Here is everything wrong with my 855R

Hadrien75 · Post by **Hadrien75** » 25 Nov 2018, 15:34

Hello guys,

Just bought an nice red 855R, had 20 cars before I have almost never like one as much as this one. I bought the car about 2month ago and drove it back from Stockholm to Paris where i live.
After 2 month of ownership and seing how much i like the car i want to put it in tip top shape.
It was owned by a Volvo Mechanic for 10 years and about 200.000km ( total is 360.000km ) so i was very well taken care of.

Here is everything wrong with it and stuff needed to be done :

- WOT : I can do wot in 1st, almost in 2nd and then 3,4,5 the car accelerates but keeps on cutting power through the acceleration, like it is cutting on purpose. If i just put the pedal at 70% then no problems it accelerates quite nicely.
I am guessing power is there even at 70% cause i touched the speed limiter at 261km/h on the autobahn.

Leak from somewhere ? or plugs ? I am going to do a full stage 0 asap to start fresh anyway.
What are the mandatory things for a nice stage 0 ? The engine bay looks really clean but i am tempted for exemple to change all the vacuum lines... pcv is going to get changed too, should i go ipd or volvo ?

- I have a circular noise coming from the front of the car which is only hearable from the inside, the noise is linked to the speed of the car, the faster i go the faster the click noise appear, above 50kmh the click noise disappear.

- The engine temperature is in the middle of the gauge sitting in traffic or in the city, as soon as i hit the highway or b road, it drops to about 1/3. Thermostat is gone and stuck wide open isn't it ?

- Boost gauge isn't working at all, is there any way to check it ?

- The speedometer and digital counter is working but not the mechanical one. I heard it is a pretty commun 850 problem, is it easy to fix ?

- Last timing belt has been done at 325k km, i am going to have it made soon to start fresh. What are the other things to do while at it ? Water pump of course, but maybe other things too...?

- The air-conditioning isn't working. I think i might bring this to a specialised mechanic or is there a commun problem with those ?

- The commuter switch for the air blower is turning but the air only blows from below the front glass windshield, i can't choose the air to be towards my head, feet, or anywhere else.

- Being a swedish version, i have the front fog lights which are always on. Is there a way to by pass this ? I mean is this a ECU code that needs to be modify or is it hardware ?

- The right side of the car under bumps has a metal noise, i guess some bushing are dead. In this case what is the most commun procedure change all the bushing and start fresh ? Or check one by one and change each which need to be changed ?

Sorry for a lot of questions ! But thanks a lot in advance for the help !

Hadrien

Post by **abscate** » 26 Nov 2018, 04:46

Bon jour, Hadrien!

Easy things first

The sway bar links on these cars usually make the metal noise in front

The timinh belt job due should include a new Volvo brand water pump at your mileage.

If you like the Autobahn speeds, I would use Volvo parts only. For the PCV, the non Volvo rubber lasts about one year.

Replace the thermostat, use new screws for the housing, and be careful removing the. Old ones, the heads like to strip. Use loosening oil like Liquid Wrench and a sharp, good quality tool bit

If you haven't done AC work, usually it means a AC shop. The weak point of the Volvo AC is the evaporator which requires about 10 hours of labor to replace. You can save a lot by doing all the labor yourself, replacing the evaporator and other parts , about 200EU, then having the system charged by the shop

Hadrien75 · Post by **Hadrien75** » 26 Nov 2018, 06:12

Thanks for your answer !

Okay i will check the sway bar links to see if they are the clonk noise in the front.
I like autobahn speed but i like even more to do a nice job once then redo it a year later. I will stick with Volvo parts then.

Okay i will be careful for the thermostat, is there different temp thermostat to choose from ?

I will check a tutorial for the evaporator cause 10 hours of labor in France is pricey ahah if it isn't too complicated maybe i can try myself.

Sommerfeldt · Post by **Sommerfeldt** » 26 Nov 2018, 08:34

Okay, so I thought I'd chip in my 2 cent. Euro-cents, that is.

- Read your codes, if any! Clear them and see what comes back. WOT issue could be a lot of things, but go over all your rubber - that should be almost top of the list anyway. Change hoses to silicone, from tiny vacuum hoses to big air hoses. Get some decent hose clamps as well.

- PCV, like you said. Get the iPD or the Volvo - I've had good results with both. It can be a bit of a bear of a job first time, but stick with it and follow the writeups and advice here, and you'll be good. Been there, done that, several times.

