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Check engine light after coolant change

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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estipe
Posts: 10
Joined: 13 March 2013
Year and Model: 850, 1995
Location: Portland, OR

Check engine light after coolant change

Post by estipe »

Hello all,

I just flushed my coolant, replaced with Zerex G-05. However, when I was burping the system the check engine light came on. There appears to have been a sizeable bubble trapped in the system somewhere, because it took quite a while for it to surface. By the time the reservoir needed to be refilled, however, the light had been on for a while. Shop is closed this weekend and the auto parts store down the street can't read any thing older than a '96.

Here were my steps:

Drain via the lower radiator hose.
Reconnect, flush with distilled water.
Drain water, it was running clear by the end.
Reconnect, filled with coolant.
Brought up to temp, let run. (This is where the check engine light came on)
Let run longer, bumped the RPMs a bit, finally burped.

It appears to be running okay, and the temp gauge is maintaining a stead horizontal, 3oclock.

Any initial thoughts before I get the code read? Am I overlooking something?

Thanks,

Eric
Current:
1995 850, black, manual
Previous:
1988 240, beige, manual
1998 v70, red, automatic

precopster
Posts: 7543
Joined: 21 August 2010
Year and Model: Lots
Location: Melbourne Australia
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Post by precopster »

These fives usually need multiple topups after warm/cool cycles to get their coolant level correct.

I suspect the engine code is for something entirely unrelated.
Current cars VW Transporter 2.5TDI, 2010 XC90 D5 R Design

mercuric
Posts: 233
Joined: 15 February 2013
Year and Model: 1997 850 T5
Location: Austin, TX
Been thanked: 1 time

Post by mercuric »

Yup, probably unrelated.

On a 1995 you should have a little box under the hood that allows you to read codes via a little blinky LED:
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/read-codes-volvo-850

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