehe. But I'm a bit scared of such a long trip. R$9500 isn't bad, it's a bit more than other Volvos in Brazil, but a few thousand cheaper than the T5-Rs. Parts aren't expensive as well, costing roughly the same as Ford Focus' parts, for example.

Any special tools I need to have?

Jonathan Harper > edu-petrolhead 11/13/2014 at 15:12

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My dad has an 850, but I've never worked on it. As far as I know no specialized tools are required.

505Turbeaux > edu-petrolhead 11/13/2014 at 15:13

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you can get around most of that car with a good socket set. If it has ABS you are going to want to have an E-5 external torx bit to pull the computer and resolder a few connections. Overall a good looking car though, should run you a good long time. Be 100% sure that timing belt has some life left in it before going anywhere though

Alfalfa > edu-petrolhead 11/13/2014 at 15:20

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This makes me laugh, because I'm looking at buying a 97 850 sedan with an LPT.

m-b-w loves his SUBAROO > edu-petrolhead 11/13/2014 at 15:42

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I have a 94 Automatic, which currently sits unmovable in my garage. Tools seem pretty straightforward. You will need a bunch of torx bits if you want to fix up the interior though.

twochevrons > edu-petrolhead 11/13/2014 at 16:40

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I have a '96 850R wagon that I 'accidentally' bought a while ago, and I really like it – they're great cars. You'll need a good set of Torx drivers, but aside from that, I've never run into anything that requires a special tool for 'everyday' work. A decent set of extension bars and universal joint adaptors for your socket set is a must, though – some fasteners in the engine bay are tricky to get to. You'll need some special tools to lock the engine internals in place if you're doing the timing belt or working on the head, but they're easy enough to buy or fabricate yourself if you're going that far.

'95 and earlier also has the advantage that their computer diagnostics are all accessible from a little panel in the engine bay that can read and clear codes for everything (including airbags, ABS, climate control, etc.) without using a scan tool.

Especially in manual, non-turbo form, they're robust and long-lasting. They don't take kindly to neglect, though – as 505 said, look for oil leaks and make sure that the timing belt is in good shape.

edu-petrolhead > twochevrons 11/13/2014 at 16:51

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Wow, thanks for the good amount of info!

Your last phrase was music to my ears, haha.

In a completely related, but quite noobish, question, how can I visually check if the timing belt is in good shape? I mean, bad shape is like I can see the cords, or some of them are tearing? Or there is something subtler?

twochevrons > edu-petrolhead 11/13/2014 at 17:57

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In an ideal world, there should be some proof of the mileage when the belt was last done – it'll often be on a sticker somewhere in the engine bay, or written on the timing cover. The change interval on the 850 is 70,000 miles, or a shade over 100,000 km.

Visually, it is a little harder to judge – look for signs of contamination from leaking camshaft or water pump seals, or signs of cracking or fraying. Any squealing or grinding noises from the belt area should be treated with suspicion, too, although those could also be coming from the accessory belt. If you do see any of those signs, it is likely that the belt is well beyond the change interval, and is a disaster waiting to happen.

The timing cover is held on by a single 10mm (I think) bolt that's recessed into the cover – it's hard to see, but it's easy to find if you reach down to feel for it. Remove the bolt then slide the timing cover up and out to see the belt.

edu-petrolhead > twochevrons 11/14/2014 at 06:13

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Wow, thanks! I'll keep a keen eye for these signs ;)

Orange_Crusader > edu-petrolhead 11/14/2014 at 17:48

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Oh cool, a black manual wagon with really low mileage, nice find. The stick-on dash trim kit it has looks awful, though. Looks really nice and clean, even has the fairly rare cloth/leather combo, I haven't seen one of those up here. Take care of it, and it'll be reliable and more fun to drive than an N/A Volvo wagon should be, with its exhaust note punching well above its performance category. Parts are a little pricey for some items (ok, more expensive than Hondas) but the service life for OEM parts is ridiculous, with a few exceptions (PCV system, spring seats, top engine mounts).

I'd recommend picking up a Haynes manual, for some intensive jobs it's sparse on detail but for typical stuff it's a decent resource. There are many diy guides on volvospeed.com and matthewsvolvosite.com especially as well, but it's sometimes nice to have a guide and torque specs within reach.

You'll want a set of deep metric sockets, including an 18mm (needed for doing struts/axle/hub stuff), torx bits of varying lenghts, torx sockets, and probably a half dozen things I'm forgetting. They're pretty well designed as far as working on them, there isn't a lot of room, but nearly every time it's possible to make room by removing stuff, or there's just enough space for a socket/wrench/etc. The only specialty tools I own are a serpentine belt tool (a 3/4 breaker or ratchet would also work), cam locking tool (can substitute with some bent up coathanger or skipped, but it's that much more idiotproof), and cam timing tool/disk, which is outside, all 3 are from IPD.

