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Car Forum / Volvo Cars / August 2007opinions please! (1995 850 wagon)
-- 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. >-- 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 [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >her in on a newer model, or bite the bullet, fix her, and hope nothing >else bad happens for a while. 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 > >-- 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 [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > Chuck Fiedler > Nothing but Volvo since 1974 -- Thanks Chuck Jay c.fiedler@sbcglobal.net schrieb: > I say fix it. So would I do here in Europe, Austria. Viktor > c.fiedler@sbcglobal.net schrieb: > > > I say fix it. > > So would I do here in Europe, Austria. > Viktor Thank you Viktor Jay -- > c.fiedler@sbcglobal.net schrieb: > >> I say fix it. > > So would I do here in Europe, Austria. > Viktor 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  SignatureMarineYacht Yacht Charters www.marineyacht.com > 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. 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 car´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 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 >> 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 [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >Regards >Viktor > the > dealer makes you buy every single gasket individually at astronomical > rates 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 > > the > > dealer makes you buy every single gasket individually at astronomical [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > 855 diesel engine is an Audi engine. > Viktor Thanks for all the replies! She's in the shop now. Jay -- > c.fied...@sbcglobal.net schrieb: > > > I say fix it. > > So would I do here in Europe, Austria. > Viktor Same here in Switzerland. Joerg > 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 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. 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. >-- 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 [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >her in on a newer model, or bite the bullet, fix her, and hope nothing >else bad happens for a while. On Aug 17, 9:14 am, "Jay Lensgraf" <jlensgraf@NO_UCEsbcglobal.net> wrote: > -- 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 [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > What is a reasonable number of miles to expect from this mostly > highway driven car? 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. > 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. 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.
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