Thanks Earl. I'm glad to see there are Volvo techs that visit this board to help us out. I've told the mechanic at the private shop about the visibility of the evaporator, but he just insists otherwise. I guess sometimes people only see what they want to see. They've been really fair to me so far so I can afford to let it pass for now. My hope is, since they discovered a major leak in one of the lines, that there's not a problem with the evaporator.

The mechanic showed me an evaporator from an 850 before they began installing upstream pollen filters. He keep it at his desk to show what happens if that area isn't kept clean and dry. Every leaf, bug and road debris was piled against the evaporator creating a soggy wet area that quickly corroded causing leaks.