I just bought this car last week because Volvo's are supposed to be tanks that last forever, buy oy! It is already becoming a huge pain the the rear. I stupidly didn't have it inspected before buying because the fellow I bought it from claimed to have had in inspected just days prior, but anyways...

The last few time I've started the car, it has started up fine, but none of the power in the car worked --the radio, windows, turn signals, everything, all dead! After I turned the car off, and turned it back on, everything worked again, and I assumed it had something to do with the extreme heat, but yesterday the car nearly died on me, or at least it felt like it was near death!

Anyways, I ended up making it to a gas station and was lucky enough to be helped by a someone who happened to be a Volvo enthusiast. Apparently there is a leak near the neck of the expansion tank hose and the car was leaking coolant and overheating (though the gauge didn't indicate so...?). The person before me apparently tried to fix this problem with a zip tie, nice! Would this problem explain why the car has pretty much been eating up engine oil? or is there something more sinister going on? It was only after I thought to put more oil in the car, that it began driving a bit more normally, but it still seems to have acceleration issues, but I wasn't really pushing it as all I wanted to do was get the car home.

Could I have blown the headgasket? (please God, no!) How can I tell if the headgasket is blown? I recall hearing a grinding sound when I went to put the car in park on one occasion, though I don't know if that is significant to the situation. The car didn't smell or smoke(except for a tiny bit that I saw when taking out the dipstick), and it seems to still run smoothly, so I'm hoping that the engine okay and all I need is a new expansion tank hose, amongst other easy and cheap fixes.

Thank you for reading, any input at all would be helpful!