opinions please! (1995 850 wagon)

Discussion in 'Volvo 850' started by Jay Lensgraf, Aug 17, 2007.

  1. Jay Lensgraf

    Jay Lensgraf Guest

    -- My 1995 850 wagon with 170,000 miles has a leaky head gasket, a
    leaky radiator.....to the tune of a 2500 dollar repair bill at the
    local Volvo dealer. It has been a pretty trouble free car till now,
    but this is a pretty expensive repair. We had hoped to get 250,000 or
    300,000 miles out of "Helga", and perhaps we still could.

    What is a reasonable number of miles to expect from this mostly
    highway driven car?

    What would the purveyors if this fine newsgroup do? Should I trade
    her in on a newer model, or bite the bullet, fix her, and hope nothing
    else bad happens for a while.
     
    Jay Lensgraf, Aug 17, 2007
    #1
  2. Jay Lensgraf

    c.fiedler Guest

    First, I would not trade in the vehicle. You won't get squat for it.

    Second, I would find a non-dealer mechanic to do the work. This is not
    highly specialized work. A head milling and gasket replacement isn't
    all that bad. Be sure the valves and guides are checked and replaced
    as needed. As for the radiator, I believe IPD has an improved
    replacement for the original radiator. See www.ipdusa.com

    If the car has been "pretty trouble free till now", I wouldn't give up
    just for these issues. You don't say directly but I assume this is a
    non-turbo vehicle so you don't have that set of issues to worry about.

    I say fix it.

    Chuck Fiedler
    Nothing but Volvo since 1974
     
    c.fiedler, Aug 17, 2007
    #2
  3. Jay Lensgraf

    Jay Lensgraf Guest


    -- Thanks Chuck

    Jay
     
    Jay Lensgraf, Aug 17, 2007
    #3
  4. Jay Lensgraf

    franz47 Guest

    So would I do here in Europe, Austria.
    Viktor
     
    franz47, Aug 17, 2007
    #4
  5. Jay Lensgraf

    Jay Lensgraf Guest

    Thank you Viktor
    Jay
    --
     
    Jay Lensgraf, Aug 17, 2007
    #5
  6. Jay Lensgraf

    Marc Guest

    From The Neherlands I would also recommend to fix it. I'm pretty active on
    the Dutch 850 forum (www.volvo850forum.nl) and we have quite a number of
    cars with a mileage of 300.000 and more. Expect maintenance costs to
    increase as well, however.

    Good luck!
    Marc
     
    Marc, Aug 17, 2007
    #6
  7. Jay Lensgraf

    NoOne Guest

    Newer models are ... newer, but overall weaker. They don't built
    quality like they use to. And not just about cars. You have yourself
    a great car. It's normal to incur maintenance costs.
     
    NoOne, Aug 18, 2007
    #7
  8. Jay Lensgraf

    franz47 Guest

    The cost of buying a new car is the single biggest cost factor in driving a car.
    IMHO, as long as you are happy with the safety level of the model, the carĀ“s
    body is healthy, you have a good experienced non-Volvo-dealer mechanic with
    reasonable prices, access to junk yards with Volvo parts and and the internet
    for buying new or second hand parts you are cheaper off with repairing it, even
    if maintenance costs increase. If you sum it up and divide it by the mileage you
    will still do fine, especially if you can expect higher lifetimes with this
    brand of car compared to many others.
    Regards
    Viktor
     
    franz47, Aug 18, 2007
    #8
  9. Jay Lensgraf

    blurp Guest

    Well I'm in Canada (near Toronto) and I have a 1995 850 wagon. Last
    winter, with about 165000km, I discovered that, due to the previous
    owner's negligence, I would have to replace the entire head. I bought
    a used head with about 14000km on it for about $500, a head gasket
    replacement kit from FCP Groton for about $85 and a few other
    gaskets/head bolts for another $50, a new water pump locally, and had
    it all installed for about $500. 6 months prior I got an aftermarket
    radiator installed for about $200.

    Since then I've driven another 14,000 km trouble free and everything
    is lookin' good.

    So I'd say a) it's worth fixing; b) you can probably get a better deal
    on labour from a non-dealer garage; c) if you do some of the legwork
    yourself (eg. Groton sells the headgasket set as a complete kit, the
    dealer makes you buy every single gasket individually at astronomical
    rates; the head bolts cannot be re-used and there are 12 of them...$10
    each from the dealer or $2 each from Groton) you can save a bunch.

    Good luck!
    blurp
     
    blurp, Aug 20, 2007
    #9
  10. Jay Lensgraf

    Roadie Guest

    Ther's no reason you could not get a million or more miles if you are
    willing to keep up with maintenance and fix things when they
    inevitably break. It will be cheaper than buying a new car.

    If you otherwise like the car and are comfortable with it not being a
    new model then by all means fix Helga up and be money ahead.
     
    Roadie, Aug 20, 2007
    #10
  11. Jay Lensgraf

    franz47 Guest

    If there are parts which are not available on the aftermarket it may be worth to
    check at another car company which uses the same unit in its cars. For my Volvo
    745 TD 1989 with a Volkswagen diesel engine I needed the flywheel gear ring
    (ring around flywheel engaging in gear of starter). I got it at the Volkswagen
    dealer for about a third what the Volvo dealer wanted. As much as I know, the
    855 diesel engine is an Audi engine.
    Viktor
     
    franz47, Aug 20, 2007
    #11
  12. Jay Lensgraf

    Jay Lensgraf Guest

    Thanks for all the replies! She's in the shop now.

    Jay
    --
     
    Jay Lensgraf, Aug 20, 2007
    #12
  13. Jay Lensgraf

    John Horner Guest

    Beware the "improved" radiators. Often they are all metal deals which
    in practice don't last as long as the Volvo OE plastic jobs.
    Counterintuitive, but there you have it.
     
    John Horner, Aug 31, 2007
    #13
  14. Jay Lensgraf

    Joerg Lorenz Guest

    Same here in Switzerland.
    Joerg
     
    Joerg Lorenz, Aug 31, 2007
    #14
Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments (here). After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.