I am trying to help a friend who really can't afford to take her 850 to a shop. I am not experienced in very complicated repairs and have no experience with Volvos.

The car has approx. 120K miles. Because of previous stalling problems, the alternator, spark plug wires, dist. rotor & cap have been replaced. Until now the stalling has not recurred.

The car has just passed the state emissions test, so I'm assuming the catalytic converter is O.K.

I understand, by searching this forum, that fault codes can pinpoint the problem. Are any of these codes readable without a special diagnostic tool? If they're not, are there any reasonably inexpensive things I can do (stabs in the dark) that might fix the problem. I don't know how expensive O2 sensors are, but that might be something I could do.

If I decide to undertake any work myself, I will get a shop manual. Any recommendations on which one to get?

If this seems like a problem that won't be easily solved by a well-intentioned amateur, I'd appreciate knowing that too.

Thanks for any input.


John