850 Cars: to all volvo 850 owners hidden rust please read

[amazondean]

Following on from the thread about the rust hiding behind the rear wheel arches by diplomat2.6, I think all 850 owners need to read the article in the sticky about hidden rust. It is one of the last articles at the moment. The reason I mention this is because this is becoming a real issue, as now after 22 years or more, this hidden rust problem is just starting to rear its ugly head in a big way. The rust is such that it can be hiding for years without anyone really noticing, but only evident when the plastic liners are removed.

If these cars need to survive the next generation it needs tackling now. Most should just get away with grinding back and rust treatment, but if left for a couple more years will scrap most of these cars off completely.

Be warned!

[capt jack]

Heck, that's scary! Does the same problem afflict S/V/C70 cars too? Our S70 has just turned 21, and I must admit that I've always gone along with the belief that these cars simply don't rot, apart from the rear exhaust hanger. Now I feel a bit of an inspection might be in order.

To be frank, if I found corrosion to the extent of the rot found in the other thread on the same subject I think that it'd possibly be curtains for the car.......but hey, should I worry? It passed the MOT just six weeks ago.

Jack

[amazondean]

The V70 doesn't seem to suffer as bad, as I have managed to have a good look at a few, but they are potentially the same car, so who knows. Maybe they found an error in the galvanising and sorted it.

The car will pass its mot because it is hidden behind the plastic shield. Once it gets bad enough to fail an mot I think the car would be scrap.

I must admit, the car in the other thread is as bad as I've ever seen. If you read the article in the stocky you will see what I had to weld up but it didn't spread under the car, so I managed to save it, but it's not a job I enjoy doing. All 850's need to be inspected and treated now before it's too late.

[Bob Meadows]

I can recommend removing all the wheel arch guards front & rear and then treat with a wax treatment diluted with clean oil-- luckily both my cars a’97 V70 & ‘88 240 have been rust free. The 240 didn’t have rear guards from original but it does now.
Remove from time to time and treat again.
Bob.

[amazondean]

Most 850's will need the grinder on it first 😃

[Gaztech]

This is very sound advice. I have a 1997 v70 t5 and had an absolute mare with rust. My car thankfully didn't have it too bad in the rear wheel arches. However, the sill covers completely hide the sills and when removed you would not believe what they were hiding and it had just passed an mot. As it turns out the clip holes for the sills double up as drain holes and these had been clogged for what must have been a decade because the rust was horrendous. I had the car fixed because I love it but the above advice is very sound indeed.

Gareth

[diplomat2.6]

Originally Posted by capt jack

Heck, that's scary! Does the same problem afflict S/V/C70 cars too? Our S70 has just turned 21, and I must admit that I've always gone along with the belief that these cars simply don't rot, apart from the rear exhaust hanger. Now I feel a bit of an inspection might be in order.

To be frank, if I found corrosion to the extent of the rot found in the other thread on the same subject I think that it'd possibly be curtains for the car.......but hey, should I worry? It passed the MOT just six weeks ago.

Jack

Please remember that my car didn’t fail the MoT on that rust - it only failed on 4 tyres, 2 bulbs and a track rod end dust cover.

[chelle_belle]

I am in the process of changing my front wing, and tbh was surprised at the lack of rust under the liner and the inner wing, there was three spots of very light surface rust, it was that light i was not going to bother treating it and then changed my mind,,
i am not looking forward to looking behind the sill covers or rear arch liners but will,
The nearside chassis rail near to the exhaust needs attention though,.

Craig.

[Cookeh]

Whipped one of mine off today whilst in the area, just to assess the damages. As predicted, rather obviously, it's being abraded by dirt and debris which is also acting as a moisture trap. This is incredibly plain to see in the pictures.

Arch liner dirt
This little pile is what fell from the liner as I removed it.

Arch liner dirt 2
Bottom left of this image you can clearly see a patch of damp dirt, along with my rust. You can also see the dirt and debris on the top of the arch liner to the right.

Thankfully, I have gotten off rather lightly with just some minor surface rust around the seatbelt mounting point, which I shall be treating shortly. Alongside checking and treating this area, I would also recommend pulling the liners off with some regularity (once a year or so, or whenever you clean the arches) to ensure the area behind is clean. I will also be adding a layer of Dynax UB once clean as well.

[Clogs]

I have a tailgate rattle and wondered if it was something else - so poked around under the offside rear cover (near the tail lamps), where there's a piece of foam stapled to a bit of plastic and looking from underneath there's a hole - presumably to let air out of the car. This bit underneath is wet and getting rusty (a small chunk of rusty something came away in my hand). It's drier on the near side because that's warmer near the exhaust pipe.

However, I'll leave it as the car has a limited life (perhaps 3 to 5 more years) and underneath you can see it's no longer rust free.

The seats are starting to come apart (cloth seams), there's the rattle that won't go away even when fixing new clips to the tailgate cover, and eventually the rubbers on the spring and engine mounts will perish (already in bits). If there is welding needed because of rust, it's probably time it went to the scrap yard to join most of the other S/V70s and 850s 1991-1999.