- Boost gauge. Take off the kick panel under the steering wheel. Find the vacuum line that connects to the gauge, and follow it to see if it's connected. It should run out through the grommet in the firewall, to the vacuum tree. It's a hard line in the engine bay, most of the time.

- Clicky noise. First thing that comes to mind is CV joints. Check them. They will click and then groan and then you're spewing wheels and parts all over the autobahn (okay... that's not true unless you really ignore some massive noise

). Could also be wheel bearings, but they groan and hum more than they click...

- Engine temp. You're right - it's the thermostat. There are 2 (maybe 3) available. You can get an "extra cold" one (I think it's 72 deg. C) but that one is bovine excrement. You need the one Volvo recommends, which I think is 85 or 89 degrees... they had two different ones, now there's only one. Ask your nearest Volvo mech. They're not expensive.

- 360k is only 35k from last timing belt change. You don't have to do that if you have papers on the last change. I do understand the peace of mind it might offer, though.

- No idea about the speedo - I've never had that issue.

- AC - do what abscate said.

- Sounds like you're stuck in defrost. On an ECC unit, that can be a bit of a bear. Best first step is to put everything in Auto and listen to it, try to work out what moves and what doesn't. Check the servos you can reach under the dash, and go from there. Getting to the parts is quite a bit of interior disassembly.

- Swedish version should not have fog lights stuck on. Parking lights should be on all the time (i.e. white lights to the sides of the headlights), headlights should be on all the time, but fog lights should have their own switch to the left of the steering wheel. If it's not there, someone did weird things.

- Metal clunky noise. What abscate said.

- S

Hadrien75 · Post by **Hadrien75** » 26 Nov 2018, 09:16

- I am getting a code reader soon gonna check then what code do i have.
The hoses are already silicone, i am planing on changing all the vacuum lines already. Will check all the big air hoses and clamps too.

- I will get a Volvo PCV, i have worked on a lot of motorcycles before so i might be able to do the job of changing it alone. From the tutorial i have seen i should manage.

- Boost gauge. Okay i will check that.

- CV joints ? Hum okay gonna put the car on a lift and check but i am heading towards a wheel bearing.

- The odometer isn't working so actually i don't know if it is 360k or 370k, the previous owner told me the odometer stopped working not too long ago but just to be sure i prefer to do it.

- Yeah i meant odometer, i found a tutorial to fix it.

- Ok i will try to put it on auto and listen to everything. Then check servos like you said.

- Sorry parking lights are on all the times and headlights too. I managed to turn that off with a small screwdriver on the headlight knob there is a little screw which can be turned on or off.

I will try all those things and come back to you guys, thanks !!

Hadrien75 · Post by **Hadrien75** » 03 Dec 2018, 15:53

Sommerfeldt wrote: ↑26 Nov 2018, 08:34 Okay, so I thought I'd chip in my 2 cent. Euro-cents, that is.

- Read your codes, if any! Clear them and see what comes back. WOT issue could be a lot of things, but go over all your rubber - that should be almost top of the list anyway. Change hoses to silicone, from tiny vacuum hoses to big air hoses. Get some decent hose clamps as well.

- PCV, like you said. Get the iPD or the Volvo - I've had good results with both. It can be a bit of a bear of a job first time, but stick with it and follow the writeups and advice here, and you'll be good. Been there, done that, several times.

- Boost gauge. Take off the kick panel under the steering wheel. Find the vacuum line that connects to the gauge, and follow it to see if it's connected. It should run out through the grommet in the firewall, to the vacuum tree. It's a hard line in the engine bay, most of the time.

- Clicky noise. First thing that comes to mind is CV joints. Check them. They will click and then groan and then you're spewing wheels and parts all over the autobahn (okay... that's not true unless you really ignore some massive noise ). Could also be wheel bearings, but they groan and hum more than they click...

- S

- I checked the vacuum lines and the white vacuum line of the boost gauge was indeed disconnected, i plug it back in and tadaa both gauge were back working again ( there is a second aftermarket one installed too ). All the hase have been changed to silicone already and look in good shape. Also the vacuum lines are all very rubbery and not dry they all look good.
The car run great the reading i got were -0,7 bar at iddle and about 0,7/0,6 bar on WOT. It wouldn't go further on 1,2 and 3 gear but on 4th it as soon as it was going over 0,7 it would back down again and the car was kinda shaking on the acceleration so there is still a leak.

- PCV, someone told me when the engine is warm open the oil cap or the dipstick and see if smoke comes out, there wasn't any.

- clicky noise : I changed the rims for winter ( they are t5r rims ) and the clicking noise which we believed to be a wheel bearing stopped.