Advice.......Please!

My first post on the VOC forums so please be nice!!

I am after all your wisdom and knowledge as current Volvo 850 Owners to help me make a decision (I am currently an Audi A4 driver......)

I have been offered a 1996 Volvo 850 T5 with 140000 miles, 12 months MOT and all together a straight original car for £1800.

I appreciate that I need to find out much more about the car with regards to Service History, previous owners, etc, etc but before I make a decision I wanted to understand what potential associated ongoing costs I may need to consider taking on such a beast!

What is the interval for changing the Cambelt?
I have heard that T5's eat tyres on a regular basis, fact or fiction?
Servicing costs? Specialist not Main Dealer......and if anyone has particular experience of good specialist's in the Cambridge region.
Petrol consumption expectation?
And generally what to look out for on a car of this age.

All feedback gratefully received!

Andy

Hi Andy,
Welcome to the forum.
I think the cambelt period MAY be 80,000 but I would'nt trust one above 60,000,someone will probably correct me on this.
The fuel and tyre consumption is directly related the size of your right foot and the calf muscles in the right leg.
The mileage is ok,just run in at that.
Normal servicing away from the Volvo stealers should'nt be any more than any other car apart from some megga expensive volvo parts.
Most are available from other sources ,just shop around on the net.
Don't forget to let it tickover for a couple of minutes if you've been out for a thrash as you will cook the turbo otherwise.
Have a trawl throught the 850 section and read up on all the posts on it.

[warthog]

Andy,

welcome to the forums. The 850/70 forums and the Performance forums are the places where you'll find a wealth of info on the T5.

I assume from the price that it's a saloon. Is it manual or auto? If it's an auto, check the fluid for brown discolouration/burnt smell. If the fluid hasn't been changed then this needs doing. Auto boxes are generally strong, but any serious problems are going to set you back £1500 at least for a recon box. Slight oil leaks from the rear crank seal are fairly common and normally can be left until the clutch is changed (manual). In any case when changing the clutch the rear crank seal is also a must as it's only slightly more expensive to do it now but a pig of a job if the engine/gearbox are in the car.

Regular good oil and filter changes will see the car through many miles. Semi synthetic as a minimum spec.

IMO if you're able to do most jobs yourself then the car is great fun. If you need to get a dealer to do everything more difficult than topping up fluids then it's likely to make a hole in your wallet.

Get yourself membership of Volvo Owners Club and you will almost certainly save your membership fee in discount on parts alone, without saying anything about the enormous depth of experience/knowledge/specialist tools etc that are available to members through the club. There is also a web page with members recommended independent dealers.

Tyre wear is what you make it. You don't get something for nothing. 200+bhp through a FWD heavy car is going to spin the wheels if you're enthusiastic (or not as may be the case pulling out of junctions!). In general driving I would expect about 12k miles out of the fronts.

Fuel consumption - reams have been written on this subject. Generally I think the opinion is that your should expect low 20's. If you take it easy high 20's maybe even just above 30 mpg. This is certainly my experience with the average over 2 1/2 years just over 22mpg.

If you trawl through the 850/performance fora for the last year or so you'll find most areas of failure/cost discussed.

I love my T5 - it's a real hoot, but it's much happier on fast roads than round town.

Cheers

[bigandquick]

Hi Andy
I've heard good about independentvolvoservices.com down the A1 at Letchworth. Not used them but have spoken to them and they appear very knowledgeable and helpful.

If you want to contact me off-site I'll tell you about the cowboys around Cambridge and who to avoid. I can also recommend some.

80k is the service interval for a cambelt, and I usually manage around 25mpg doing the mundane work runs/trips into town but get high 20s/low 30s on runs.

If you phone Volvo Cars on 08457 564636 they will be able to confirm any main dealer service history for that car.

Good luck

[bigandquick]

Incidentally, when and where are you viewing the car?

[cootuk]

Also check the ABS warning light illuminates with all the others when you first turn the ignition on. Make sure it also goes off and stays off (they do a self test at about 15mph every time the engine has been started). A common fault is the ABS Teves unit breaking and some people pull the bulb to hide this.

At this mileage I'd change the cambelt straight away or at the next service (service interval is 80000mile) but better safe than sorry.

Bodywork, engines, and exhausts last donkeys years, though a creaking door can indicate a broken weld-there is a fix available if you search the net.

Thanks for the info....any ideas as to the cost of changing the Cambelt?

email sent to you "offline"

thanks for the info too!

[cootuk]

A couple of hours labour plus the belt itself....so depends more on the labour cost.
My recent 160000 mile service on an 850 2.5l 10v with cambelt change and MOT came to about £350 from a specialist indy who charge about £35ph labour and use Mobil 1 oil at £50 a service.

[Simon J]

Just to add my two penny worth.

If the car as air con, the evaporator is a weak point and mine started to leak badly at about 100K and the whole dash has to come out to replace it! So worth checking if the air con works properly.

I'd concur with the estimates above about fuel comsumption - low 20s round town; upper twenties on the open road and I've seen 30 on fast motorway driving in my C70 T5 running on BP Ultimate. The higher octane fuels do seem to pay off with the T5 in both performance and fuel economy.

As for tyres, much depends on how soft a compound they are (not to mention your right foot!). I use Vredensteins and get about 18-20K out of the fronts without any prob. THey may not be as grippy as some other brands/compounds, but I find them more than adequate.

The last point would be insurance costs. THey're expensive buggers to insure and if you search the forum you'll get a wide range of suggestions as to where to go for insurance and what to expect to have to pay.

Good luck!

Simon J