94 850 Damaged sub-frame....need advice!

[Wolverine Fan]

Hi All,

I haven't posted for a while since my son bent the sub-frame on my '94 850 wagon by somehow driving into a curb (don't ask how, I'm still not sure how it happened and never did get a straight answer).

Anyway, I have a bit of a dilemma. It would kill me to part with this car as I love it to death but I'm unsure of whether to attempt to sell it as is, or whether it would be cost effective to part it out via e-bay or some other method. I'm not sure if I can afford to have the car fixed as I'm sure that replacing the sub-frame will involve pulling the engine, and I'm unsure what other damage has been done. Does anyone have an idea of what a reasonable cost would be to have the sub-frame replaced? This is the biggest piece that I would have to have done, I feel that I would be able to do nearly everything else myself. The car is pushing 200k miles so would it even make sense to attempt a repair?

Need some advice....PLEASE!! Thanks in advance.

By the way, I've since purchased a '99 Saab 9-3 and as far as I'm concerned, the Volvo is a far superior car. I had to get another vehicle and there were no Volvo's that I could find that compared to mine in the area. Please forgive me

[MadeInJapan]

How badly was the subframe bent?
If it is minor and the car still can be aligned and engine mounts aren't out of place from the incident, you could probably just live with it. That said, even if it has to be pulled out and replaced, it's not as big of a repair as you might think and you should be able to get a subframe from either eBay or http://www.erievovo.com pretty easily (I have no idea on cost). You'll want to replace your broken mounts (if any) as well as your hydraulic engine mounts and subframe mounts. The engine can be hoisted up just enough (not really pulled) so besides axles and engine mounts, my understanding is that not much else really needs to be disconnected. This is a great opportunity to upgrade parts if you're interested in doing that.

I'm sure others with more knowledge on what this job requires will post up. Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

[Japedo]

It is very possible to locate another sub frame from a junk yard and replace yours. It would be a big job and unless you could do it yourself I wouldn't want to guess the cost.
I hit a curb with my first 850 6 years ago and bent the subframe. I didn't fix that car as the body twisted as well. I opted to buy another identical 850 and keep the damaged car for parts.
You could probably buy another 94 850 for well under 2000$ and know you had a spare drivetrain.

Japedo
94 850 turbo
01 V70 XC

[MadeInJapan]

Ways to hoist your engine vary, but here's Volvo's option (pretty much just holds it up):

engine holder.jpg (59.83 KiB) Viewed 912 times