thanks again folks! Definitely time for a new mechanic. Nice to know she can drive it too, even for a long highway excursion? 1000 miles?

Thanks for all the input. Milage is about 180K, odometer is broken though so its hard to say for sure. The smoke only appeared to be coming from the turbo oil drain pipe, the pipe that drops over the top towards the firewall. It smoked intermitently, most noticably after driving for 20 minutes or so...

Ha! I knew they were the most expensive shop in town, thats why I stopped going there 5 years ago, but I didn't know it was that bad. That cracks me up. I must be missing something on their estimate though, parts for fixing the leak at the turbo charger is listed at 1150, that can't be for an O ring...

Ok, got some details to share...The problem with the turbo is leakage at the oil return pipe, it needs to be replaced or resealed. Quote on that was $1600 alone. The PCV housing is leaking as well.
You have given me some hope on getting it running, its a fun car to drive.

Thanks for the reply.
I'll have to double check the estimate for repair to see what was wrong with the turbo exactly, but the folks who checked it out are the go to shop in the Richmond area for volvos, its all they do.

I recently recommended a used volvo for my Mother in Law, and she asked me to find one for her. I located a nice looking 1997 red 850 T5 sedan, it appeared to be in good shape for $2400. We had our local mechanic check it out, and he gave it a stamp of approval. About a month later it started smokin...

Finally got a new battery and volt meter, and its running fine for now. No idea about the state of the alternator though. I think the regulator is internal, so replacing it is not quite as easy, or perhaps impossible. My question is, where do I test the voltage off of the alternator? where the batte...

I guess we didn't jump it correctly, got a few light sparks. I removed the battery and charged it with a plug in charger and it charged up pretty quickly. Put it back and the car was starting fine. Funny thing happened when I turned on the headlights, the rear defrost came on automatically. Oil pres...

Thanks for the response waynej, but you'll need to dumb it down for me for it to be any help. First of all, I don't have a battery charger, regulator, or a tachometer. I can get my hands on a charger easily, but will probably have to buy a regulator. Would it make more sense for me to just pull the ...

The problem started after driving in the rain a couple days ago. While driving it was loosing power, the turn signal even seemed to take it to the brink of stalling. After a few minutes I turned the headlights off and got what seemed like all of the power back. When I stopped the car and turned it o...