'93 Volvo 850 for DD

We were looking for a general purpose sedan for relatively cheap, and saw a ’93 Volvo 850 sedan on the oddball car lot (small lot with more interesting cars than any other in town – think P71’s, a firetruck, an early 60’s Imperial, Esprit, mail jeep, the world’s supply of Del Sols, etc.)

'93 Four-door, 5-speed, 103,000 miles. Clean car, straight body (very minor K-mart rash), one tear in the leather driver’s seat leather.

The dealer said that the AC stops cooling after 20-30 minutes, but will work again after sitting for a while.

A little searching shows that:

Evaporators are a pain to replace.

’93 models must have something different about the suspensions.

Wagons, turbos, and turbowagons are cool. This car is neither.

I didn’t get to drive it yet. What do I need to check? Ideas on the AC issue?

My beater DD is a '96 non-turbo wagon. Yep, evaps are supposedly a royal PITA. Mine leaks, but no way on earth I'm replacing it. One can of the stuff at Autozone lasts me most of the summer, and I'm happy.

Otherwise, the one you're looking at will be OBD I, so not sure how it differs from mine which is OBD II. Mine has lots of sensors, and I'm now starting to have issues with some of them. Beyond that, it's a great car. Some of the best seats ever put into a car, has been reliable, a nice daily use car. Fuel mileage is meh.

I had a '95 wagon with manual. It was a very enjoyable and comfortable DD'er.
My mpg was 24 in mixed driving. Through '95 they called for regular, later years premium.

'93 and '93 only have 4 lug rims. All the following years have 5 lug. This will not make the car bad just takes away the option to find a different set of Volvo factory rims for cheap. The rwd 4 lug rims from the 240, 740, 940 are not an option either with wrong offset. A real unique, one year rim.

AC: Here is the link to the 23 page DYI guide:
http://www.woodjoiner.com/volvo/
On my '95 I had to "juice" the AC twice per season with r134a. At $12 per can, that was cheaper than fixing it.
Being a '93, your car was a freon car. r134a became mandatory in '95.

You mention a tear in the leather. I will bet dollars to doughnuts the interior is tan. The tan leather interiors of Volvo 850's are inferior to the black (officially named charcoal.) The tan hides seems thinner and splits, cracks, wears much quicker. The black is tough as nails.

In '93 the 850 was only offered as a sedan and only in NA. The wagon came in '94.

Some FAQ's:
http://www.swedishautoparts.com/850/Volvo-850-faqs.html

Most everything on the car is connected with a torx head fitting. Bring a set of torx bits. These will even be needed to remove the decorative trim over the spark plugs.

'93 only has a unique front bumper. More of a European bumper. Note the break in the black to accommodate a European plate.

'94 and on got this bumper with solid black all across:

Common on '93's that had front damage is to replace with newer, more common, '94+ bumper. This will help to indicate body work/damage.

The 5 cylinder "white" motor is proving to be as tough as the 4 cylinder "red" motor. The car is built around the A/C evaporator. Try a can of coolant first, sometimes that works. 5 cylinder is an interference motor, makes sure all the drive belts and timing belts are currents. Have seen a couple where the drive belt breaks, jams, car jumps timing and your wallet gets abused. 5 speed is pretty rare, was mostly in the base car, not the GL.

I've been finding that working on my 850 is like working on the older Volvos - more like legos than car repair. Except the 850 has more electronics so they're a bit more temperamental but it's still not bad.

Oh, the turbo white block 5 is fun. My respect for this motor has only gone up since owning one and I think it would be a fun swap into other V-cars.

This site will give you the complete '93 Volvo owners manual.
http://ftp.clubvolvo.ru/MANUALS_VOLVO/volvo_850_glt_owners_manual_1993.pdf

Points to note:
If the seats are not electric, they are still height adjustable via a lever between the seat and console. Its operation is a little unique with both push and pull but very effective once you understand.

Manual said: 1 Height adjustment (manual) The front section of the driver's seat can be adjusted to seven different height settings and the rear section of either seat can be adjusted to nine different height settings. Lever forward = adjustment of front section Lever rearward = adjustment of rear section

Driving the price down....

See the owners manual in the link above. In section 1:5, it talks about warning light.
There is a 'Service" light

Manual said: Service reminder indicator This light will come on at 10,000 mile (16,000 km) intervals, after 750 hours of driving or after 12 months, whichever occurs first. It is a reminder to the driver that the service interval has been exceeded. The light will stay on 2 minutes after the start until reset by the servicing dealer.

