Hello and any advice welcome!

[Huxley94]

Finally I've joined the forum! Have owned various older Volvos over the years and my current old girl is a 94-850GLT 2.5-20v Auto saloon,a great car with f/s/h 175000miles. Can anyone help with the following: When starting from cold and then driving she "whistles/whines" noticeable from 1500 revs and above, this noise dissapears when engine is properly warm or after appx 4/5 miles and this "feature" is more noticeable in the colder months and has been getting worse over the past 2 years. Second I am having a job to get a clean read off the oil dipstick due to milky gunge being evident on the dipstick and tube, the sort of gunge expected with head gasket probs,this has been getting worse over the past few years and I've always thought it was condensation in the dip tube,and after a few wipes oil level could be read, but recently many dips&wipes still brings up the milky stuff! There are no other signs of head gasket probs and the car does drive fine with temp gauge always at mid way and no loss of coolent etc. Oil changes are 6 monthly and I use "Morris Oils" and Volvo filter. Finally an intermitent starting issue, this normally happens in the following way: engine properley warm, after a good amount of driving, stop and turn off, e.g:when re-fueling and when starting again i.e:5 minutes or less later she will fire immediately but then within a couple of seconds she stalls,then it normally takes 6-8 pulls until she fires up properly, the pulls in-between a mixture of firing then stalling and no fireing at all. This problem has been present for the past few years and, apart from being a real embarressment at the pumps and a annoyance, the car has always eventually started and then drives fine. I replaced spark plugs and dizzy cap & arm but no difference, I'm pretty sure the leads are original. Thanks in advance for any replies and I look forward to getting involved on the forum with many aspects of being a Volvo convert! Thanks all.......David........new member.

[mikealder]

Fit some pipe lagging/ innsulation over the dipstick tube as it gets lots of cold air fed over it due to where it is located, on short runs the steam built up within the engine will tend to condensate out forming water in the tube which is what turns the oil residue in to white/ yellow sludge.

The firing up then dying sounds like an immobiliser aerial issue but I am not too sure a 94 is fitted with such a system, others will be able to advise on this - Mike

[S70 B5254T]

Welcome David! I'm no expert, but your first problem sounds like it MAY be a power steering fluid/pump noise. Try changing the fluid first.
www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=167873 is the thread I posted about a similar noise. Mentioned it to my dealer who said it was nothing to worry about; they diagnosed it as the power steering fluid, but even though they didn't change it, the noise disappeared after they'd finished with it (they were doing belts), and the noise hasn't returned since! Not sure if they tinkered with it somehow.

[Huxley94]

Thanks for your reply Mike. Will take your advice and 'insulate' my tube! The car does have factory fit alarm, not sure if it includes immobiliser. Not sure what you meant by 'ariel'. Car locks/alarms by key, not by fob. Any further advice much appreciated. Thank you again for taking the trouble to reply. David

[Huxley94]

Hi Nick, thanks for your reply and link, will take time to look at that. As is the norm with old Volvo's, mine seems OK apart from the noise described, so hopefully no major problems. Also, please educate me about your '854', is this different to an 850 (sorry if thats a daft question, not as Volvo savy as I would like to be!) Thanks, David

[mikealder]

854 = Four door saloon
855 = Five door estate
850 = Generic family name

The third digit in the model numbers is often used to denote the number of doors - Mike

[Huxley94]

Brilliant, thanks Mike! Simple when explained!

[Huxley94]

Hi Nick, having now read your previous thread on the link you gave us, I could not have worded it any better myself! Will look into PAS fluid change, is this an easy DIY job for a basic DIYer like myself?!?

Thanks

[capt jack]

As well as Mike's suggestion to insulate the dip stick tube, I found that it helped our 'milky' S70 a lot when I replaced the O-ring at the top of the dipstick itself.

I think that what happens is that damp air finds it's way past a failed O-ring and allows moisture to become trapped and emulsified in the dipstick tube.

If there's no sign of creamy gunk around the oil filler cap then there's probably not too much to worry about.

Cheers

Jack

[Huxley94]

Hi Jack, thanks for your tip on the O-ring, will replace this aswell. Must confess did not even realise there was an O-ring there!!....I've a lot to learn!