Hi,

I am looking forward in buying a 850 turbo, it has roughly 50000 miles on it. What my question is its reliabilty on the turbo models. I have heard good and bad about the turbo model, as the turbo may tend to go wrong really easy once higher mileage is being attained, plus if the previous owner did not cool down the vehicle after hard run, the turbo could be toasted any time after my purchase.

Any how, have you had any major problem with your turbo or any other engine parts? Second question is how many miles can you do with a full tank of gas? And what is your mileage reading on your speedometer right now? Thanks for all the great effort for reading my post and please take a minute to reply my post. Thank you.

I have a 95 855 non turbo with 107,000 miles. I bought it with 52000 miles on it and the ONLY problems i have had is the transmission at 75k and AC compressor at 65k. Dealer quoted $3500 for R&R tranny. I bought one from Nils Sefdelt for $1300 and had a buddy install(he owns a auto repair shop). I just bought a 97 855R and did get the extended warranty to 100k for about $1150.

Ladies and gentlemens, thank you for our effort by typing all this valuable information. So, the turbo may be the least to be worry about, and what I should really check before buying are

1. Transmission

2. A/C

For these two items, what was the common problem for you? Can you please list it out. Thank you .

My major ongoing saga is the transmission. Shortly after I bought the car, I noticed the transmission started to slip. It would jerk into reverse and slide into the other gears. It tended to like neutral a lot and would slip into a drive gear during acceleration. I had it checked out at Aamco and they said nothing was wrong. Four months later, it died. I was at first hopeful that it was a PNP Switch but after careful consideration by the mechanic and my step Father who is also a mechanic (not a Volvo mechanic), they decided that it was a dead transmission. Given the facts, I am agreeing with them.

My advice to you would be this: Have the transmission checked out by a Volvo mechanic BEFORE you buy the car. I wish I had. Get the extended warranty. I wish I had.

I have no A/C problems. Can't help you there.

>>

My advice to you would be this: Have the transmission checked out by a Volvo mechanic BEFORE you

buy the car. I wish I had. Get the extended warranty. I wish I had. >>

How can a Volvo mechanic check the transmission and different from AAMCO? Test drive? Code checking? If the problem is intermittent or is 5K away from developing nobody can diagnose it.

Another question. Some transmissions go to 200K+, some fail at 60K and below. Why? Did Volvo do any failure analysis? What fails? TC? Valves? gears? Is it a random defect at manufacturer, design problem or bad driving habits?

Yuri

Aamco checked out my transmission 4 months ago when it started to fail and told me there was nothing wrong with the transmission. My Volvo technician told me that Aamco should have found the problem. Many here on this board have said not to take it to a transmission shop because they don't have the proper diagnostic tools.

I don't know why my transmission failed at 85k miles. All I know is that I bought this car last Summer and now I have to put 2200.00 in it. The mechanic said that the gears are stripped and the clutch is gone (automatic transmission).

The turbos are reliable and liquid cooled so they don't need

much care in terms of a cooldown period. Use synthetic oil

and it should last another 50K, easy.

I get 26-28 MPG on the highway. Figure 16 gallons in the tank

(it has more but will be reading close to empty). By 400 miles

you would be looking for fuel.

My wife has a 95 GLT (non-turbo) with 55K miles. The 95 seems to

have been a good year. It does have the useual Volvo problems

but the drivetrain has been very reliable (although the tranny does

need a new PNP switch which will I guess will run about $250

installed -- thats an external part to the tranny, though).

Oh, the brakes on the 95 have near perfect feel.

Owning both a turbo and non-turbo models I'd say you want the turbo.

I have a 94 turbo and have no complaints about the turbo part of the car. The only problem that I've had with the turbo is an oil leak from the return line. It was an easy fix that I did myself (directions on bay 13) with a little torque help from my husband. I have 85k miles on my car and am now having transmission problems. Mileage?......I get about 400 miles on a tank of gas. I am a commuter (40 miles one way in DC/Metro traffic) so my mileage may be different then some.

If I had a choice between turbo/non turbo model, I'd definately chose the turbo. It has the additional kick that I need to get on the DC beltway.

Although I don't own a turbo, I would echo derspi's comments that the turbo is probably the last thing to be concerned about based on what I have read here. The transmission and A/C would top my list of things to check. Check maintenance and service records and have the car inspected by a Volvo specialist- they know all the weak spots.

Well, my '95 850 turbo fits your question nicely actually, having about 89,000 kms. (roughly 55,000 miles then). Of all the things you should worry about, the turbo is the LEAST likely of them to cause you any headaches. I have yet to hear any owners on this board complain about having toasted turbos and the such. I guess if the previous owner was a total pig and thrashed his car day in and day out for every living second then yeah, there is a possibility that you will have problems with it.

Have yet to experience any engine related problems at all and I do run my car hard every now and then cause I tend to be lead-footed. Have had a sway-bar end link and thermostat replaced recently (thermostat very common problem but it's cheap to fix), A/C evaporator replaced under warranty(common problem on the '850s I hear so check if the car you're buying has had it replaced before and rest assured that if it did, then you've saved yourself a good bunch of money!). Heated seats have been inoperative 3 times so far but they have been easy fixes and now (with the help from this board actually) I can manage to fix it on my own in about 15 minutes. I'm also having problems with the dreaded PNP auto transmission switch that seems to cause quite a few headaches among owners.

Those have been the problems I've had thus far, no busted electricals (amazing in my opinion) except for one 3rd brake lamp bulb and that was two years ago. That has been my ownership experience thus far and although it has not been trouble-free, I've enjoyed this car a lot despite the few problems I have encountered along the way.