recent purchase volvo 850 GLE 1995

[blackcomb1]

Hello

I am in Canada not the US, Ontario near the border. I recently bought privately a volvo 850 GLE, 150,000 Kms on the clock so he tells me as odometer does not work (I learned from reviews that commonly they are faulty) but the engine keeps an accurate record if it.

Bit annoyed to day to say the least. After dropping my little boy off at preschool car wouldn't start, accelerator felt not normal. Called out CAA (after another parent asked if I had brake leads as he could tell my battery needed a charge on hearing me trying to start the car).

CAA tested my battery and it's good, it was the accelerator lead cable causing the problem, car had been sat as he guessed by the last owner, and that caused the problem, he WD40'd it and it was starting again but! as the accelerator linkage was popping off at the base, he suggested to have my car towed to a garage and I wanted to do that to be safer than sorry.

Good job I did, I wanted to get a service done anyway, although I didn't buy the car until it was certified and safety checked first, though I paid for that but not the parts as I told the seller would be the case, wasn't buying the car until I knew it passed, it did.

However! on having it serviced as well as the other problem fixed today (not the whole thing just what needed doing), they picked up on the fact the drivers axle was broken and showed me.. not impressed to think that guy who certified it (mechanic that the seller used mostly), had clearly passed it safety tested safe, and he and the owner must have known.
So I am going to report it to the Ministry for the mechanic passing faulty cars that are not safe, which is putting lives at risk, I don't take it lightly that it put mine and my little boys life at risk already.

I hope I don't cost me more in the process of having him reported however! I guess I will just have to rely on the engine computer telling me the true mileage ongoing. So bad day today I have to say. At least the car is okay now I have had those two things fixed and it's been serviced and checked thoroughly.

Other than this, can you only purchase volvo 50/50 coolant from the dealers, as I noted on checking my fluids this morning that it states to not use anything other than that one.

Also, on purchasing the car, the guy was honest and told me the mechanic dropped something on the bonnet and it caused a small dent, I have since seen it has rusted (how much will it cost to get a rust spot fixed) about the size of a large coin (so not huge), but from what I know car was rust proofed while he had it as he assured me car would not rust, and other than that small one on the bonnet, there isn't any anywhere else.

Thanks in advance

[rspi]

Wow, all over the place. Welcome to the forum.

Anyway, you can get a paint touch up kit to spot the area on the hood. No reason to go crazy about that on a 18 year old car.

As for the axle, was the cv boot torn or the axle broke? These cars to do drive it an axle is broken.

Coolant, that coolant is a special type, there are 2 or 3 sorces for that type of coolant. Can't remember what it's called but most of use use the regular old Prestone type coolant.

The proper mileage is kept in the odo cluster. It can be checked by using the OBD-I port under the hood.

You would do yourself good by reading this thread: http://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-850- ... v70s-9266/

[blackcomb1]

Ooh thank you for all those good tips, some I am not totally familiar with:

OBD-1 port under the hood, how and what do I need to check the mileage accurately with?

Where do I get that special coolant from, I am guessing only via the volvo dealer?
I am glad I read this from you first, as Canadian tire looked up my car and told me any premix 50/50 coolant would do! Seems not to be the case and I don't want to ruin my car so am taking your sound advice not theirs.

I would say the axle was broken looking at it when my car was in the air, you can't get head under car to take a look when on the ground, so I am glad they pointed it out to me, the rubber cover on the leg of the axle was in a very poor state too, and my first impression of that whole thing was that it was broken, surprised it was driving at all to be honest, but I didn't feel so safe when I saw it, there was a definite pull to the left of the steering wheel before it was fixed too and the wheel was not straight (steering wheel on driving the car). Now it is after being fixed and the wheel alignment done on it once fixed.

Where do I get that paint touch up kit from, and the dark green paint to repaint it once rust is taken off and done?

What were you trying to say here when you said, "These cars to do drive it an axle is broken", can you repeat in English so I can understand thanks. I hope they don't commonly have a problem with axles??

Thanks again, I appreciate this sound feedback. I am contemplating having my car serviced with the volvo dealer next time to save hassle of them ordering parts from them anyway! and to ensure it's done properly.
I will go check out that website link you gave me.