I will bet this light comes on. In my '95, resetting this was as easy as resetting the odometer but for '93 it is "dealer reset." You can use the misunderstanding of this light to your benifit to possibly drive the price down. The light does not mean the oil has not been changed, just means the light has not been reset.

As a non-turbo, do not expect that the car is fast. The 2.4L 5cyl feel exactly that as either a big 4 cyl or a small 6 cyl. Not inadequate and not excessive.

Does the 20-valve engine add to or detract from the car?

Neither. 5 cyl with 4 valves per cyl makes them all 20 valves.
20 valves in the turbo cars and 20 valves in the NA cars.

There are 10 Valve cars, but I don't think any were sold in the US market.

I DD a '95 GLT. Have become a bit of a Volvo nut.

The '93 and a lot of the '94 models will have replaceable ball joints, as apposed to ball joint built into the control arms of later models.

If there's a cabin filter installed (passenger side under windshield cowling) I wouldn't be too worried about the evaporator. My A/C has worked great since I put new O-rings on the lines into the compressor about 3 years ago, haven't had to charge it since.

I find them to be fairly easy to work on. I've done one engine swap, and just about all of the typical maintenance. PCV system will make you scratch your head, and the entire intake has to come off to replace it.

Keep up on the timing belt ever 5 years and/or 100K miles or so, and the White Block will pretty much go forever.

Here's some other reading from the past year or so:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-volvo-850s/38356/page1/

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-volvo-850/39356/page1/

• Lee

The issue w/ the a/c is probably the clutch air gap has gotten too large because of wear. There's an easy fix to reduce the gap without taking anything apart. look on turbobricks, i just saw it a few days ago.

Here's the a/c clutch fix: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=258604

I DD a '94 wagon to the tune of 400miles/week. The car is def growing on me. Even w/ the mileage( 180k + ), it still feels better and more balanced than it should. You won't win many drag races in the NA models, and they are picky about their parts.

Overall they are over-built and are very diy-friendly.

google: matthews volvo site --> great people, and more knowledge than you can shake a stick at( a GRM for volvos )

Ok, got the 850. Thanks for the input, everyone! I'm also now lurking on a couple of Volvo forums (Matthews Volvo Site, VolvoSpeed) and raiding their knowledge bases. Yes, Search is my friend.

I'm planning to replace the timing belt and related hardware soon, and probably the water pump while I'm in there. The tag says it was done about five years ago at about 100K miles. I'll feel better knowing that's been done.

Next thing to check on the AC is the clutch gap.

I think I'll like this car.

I too think you will like it.
How about some details or pictures?

Welcome to the dark side!

Let me know if I can help at all, there's a few of us Volvo nerds around here.

I've just replaced all the suspension bushings on my 850, and it's getting Eibachs, XC70 spring seats, and Koni shocks tomorrow. Still up in the air on the IPD sway bars.

Matthewsvolvosite is a wealth of info, and a super friendly place. Volvospeed is pretty juvenile, with a lot of "group think" and way too much "hellaflush/stance" stuff for my liking, but Bay13 is there, and well worth putting up with the other nonsense. Don't forget Turbo Bricks & Swedespeed (there's some FWD stuff on them too).

That timing belt is usually a ~100K miles OR 5 year deal, so get on it.

FCPEuro has free shipping and 10% off of $99 or more with the code JULY4 today and tomorrow.

• Lee

Here it is:

1993 Volvo 850 GLT

2.4L Inline 5 20 Valve

5-speed stick

4-wheel disks

AC and fancy (for 1993) radio

Power brakes, steering, locks, windows, moonroof, and driver's seat

Black leather

Everything works except for the odometers (need a couple of itsy-bitsy gears), the driver's visor (floppy), and the headlight washer jets (there's a leak somewhere near the tank).

Nice. Looks like the sedan version of the g/f's wagon. The seats are freakin' amazing...

We're still in the process of de-modding it, although that is basically done and it is her DD right now. The Bilstein sport struts on it ride like rocks (and looked like they had been through a war when I swapped the springs), so a set of Koni FSD's is on her wish-list. I'd like to do that before she has the car aligned.

There are a few annoying things that don't work... like the courtesy lights when you open the doors.

Odometergears.com has the gears for your odometer: http://www.odometergears.com/products/Volvo/850+92-97/15

Looks Clean!