Hi chaps,
After a 100 mile drive today I was about to go out this evening and noticed a line of drips where I parked my 940 turbo and an ominous puddle next to the kerb. Lying in the snowy road I see steady dripping of coolant from the rear of the engine. Cant see any problems up top or at the front of the engine. Grovelling around underneath I see the dripping is coming from a coolant hose I never new existed! There would seem to be an oil cooling, filter holding housing with a flow ad a return hose. And one of the hoses would seem to be leaking. One of them has a 13mm drain bolt on it. I tightened it a quarter turn but sadly it wasn't that, it must be the other hose that has split or something. More lying in the street to look forward to tomorrow. It looks a swine to get hands on, Nasty little U shaped short hose.
Any tips gratefully received.

Consider yourself lucky for not overheating the engine and blowing the head gasket.

Those two hoses are for the oil cooler, found on the 1992+ turbo 740s/940s. You should replace both hoses, and the plastic heater valve. I replace those three items every five to seven years. Waiting until they fail isn't my kind of maintenance. You might want to replace the other heater hoses and the radiator hoses while you are at it. The factory hose clamps have a 7mm hex head for adjusting. I use a 7mm socket on a 1/4" drive ratchet for removing and replacing the clamps. Jack the car up and block it, when the engine is cold, and drain the coolant using the 13mm drain. Using the 1/4" ratchet makes it fairly easy to deal with the hose clamps.

I also recommend replacing the coolant reservoir with one from a 960, and adding a coolant loss warning light. There is a good write up on this in the FAQ.

--
john

Thanks John, all sound advice. Don’t suppose you know the size of the pipe connections on the oil cooler thing offhand in case i have to improvise with the hoses?

Regards
Pierso

Dear Pierso,

Hopd you're well. Don't "improvise with the hoses". If available, use Volvo brand hoses. They are durable. A cooling hose failure means total coolant loss in a minture or so and - absent a prompt shut-down - a headgasket replacement.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Thanks for the advice Spook, I bought the right hoses and then when I finally got underneath when the snow had gone, found I really needed the upper radiator hose. I purchased a Volvo one on Ebay and now I'm back on the road.
In a thread Ive just posted Im going to try and fit an aftermarket temperature gauge (mine doesn't work anymore). Ive tried working on the instrument cluster before to fix the fuel gauge which wasn't a great success hence going down the aftermarket route. The post I put up was asking if anyone knew the inner diameter of the top heater hose so I can buy the right size block to fit the sensor into. All cheap enough for me to do with a limited skill set.

I'll also have a go at fitting a coolant level warning system as listed in the FAQ.

Cheers

turbo?