[Ozark Lee]

Where do I get that special coolant from, I am guessing only via the volvo dealer?
I am glad I read this from you first, as Canadian tire looked up my car and told me any premix 50/50 coolant would do! Seems not to be the case and I don't want to ruin my car so am taking your sound advice not theirs.

The Volvo branded coolant is obviously a good choice but there are less expensive alternatives available that are equally as good. The Volvo coolant is actually a brand called Pentosin. On this side of the line we can buy it (full strength) at O'Reilly Auto Parts for around $25.00 / Gallon. The coolant I use on all of my cars is Zerex G05 and I think I paid around $14.00 / gallon, also full strength. It is available at NAPA auto parts stores here.

OBD-1 port under the hood, how and what do I need to check the mileage accurately with?

Assuming that the instrument cluster is original to the car the actual mileage is read through port A-7. There are detail in this post from the repair database:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... php?t=6731

Where do I get that paint touch up kit from, and the dark green paint to repaint it once rust is taken off and done?

I use www.paintscratch.com for small amounts to cover areas that just need to be touched up. You will need your color code which is located on the product plate, under the hood on the inside of the fender, more or less just above the battery. The color code is the third set of numbers down on the right hand side of the plate. The code is a 3 digit number followed by a single digit number. The single digit number is the paint manufacturer code and normally isn't important.

The axles on the cars are really no more or less problematic than any other front wheel drive car. Where they become problematic is when they are replaced with inferior quality parts. There is a wide range of prices on the aftermarket axles - from around $50.00 each to nearly $200.00 each. The $50.00 versions are often of such poor quality that they won't even fit the splines in the transmission. I have been very unhappy with aftermarket axles with one exception, http://www.raxles.com/ . They are at the upper end of the price range but the axles fit well and function like a new OEM axle. With Raxles you buy them, install them, and you are done for essentially the rest of the life of the car. On some occasions you can repair the axles yourself if you catch a split boot fast enough. Replacement boots cost around $15.00 each and are fairly easy to install. From the sounds of things your boots have been tattered for quite a while so replacing the boots will likely not help you.

...Lee

[blackcomb1]

Thank you for the very full and informative response, very helpful. I couldn't locate my paint on that site, so sent them a message instead. A volvo dealer via email told me my car paint colour was Tropic green metalic, colour code 142, however I can't find any paint with that code for a 1995 volvo! They all seem to show a 1981-1984 one of that colour, so am not sure they got it right either, and they only had my VIN number but that site says you can't find the colour via a VIN number. Edited to add, I have since worked out the donkey at the dealers who emailed me did a typo or got the code wrong in any case. It was on that list, it is code 412! But I can't order it from the US to Canada on that site (grrr), so found another site where I can instead, still cheap enough apart from ruddy postage as per usual with UPS, and I can't stand UPS! who never deliver your mail anyway, I will keep hunting I think.

More accurately, looking at the car, sometimes it looks blue more than green, but it's a deep green for sure. Maybe it's blue green metalic? No idea where to find it written anywhere on the car, it wasn't obvious when I looked for.

Well car was towed (again) last week, good job I made it back from work the night before and collected my little one from the babysitters. Same issue as the first time, so I had it fixed properly this time via tow from CAA, and a volvo forum mechanic recommendation local to where I live in Canada. It got fixed properly and not at a rip off price either (another reason I did my homework to find a good volvo mechanic). Emission light still on though, he said he wanted to fix it too but the part had to be ordered and is on it's way so he will call me once it's there at his end, it's the reason the odometer does not work too he said, so looks like it will all be good after he sorts that one out soon too. Car running well now at least. I wouldn't know about fixing things on it, I can fix people not cars unfortunately, though friends of mine are engineers just none local to me, I did a car maintenance course in the past for simple things like oil and filter change and spark plugs, windscreen wipers etc, but anything more complex I leave for (this mechanic from now on). I've hired him as my regular in any case. Get it fixed, get it fixed properly I say by someone who knows what he's doing, not some crap garage who rips people off and doesn't do things properly.

Coolant wise, I changed the one I initially bought for a brand at Canadian tire that other volvos use local to me, not as cheap as that other one, it's a premix one I got, but if they are using it and recommend it I trust it too.

Suz