Now I've had several issues with my ol' Volvo esp. this year and I know that it's due for a timing belt change...but other problems crop up and I've not got to the timing belt.

One Volvo mechanic said that older belts will 'stretch' and when front seals are leaking (like mine are increasingly are..) the belt will 'give' a little and cause poorer performance that I've noticed... less power in upper rpms and some back fireing.

I did check and clean the throttle body and put a new pcv valve in. The old pcv flame trap was dirty but not clogged completely but I did get a new oil cap seal as the old one was so loose oil was escaping on top of valve cover. After that my oil leaks increased so I may have caused the seals to blow perhaps by letting the pcv get clogged or it could be just age (190K). I do top shelf synthetic oil changes and my compression seems good. Cleaning the throttle body led to my discovery of a major air leak in ribbed air intake hose and that was probably 50 percent of performance problems... But still I get some backfiring in going downhill in low gear When cold.... I did replace and tighten trottle body gasket. I get a 'surging' feeling of little power when 'stepping on it' in higher rpms... (and I do know this is a low power car for its size....only 116 horses Jeesh!_ but it's a little worse than last year and I am think does a slipping clutch also affected by oil leak do this too??? oh, lez stick to the one question..for now...)

But back to what I think is causing poorer than usual performance in front end of engine ..... is maybe slightly out of kilter timing ignition. But three other mechanics disagreed with the one volvo specialist and two were Volvo friendly types. They said timing belt is most likely not a problem...it either does it's job or doesn't, they said.

But the theory that a timing belt that is old and covered with oil from loosening seals makes sense to me. I know I've got to get it done...but am not sure if I want to when I've got so many other things going on... needs new summer tires, rust in a lot of places, and then steering front end has missing part of boot and car needs inspection.. and new muffler and big bucks are going just to pass inspection.

back to the question... do others think this one isolated but well regarded mechanic's theory is correct that an old 'stretched' timeing belt will affect performance (he's at the Volvo dealership and to busy to fit me in on his weekend lower costs--longer visits sidejob garage..)
the other mechanics while getting prices for the job were dismissive of such an idea.

btw... If I don't do the job myself (unlikely as it's pretty timeconsuming...) prices for this job (new timeing belt and new front seals) were all over the map: some said 4 to 6 hours meaning about 400 dollars plus while ironically the very expensive (Usually) Volvo dealership where the guy above works gave me the lowest price for a timeing belt and seals change ($180 for timing belt and about $100 plus more for new seals... but that wasn't a firm price for seals......so seals could be more.. and listen to this they give a 10 per cent discount for Volvos over 100K .