96 volvo 850 turbo wagon

[bimmer630]

A Customer of ours bought one of these and we told her to do the timing belt. She didnt and of course it snapped. I put a new belt on and it runs but no compression on one cyls. Probably a bent valve.. she's junking the car. I'm thinking of taking it and fixing the head. eBay has a few used heads in the 200-300 range.

Should I not waste my time? The car is in the 150k mile range.. it would be cool to have a Turbo wagon bit should I stay away for any reason?

[BeemerMeUpScotty]

Volvo was sold to Ford in 1999 so its a prehorked version. Not sure about turbos on these. If it was a turbo Saab I would avoid it.

[priapism]

Those are tougher than the newer ones. Is it an auto? 4-speed? I'm assuming that's a GM auto--the new ones have issues with the Toyota transmissions. I think they're pretty solid. You can boost 'em up nice but they're still FWD so your limit will be how much power you can put down. Check out IPD for some moddy goodness.

[CrusherCurtis]

Don't waste your time. This car is worthless. Nothing cool about a FWD 96 volvo. Why not tell the lady there heads available for $200 and just fix for her. Make some money instead of spending it.

[bimmer630]

Yeah I don't know why my boss quoted her 2000 to have the head fixed rather than throwing a used head on it.
I was just thinking it would be handy to haul my drums around in
.
. But I guess that's why I built an e30 trailer

[91Saleen#15]

I have exactly that car. Is it the low or high pressure turbo? Mine is the high pressure. Come to think of it, I've never done a timing belt on it. The car is fast, though.

[ChefSkinny]

I love these things, not sure why but I always have. I want a wagon for hauling tools / bigger stuff anyhow, and being turbo is fun right?

[priapism]

[ZoomZoomBoom]

At they time they were faster than a Mustang GT. My neighbor took good care of his and it still went through head gaskets. No idea if it was just his car or common.

[bimmer630]

its the higher pressure turbo. It also has the pearl-white paint that was only on about 1000 of the US imported models or some crap

[Asbradley21]

I bought and sold one this year. Fucking horrible cars. Horrible to work on, shitty to drive. Falls apart in every way imaginable. I bought it and it dumped a ton of money into making it drive-able and just fucking sold it. Ended up replacing countless seals, entire PCV system, tons of vacuum lines, tons of oil lines, o-rings, and the turbo. Had that car for 5 months and only drove it a handful of times. The rest of the time I owned it I was just fixing one thing after the next because every time I drove it something else fucked up. I sold it before the transmission exploded thank god. Run away.

[QUKBMER]

i bought and sold one this year. Fucking horrible cars. Horrible to work on, shitty to drive. Falls apart in every way imaginable. I bought it and it dumped a ton of money into making it drive-able and just fucking sold it. Ended up replacing countless seals, entire pcv system, tons of vacuum lines, tons of oil lines, o-rings, and the turbo. Had that car for 5 months and only drove it a handful of times. The rest of the time i owned it i was just fixing one thing after the next because every time i drove it something else fucked up. I sold it before the transmission exploded thank god. Run away.

this ^^^^^^^

[blunttech]

My wife had a 94 850 turbo .. what a fucking pile of shit ..

[iansane]

Wow. I just helped a buddy go from auto>6speed in his '98 v70r and I always thought that was a fun little wagon. He's beaten the shit out of that and neglected it for years. With well over 200k on it we've done a headgasket and of course fixing the horrid factory pcv system but otherwise this one has been a great car.

[Pl3wA]

the verdict: probably not