95' Volvo 850 Turbo has stopped making boost (long grab a snack)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dom Didomsky
  • Start date Start date
D

Dom Didomsky

I bought my 850 T5 a few weeks ago and aside from a lot of petty stuff
has seemed like a decent car at 147,000 miles. Goes thru a little oil
and power steering fluid but other than that nothing
serious.........until NOW. When I bought the car the turbo spooled up
quick and it hauled some serious butt, although I noticed midway thru
acceleration at WOT there was a SLIGHT loss in boost and then it would
pick up again and keep pulling hard to 6000rpm. Also the boost gauge
never went all the way up, only like a 1/4 inch from the end of the
bar but I've always assumed its just because its an old innaccurate
gauge. NOW TO THE MATTER AT HAND.... I was driving home from work and
everything was normal for the first few miles, cruising on the highway
enjoying the back massage it gives me because the tires are of poor
quality and a civic fly's up on me and starts to ride my bumper.
Naturally I depressed the throttle to pick up my speed and the car
instantly downshifts and starts to get going but..... oh wait.... ya
my motor is growling away and I'm not really going anywhere......
Turbo gauge was reading halfway thru the black while off pedle and at
full throttle sitting dead smack between + and - .There was no stange
noises or anything of that nature that occured before this happened,
just straight up lost any and all boost. I'm kinda screwed as this is
my only car and I have to commute 1 1/2 hours to work every day. The
car idles/drives/shifts perfectly fine it feels just like a N/A 5
cylinder should, but it won't even spin its tires in the rain. I have
a constant CEL now and I had it checked at autozone and they pulled a
code saying something along the lines of "MAF reading lower than
average amount of air". Anyways I'm puzzled and really hope that with
some thoughtful imput we can find out whats wrong.

As of right now I'm thinking the wastegate is stuck open, also upon a
quick inspection in the rain I saw the actuator bar and it didn't
appear to be dangling and a decent coating of oil in the charge pipes.

Thanks a MILLION in advance I'm sure we'll figure this out!
 
Dom said:
I bought my 850 T5 a few weeks ago and aside from a lot of petty stuff
has seemed like a decent car at 147,000 miles. Goes thru a little oil
and power steering fluid but other than that nothing
serious.........until NOW. When I bought the car the turbo spooled up
quick and it hauled some serious butt, although I noticed midway thru
acceleration at WOT there was a SLIGHT loss in boost and then it would
pick up again and keep pulling hard to 6000rpm. Also the boost gauge
never went all the way up, only like a 1/4 inch from the end of the
bar but I've always assumed its just because its an old innaccurate
gauge. NOW TO THE MATTER AT HAND.... I was driving home from work and
everything was normal for the first few miles, cruising on the highway
enjoying the back massage it gives me because the tires are of poor
quality and a civic fly's up on me and starts to ride my bumper.
Naturally I depressed the throttle to pick up my speed and the car
instantly downshifts and starts to get going but..... oh wait.... ya
my motor is growling away and I'm not really going anywhere......
Turbo gauge was reading halfway thru the black while off pedle and at
full throttle sitting dead smack between + and - .There was no stange
noises or anything of that nature that occured before this happened,
just straight up lost any and all boost. I'm kinda screwed as this is
my only car and I have to commute 1 1/2 hours to work every day. The
car idles/drives/shifts perfectly fine it feels just like a N/A 5
cylinder should, but it won't even spin its tires in the rain. I have
a constant CEL now and I had it checked at autozone and they pulled a
code saying something along the lines of "MAF reading lower than
average amount of air". Anyways I'm puzzled and really hope that with
some thoughtful imput we can find out whats wrong.

As of right now I'm thinking the wastegate is stuck open, also upon a
quick inspection in the rain I saw the actuator bar and it didn't
appear to be dangling and a decent coating of oil in the charge pipes.

Thanks a MILLION in advance I'm sure we'll figure this out!
Click to expand...

Sounds like you blew a hole in one of the hoses and you're blowing all
your boost right out of it. Hopefully you'll have caught it in time not
to have roasted your catalytic converter (since the Air Mass meter reads
the air going into the turbo, not reaching the engine and would have
been dumping a LOT of excess fuel). I learned that lesson the hard way.
Amazing how fast those things (cats) turn into an expensive lump of
melted metal.

Bill
 
Bill Bradley said:
Sounds like you blew a hole in one of the hoses and you're blowing all
your boost right out of it. Hopefully you'll have caught it in time not
to have roasted your catalytic converter (since the Air Mass meter reads
the air going into the turbo, not reaching the engine and would have been
dumping a LOT of excess fuel). I learned that lesson the hard way.
Amazing how fast those things (cats) turn into an expensive lump of melted
metal.

Bill
Click to expand...

That sounds likely to me, too, and easy enough to check. BTW, Dom, the hole
can be fairly small on the outside (maybe not even big enough to fit a
pencil into) while the inside of the hose is split end-to-end. If you run
your hand over all the ducts between the turbo and the throttle body you
should be able to feel any holes. For a very temporary repair you can duct
tape a piece of aluminum can over the hole unless it is in a bend. Duct tape
by itself won't hold.

Mike
 
Thanks for the help guys, I took the turbo heat shield off it at work
today out of curiosity and found that the wastegate actuator arm has
come off the turbo. I guess the pin got too rusted and broke off
because I cant really see the holes where I should be able to put a
new clip. Back to turbo fun!!!!!!
 
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