i guess my wife finally killed our 854

Post by **Clemens** » 24 Sep 2016, 12:44

So my wife doesn't care about cars too?much. She wrecked my beautiful audi a6 and when?i?re0laced it with my awesome 96 R she decided to daily drive our old 854 2.5 10V. It has seen little maintenance in the last few years other than refill oil, get newish brakes, plugs and wires and oilr refill/change. It has bad valve stem seals, an AT that shifts hard, abs tracs malfunction and painting peel. Just a decent daily driver.
I told her to?check the oil every time she fuels up. Today she came home with what sounds like a rod knock and over 3 quarts low on oil. After pouring almost a gallon into the motor the rod knock disappeared. I have to mention that when the oil is cold it sometimes knocks for a few seconds (running 15 w-40 because it burns less oil with 15w 40 than with better oil). Btw., she replied that she hasn't checked oil on any car in 10 years...

My question is: should i be looking for a new 850 right now before this one blows up or do you think this might have done only minor damage? I know, noone can tell for?sure, just trying to collect opinions / experience.

Thanks

Post by **abscate** » 24 Sep 2016, 20:05

The bottom ends on these engines are really tough. Keep driving it but take over the oil level checks

Post by **rspi** » 24 Sep 2016, 20:12

Clemens wrote:I told her to?check the oil every time she fuels up.

I would never leave maintenance or things like that up to my wife to check. Come to think of it, the last few years that my wife was driving, I always took her vehicle to get gas, clean it in and out, etc. It's what guys should do.

I just purchased a car with a knock and it lasted about 4.3 miles before it threw a rod out of the block between the oil trap fat hose and starter bracket bolt. So much for that T5 engine.

If it's not knocking, it will probably be ok. If I were you, I'd try to find a place to have the oil sampled to see what's floating in it.

Post by **abscate** » 24 Sep 2016, 20:28

SWMBO is so easy on the cars, 200k on clutches , 50k on brakes tires, I did the gas and checks until each teen started driving, then they each got a car assigned on its own schedule..typically once a month.

Post by **tryingbe** » 24 Sep 2016, 22:25

Fix her car or check the oil yourself.

Post by **shiloh51933** » 25 Sep 2016, 09:15

After I killed my wife's 96 850, well it wasn't dead just a burnt valve but didn't have time for that so I got her an '04 XC70 W/factory xenon head lights in excellent condition. Our 96 had over 300k at that point and everything including a/C worked. I do everything for our vehicles, It's just what I do. I grew up working on cars, went to automotive schools and worked in the field some time b4 I changed fields. It's habbit for me, I go threw out 4 vehicles constantly doing PM's. We have a 2000 V70XC and 2004 XC70. I'm going to buy her a 2015 XC70, we like that model a lot.

Post by **hausmeister** » 27 Sep 2016, 14:56

Clemens wrote: I have to mention that when the oil is cold it sometimes knocks for a few seconds

That is most likely just the hydraulic lifters of the valves that rattle until oil pressure builds. If that was the sound it made then it should be ok, maybe just low oil pressure. Let her drive it until it blows

Maybe do an oilchange on the transmission, might fix the hard shifting.

Yes, some people are that way... either you do the maintenance or get her a new car that tells her to drive to the stealership every x km

Post by **850 LPT** » 28 Sep 2016, 05:49

You say she might have killed it but I think you helped a little but by letting her take care of it. That part doesn't seem to work out that well soooo please take over maintaining her car (s).

She and the car will love you more for it.

By the way, it never hurts to look around and see if there are nice P80's to snatch up. That's what I do anyways

Post by **abscate** » 28 Sep 2016, 08:54

850 LPT wrote:You say she might have killed it but I think you helped a little but by letting her take care of it. That part doesn't seem to work out that well soooo please take over maintaining her car (s).

She and the car will love you more for it.

By the way, it never hurts to look around and see if there are nice P80's to snatch up. That's what I do anyways

Tough love here on MVS.

She did you a favor wrecking that Audi - one of the few cars that make Volvo look cheap.

AKJeeper · Post by **AKJeeper** » 28 Sep 2016, 12:02

Back in the late 80's, my mom ran the family's Toyota Tercel wagon completely out of oil. The oil filter o-ring had turned elliptical in cold Alaskan winter weather (a problem I learned later was common to Fram filters of the era) and dumped all of the oil out. She noticed the red oil light on, turned around, and drove it about 2 miles slowly back to the house, engine knocking/rattling like crazy. I've never seen my dad so pissed off "if ANY red light comes on when you're driving, pull over and shut the car down!". Long story short, my dad put a new oil filter on...filled the crankcase full of oil. At that point in time, the car was around the 100k mark. Dad made sure to check on the family's cars religiously from that point on out (a habit that I still have today). The car lived on to well beyond the 250k mark, and was still running like a sewing machine when it was finally sent to the junkyard in the mid 2000's due to rust.

I guess my point is, sometimes you can get lucky. You may want to do an early oil change to flush out any contaminants that may have built up in your engine from this incident. I'd probably inspect the turbo, see if the turbine shaft has any play in it. Pretty sure that RSPI has some videos on that. Maybe plumb up an oil pressure gauge and see what the car produces at a hot idle. Oil pressure tends to go way low at hot idle if the main bearings or rod bearings are toast. I agree with RSPI's suggestion of having an oil sample taken - that will most definitely tell you if any excessive wear is occurring in your engine.