Thank you for the advice and info. Very well-appreciated.

For the record, this car was the single best value-for-money I've ever gotten out of a car: I bought it 4.5 years ago (with 230K miles) for $1500 as a winter "beater" that would allow me to garage my "fun" summer car during the snowy months ...

So, my beloved 1997 850 Wagon met its end today -- apparently I hit something (probably in my driveway, which was just plowed after a snow storm) that punctured the oil pan; by the time I realized something was wrong, the engine was already toast. Almost made it to 300K miles!

It's currently ...

Thanks for the quick response. The car does still have its headlight wipers, and they are still functional. I believe it still has the SAS pump; as far as I can tell, the secondary air system has its stock components in place. As for the hood alarm: maybe that's it? In the 3 years that I've owned ...

Hi all -- I was poking around today under the hood of my 1997 850 wagon and found an electrical connection that doesn't seem to be connected to anything. Does anyone have any idea what this is for? As you can tell, it's near the headlight assembly, in front of the battery. Thanks in advance.

IMG ...

As it turned out, somehow, one of the PCV breather hoses got pinched/crimped, which built up pressure in the crankcase, causing the cam sensor gasket to blow out, dumping oil all over my garage floor all at once. The car is good as new now. The garage floor? Well, at least it will be painted and ...

Hey all -- I have a sudden, without-warning issue with my 1997 Volvo 850 Wagon (non-turbo, automatic transmission), and I was wondering if any of you had any ideas. I've owned the car for about 15 months, and it has 263,000 miles. Over this time, I've replaced the PCV system and had a shop replace ...

Thanks for the quick reply. I guess it is the EGR. The problem isn't that the pipe is bent the wrong way (although we did notice that and had the pipe-bender out and ready to use), but rather that the male end of the EGR is too small in diameter for the female end of the OBX exhaust manifold.

For ...

Hey all -- I have a normally-aspirated 5-cyl 20v 850 Wagon, which recently developed an exhaust leak at the flex pipe, which I gather is exceedingly common. Coming from a Porsche-tuning background, I figured, "well, as long as I'm replacing, I might as well upgrade," and bought the exhaust manifold ...