As for parts... for spark plugs/ignition stuff, go OEM every time and it'll be happy, I'd say the same for brake parts but opinions vary there, I just prefer the pedal feel of oem pads despite the tons of dust. AVOID URO PARTS like the plague, they just don't last. Go Continental for belts, OEM for tensioners, low-end or no-name parts tend to last half as long or less than OEM stuff, I buy almost nothing in brick and mortar stores, and virtually everything from either ipdusa.com, fcpeuro.com or tascaparts.com (everything they have is OEM), with the latter 2 having lower prices than IPD, and fcp being cheaper than tasca sometimes and vice versa. Whenever you get to doing the front struts, get the XC90's spring seats, they have more rubber where the 850's tend to fail around the center bushing. Again, OEM is leagues ahead of off-brand here. My family has put roughly 3/4 of a million km's on 3 850-platform cars in the last decade or so (96' 850, V70R and C70) and have done everything from oil changes to engine swaps ourselves, if you've got any questions for maintenance or repairs, feel free to ask.

edu-petrolhead > Orange_Crusader 11/14/2014 at 19:44

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Wow, huuuuuuuuuuuuuge thanks!!!!

105,000 km is a bit less than 70k miles, and for R$9500 (~$3700 USD) I believe it is in a good shape and price. I'm talking with the seller and he seems to be a car guy as well. According to him, he services it in a specialized Volvo shop in São Paulo. Volvo dealers are very scarce in Brazil (there are around 40 or 50 in the entire country), and Volvo is a luxury brand around here. So I need to avoid the dealers at all cost.

I have the Haynes manual in PDF, but I'll order one. I have also the Volvo green books, 1400 pages of technical manuals and dealership manuals as well. Today I discovered VolvoForums and the incredible amount of stuff they have there.

I compared the parts prices in Brazil with other cars, and they're roughly the same as a Ford Focus (almost a luxury car here, sold for a high price), a Mitsubishi Pajero TR4 or other reasonable common cars. In some cases, parts for the 850 are cheaper than parts for common brazilian cars.

Thanks a lot for your time writing this!

Orange_Crusader > edu-petrolhead 11/14/2014 at 23:24

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You're welcome, I figured it'd be nice to condense a few of the lessons I've learned over the years of fixing these cars to save some frustration/expense for a new owner, I hope you enjoy it.

That price would be on the slightly higher end of what 850's go for here, but that one is much cleaner, has half or better of the mileage and better service history (by the sounds of it) than almost any I've seen for sale up here in recent memory. I'm surprised they're affordable in brazil, parts especially. AND it got the 2-bulb clear sidemarkers. Nice.

If you already have the Haynes manual in pdf, you can print out the needed pages before a job and just to be obsessive, cross-check stuff like torque specs with the green books (very nice btw, pdf or paper copies?), I can't think of any differences off the top of my head as it is written specifically about a 94 or 95 850 (iirc) like that one, but some small stuff varied between years. If you can find a working version of VADIS, you'll have every reference you'd ever need, it adds memos/service announcements/additions that I don't think are included in the initial printing of the green books.

A few other bits and pieces, a magnetic drain plug isn't a bad idea, ordering oil filters by the case (of 10) by Mann (OEM supplier, identical) along with the crush washers simplifies things and saves a few bucks, but that depends on how much mileage you'd cover in a year, a year's supply to me may be 2 or 3 years' worth to you. CV boots dry up and crack/split pretty commonly, you'll need a 36mm deep socket to remove the factory axle nut, and the replacement nut is 32mm (though I've re-used the OEM one with no issues), removing the anti roll bar from the front struts (when swapping struts, which you shouldn't need to do for a bit yet, unless they're leaking) is annoying at best, infuriating at worst since you need to counter-hold the end link stub to get the nut off of it, via either a torx bit socket in the stub, 2 flat parallel faces on the end of the stub shaft, or 2 flat faces on the stub shaft, between the ball joint and strut bracket, depending on what brand and era of endlink it has. A longer wrench (15mm i think) or pass-through socket set is good here.

Now, for a little extra (perceived) performance, you can directly swap the throttle body plate with one from a volvo 960 (any year as long as it's the inline 6), the factory 850 plate (65mm vs 55mm for turbo cars btw) has a plastic wedge on one side that restricts airflow at low throttle, with the 960 one it gains some responsiveness, a bit more eagerness to spin those tires, and maybe 1 or 2hp if I'm generous. They restricted the oem plate to keep housewives from accidentally burning rubber at every intersection, but as jalops our priorities are a bit different.

edu-petrolhead > Orange_Crusader 11/15/2014 at 06:05

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Thanks!!

I have the green books in pdf, I grabbed them from here . These cars don't cost a lot because only a few people wants to buy them. Imported cars are almost a taboo in Brazil, because people think they cost a lot to maintain. However, these same people buy "popular" cars, made of spit and papier maché and end spending a lot more because the maintenance is frequent.

The major problem, IMO, with owning an imported car in Brazil is the fact that our gasoline is 25% ethanol, and it'll increase to 27.5%. I'm afraid this damages the engine.

As for your suggestion of buying a box of oil filters, I liked it. I drive around 100km/day, and the oil exchanges will be quite common. I've got a master's scholarship of R$1500/month, so I'll not have much problems buying parts.

As for spark plugs, what is best, in your opinion? Volvo OEMs or Bosch/NGK Iridium, which lasts for a much higher mileage?

perkunas > edu-petrolhead 11/15/2014 at 15:02

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I'd have to say, go Volvo OEM. Especially if it's a turbo. People sometimes have problems when they get non OEM plugs, probably related to wrong gap size. This goes for most parts too, for example MAFs and such.

All Motor Is Best Motor > edu-petrolhead 11/16/2014 at 15:42

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This car looks so unbalanced.