opinions please! (1995 850 wagon)

First, I would not trade in the vehicle. You won't get squat for it.

Second, I would find a non-dealer mechanic to do the work. This is not highly specialized work. A head milling and gasket replacement isn't all that bad. Be sure the valves and guides are checked and replaced as needed. As for the radiator, I believe IPD has an improved replacement for the original radiator. See

If the car has been "pretty trouble free till now", I wouldn't give up just for these issues. You don't say directly but I assume this is a non-turbo vehicle so you don't have that set of issues to worry about.

I say fix it.

Chuck Fiedler Nothing but Volvo since 1974

-- Thanks Chuck

Jay

snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net schrieb:

So would I do here in Europe, Austria. Viktor

Thank you Viktor Jay

From The Neherlands I would also recommend to fix it. I'm pretty active on the Dutch 850 forum

and we have quite a number of cars with a mileage of 300.000 and more. Expect maintenance costs to increase as well, however.

Good luck! Marc

Newer models are ... newer, but overall weaker. They don't built quality like they use to. And not just about cars. You have yourself a great car. It's normal to incur maintenance costs.

"Marc" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:46c6029e$0$37743$ snipped-for-privacy@dreader2.news.tiscali.nl...

The cost of buying a new car is the single biggest cost factor in driving a car. IMHO, as long as you are happy with the safety level of the model, the car´s body is healthy, you have a good experienced non-Volvo-dealer mechanic with reasonable prices, access to junk yards with Volvo parts and and the internet for buying new or second hand parts you are cheaper off with repairing it, even if maintenance costs increase. If you sum it up and divide it by the mileage you will still do fine, especially if you can expect higher lifetimes with this brand of car compared to many others. Regards Viktor

Well I'm in Canada (near Toronto) and I have a 1995 850 wagon. Last winter, with about 165000km, I discovered that, due to the previous owner's negligence, I would have to replace the entire head. I bought a used head with about 14000km on it for about $500, a head gasket replacement kit from FCP Groton for about $85 and a few other gaskets/head bolts for another $50, a new water pump locally, and had it all installed for about $500. 6 months prior I got an aftermarket radiator installed for about $200.

Since then I've driven another 14,000 km trouble free and everything is lookin' good.

So I'd say a) it's worth fixing; b) you can probably get a better deal on labour from a non-dealer garage; c) if you do some of the legwork yourself (eg. Groton sells the headgasket set as a complete kit, the dealer makes you buy every single gasket individually at astronomical rates; the head bolts cannot be re-used and there are 12 of them...$10 each from the dealer or $2 each from Groton) you can save a bunch.

Good luck! blurp

Ther's no reason you could not get a million or more miles if you are willing to keep up with maintenance and fix things when they inevitably break. It will be cheaper than buying a new car.

If you otherwise like the car and are comfortable with it not being a new model then by all means fix Helga up and be money ahead.

"blurp" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

If there are parts which are not available on the aftermarket it may be worth to check at another car company which uses the same unit in its cars. For my Volvo

745 TD 1989 with a Volkswagen diesel engine I needed the flywheel gear ring (ring around flywheel engaging in gear of starter). I got it at the Volkswagen dealer for about a third what the Volvo dealer wanted. As much as I know, the 855 diesel engine is an Audi engine. Viktor

Thanks for all the replies! She's in the shop now.

Jay

Beware the "improved" radiators. Often they are all metal deals which in practice don't last as long as the Volvo OE plastic jobs. Counterintuitive, but there you have it.

Same here in Switzerland. Joerg