I would like some advice reguarding my 850's timing belt

dustinclish · Post by **dustinclish** » 10 Oct 2011, 23:33

My timing belt snapped and I have noise coming from my valves as well. I have 212k miles on my '94 850 Turbo and I'm trying to decide between getting this fixed, fixing it myself, or just saving money to get a new car. If you have delt with this problem or have any advice for me I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks everyone!

Post by **Juan62** » 11 Oct 2011, 05:26

If you want to keep the car; buy a used engine or fix it yourself.
If not, part it out and get a new one.

shegarty · Post by **shegarty** » 11 Oct 2011, 10:14

the answer really depends on how mechanically inclined you are and how long you can go without the car - the engine will likely require a complete top end rebuild with new valves & seals - this means pulling the head ...

my personal opinion would be to favour the rebuild, better the devil you know than the devil you don't - this would also be a good opportunity to return the car to stage 0 since you will have good access to a lot of other maintenance areas with the head removed

Post by **cn90** » 11 Oct 2011, 10:33

It all depends how much you are in love with your car.
Remember this is an 18-year-old car with 212K miles. The book values is probably $1000 or so.

A cylinderhead job is not cheap, even if you do it yourself.

On the other hand, if you can pick up a "new" 2004-2008 V70 with 80-100K miles for about $6000-8000.
(From what I gather 1999-2003 have some ETM issues, so stay away from those year, I may be wrong though).

It is your call. If this were me, I'd save up the money and go for a "new" car.

VolvoTurbo850 · Post by **VolvoTurbo850** » 11 Oct 2011, 15:45

Some cars are like bad girlfriends.. you just gotta let them go if you have no idea how to fix them.

You could pick up another 850 for about 1000 bucks and depending on your space for parking and curiosity you could most likely swap things from one to the other.

That's how I started and now look at me .. LOL

cjep · Post by **cjep** » 11 Oct 2011, 19:20

Even if you do everything yourself, the little costs can add up. The gaskets, seals, belts, etc will cost a couple of hundred dollars at least, and if you need to buy tools it all adds up. If you send the head to a shop it will cost a another couple of hundred at the very least. My head gasket change ended up costing me over $1000 (the heads needed straightening), on a car worth not much more. But now it runs well!

So, it is probably not the most economical solution, but if you do it yourself you will learn a lot and have fun! You will also get a lot of help here when needed.

/Clinton

midniteliquid · Post by **midniteliquid** » 11 Oct 2011, 21:16

My sister had this exact same scenario play out on her stupid '07 Hyundai Accent. My Dad and I ended up helping her by doing all of the wrenching on it. We took the head to Carquest's Machine Shop for new valves, valve job, tank cleaning, and milling of the mating surfaces. In all it cost her $500.00 for the headwork, another couple hundred for the gaskets and fluids. It took us 3 days from start to finish with the machine shop turning the head around in a day...

It is an involved process, but a few hundred on a car you already own is better than a car payment.