1996 850 Wagon Service Light On Topic is solved

PeteB · Post by **PeteB** » 03 Mar 2016, 12:42

My son has Spring break next week so we are going to do the serpentine belt,
idlers and the timing belt.
Found this kit that seems to use OEM parts and includes a ContiTech serpentine belt,
Aisin water pump and INA idlers TBKIT252WP-OEGA:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo- ... 252wp-oega

$326 seems reasonable for OEM with water pump and serpentine belt, or is there
a better deal? I do have to also add the serpentine belt idlers.
Ours is the 4 valve NA motor and I'm fairly sure that this is the right one.

On the other hand, $141 for just the timing belt and idlers OEM is a lot more reasonable,
but how risky is it to go with the original water pump at about 140K miles?
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo- ... o-30758260

PeteB · Post by **PeteB** » 04 Mar 2016, 11:09

Going to order all the parts to do the serpentine and timing belts.
My son says that the battery seems weak and it is possible that the screech
is coming from the alternator. The alternator light is not on so I'm not sure
if it is just an old battery or the alternator. I have cleaned the connections
just in the last few months.

Can't seem to find an alternator for much less than $200, any good sources?

Teddy1975 · Post by **Teddy1975** » 04 Mar 2016, 12:52

Hi Pete.

Found this when I looked at my alternator myself, http://www.volvotips.com/index.php/850- ... ce-manual/

To test the current output you would need an ammeter rated for 100A, there are some on Ebay like this. I haven't tried using this myself and if you're not used to working with high current, I'd advise you to get the alternator output tested at a shop instead.

The voltage drop tests are easy to do however and you can use a cheap volt/multimeter for that.

PeteB · Post by **PeteB** » 05 Mar 2016, 08:44

Thanks, excellent info!

PeteB · Post by **PeteB** » 13 Mar 2016, 18:31

PeteB wrote: Is the replacement gear any better, hope we get more than 90K out of it.

To answer my own question, I read somewhere that the original orange gear is the
one that fails and that the white replacements last a long time.
IPD kit with bulbs:
http://www.ipdusa.com/products/4709/109 ... r-bulb-kit

Excellent video on how to do it:

Robert's video on how to add miles:

Post by **erikv11** » 14 Mar 2016, 09:00

The gears usually break when we push the reset while the car is moving. If you never, ever do that, you will probably never see another one break.

It looks like you never got a reply up there about water pumps: it is fine to let the original water pump go to 200k, e.g. 3rd timing belt. Many people have let them go longer without bad consequences.

PeteB · Post by **PeteB** » 16 Mar 2016, 09:05

erikv11 wrote:The gears usually break when we push the reset while the car is moving. If you never, ever do that, you will probably never see another one break.

It looks like you never got a reply up there about water pumps: it is fine to let the original water pump go to 200k, e.g. 3rd timing belt. Many people have let them go longer without bad consequences.

The old pump was half way off by the time I read this post and I'm having
a hard time getting the old gasket material off. Here is the thread:
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... =1&t=74727

This will probably be the last water pump on this car since I don't think we'll
take it past 250K miles, probably good that I did it anyway but I wouldn't be
surprised if the first pump made it to 250K.

PeteB · Post by **PeteB** » 19 Mar 2016, 20:20

Car is running fine with the new timing and serpentine belts, ran it over to a local
dealer and they read out the mileage, and reset the SRS and Service lights no charge!
Mileage is 153,286 miles.

Did the odometer gear and dash lights today, followed the IPD video and it went fine.
I stuck a piece of tape below the odometer with +63,462 written on it since I didn't
have the time to advance it all those miles.

Changed the oil and did another transmission drain and fill today at 89,834 miles.

Installed new rear brake hardware as described here:
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... 73#p398073

PeteB · Post by **PeteB** » 14 Jun 2016, 07:58

The car clicked a few times, then started last week.
Today battery was dead in the morning and they had to jump it.
Odd thing is that after the clicks and driving it, it started strong the rest of the day.
Should we do the battery first?
I suppose we should have the battery tested then assume intermittent drain or charging.
Thoughts?

Post by **abscate** » 14 Jun 2016, 08:40

How old is the battery? You can put enough charge in a battery to start strong in about 15 minutes of driving, but if the battery is old it won't hold it for long.

Sounds like you have a drain on the battery AND an old battery. If you have an ammeter with a decent range of a few amps, you can put it in series

(remove neg cable, VOM on AMP scale, one lead to disconnected neg cable, other lead touch NEG battery post) and read the current.

Over 0.050 Amp is too much.

1996 850 Wagon Service Light On Topic is solved

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