My Volvo 850R - Work in progress!

My Volvo 850R - Work in progress!

Author
Discussion

Snazzyjake

Original Poster:

27 posts

86 months

Monday 12th November 2018
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Continuing on, nothing really much to report from February to April. I had been hearing a strange noise/ rattle at 2500rpm but assumed this was just the clutch release bearing as this was rather noisy too. Anyway, took part in a rolling road day at the end of April, this was the result so that's 247BHP and 416nm or 306lb/ft . pretty good I thought considering its 22 years old and completely standard apart from the map!
Anyway, after the rolling road session, I noticed the noise was noticeably louder but, perhaps foolishly, didn't think too much of it. So I continued driving it everyday until the noise was quite audible at motorway cruising speeds 2500-3000 rpm.
The noise was quite strange really, sounded a bit like a clicking/squeaking/tapping (the last ones the biggest clue).
It got to may and I carried out an oil and filter change to run 10w60 (as recommended by Tim), I had previously been using 10w40 and lots of it!
Just a generic post wash photo


The noise was nonexistent from cold now but soon returned once the oil was up to temp.
Also, if you held it at 1000-1200 rpm, there was no noise confused
Anyway, going on various peoples diagnosis (including my own) the culprit was thought be noisy hydraulic valve lifters (quite common on these engines). I even took the car to Tim for diagnosis and he agreed it was probably them at fault. So, I booked it in to have the work done (it was late august at this point). Carried on using the car daily too. Mileage rolled around to this figure

It got to the day before the car was booked in, so that evening I was driving over to Tims place to drop it off and then this happened.....


I'd been driving very very gently (off the boost and no higher than 2500rpm). Pulled off the motorway to take the exit and felt a sudden jolt. Engine light came on and the noise was now horrific. Imagine you'd sprinkled some nuts and bolts into the oil filler cap and run the engine. That gives you some idea of what it was like. 3 hours later and the car was recovered to Tims place. The next day he gave me the diagnosis..... Any guesses before I reveal what it was? spin

Mij91

95 posts

87 months

Monday 12th November 2018
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Oil pump failure?

LMPanda

106 posts

128 months

Monday 12th November 2018
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Snazzyjake said:
Thanks for the kind words, and yes I 100% agree. Struggling to think of another car of a similar age with such a comprehensive list of creature comforts! (BMW e34/merc w124 perhaps?)
I'm in Leicester, but I have yet to see another 850 in the wild!
Love yours BTW, looks fantastic! yum. My dads T5 was in the exact same colour, minus the t-5R bumper, wheel and interior though. Hope you make it to 200k soon! smile
Thanks! I absolutely love it!! It’s tidy but definitely a 12ft car!! I came from a 1.9 Serb lupo to this!! Spent a small fortune in replacing bits too! Had new gearbox/driveshafts/R clutch a few months ago at Shemtek (mansfield) plus PAS pump and usual consumables!

What was the diagnosis for yours? You need to source a walnut gearknob too!!!

Edited by LMPanda on Monday 12th November 21:24

velocitas

225 posts

158 months

Monday 12th November 2018
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Great car mate, hope the big end type issue alluded to above isn't the end of it.

My parent's aren't big car folks but back in my earliest days I managed to convince my mum to get a Silver 1996 850 T5 Manual Estate. She thought it was a 'nice car' and my Dad thought it was a 'safe car' for me to learn in versus his Black 1998 BMW 540i Sport. Honestly, I took the keys to the BMW every time I could but that Volvo was a staple for driving with mates, festivals, adventures, road trips etc. I think that's its strongest point as an honest, comfortable, fast car that looks good with a wash and the life of the party when you can pack your 6 closest friends into it.

Best wishes for long happy motoring.

EddyP

846 posts

219 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
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I'm going with water pump/tensioner/idler failure and as a result lost the cam belt.

S100HP

12,645 posts

166 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
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EddyP said:
I'm going with water pump/tensioner/idler failure and as a result lost the cam belt.
This

Stedman

7,213 posts

191 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
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cosworth330 said:
I met Tim Williams back in 2009 at the Nurburgring. I was out there in my M3 Evo with some guys from a Volvo forum. I had a passenger lap in Tim’s 850 T5 estate as well. I couldn’t even keep up with him in my M3!
I never went in Ellliot's but Tim's car is cool


ChemicalChaos said:
Well done that man! I'm 26, I've lusted after an 850 T5 or R since childhood too, but never had the time or space or money for one in addition to the others cars I need for my hobbies.
A guy in my local car club used to have a banana yellow BTCC edition, mapped to 350bhp! He said it ate a set of front tyres every 3k miles eek
Neednt get through them at that rate.

james_tigerwoods

16,287 posts

196 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
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This is what I think of when I think of this Volvo cloud9


cosworth330

1,299 posts

236 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
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Stedman said:
cosworth330 said:
I met Tim Williams back in 2009 at the Nurburgring. I was out there in my M3 Evo with some guys from a Volvo forum. I had a passenger lap in Tim’s 850 T5 estate as well. I couldn’t even keep up with him in my M3!
I never went in Ellliot's but Tim's car is cool


Elliot's 850R was crazy, he was doing 8.15 lap times at the Ring. Don't quote me but i think he said it stood him in about 20k or so to get to that spec. Hence why he broke up a perfectly good car to get some money back rather than selling the car as a whole. He was a very good driver though. I was on track with him at Silverstone when he had his olive green 850 T5R estate that was very well modded. You can make the 850 very very quick and handle/brake very well but its big bucks to do it properly. I would love to build an 854 track car with no expense spared, just love the look of the 850.


OP sorry for de railing your thread a bit. Look forward to more pics and updates from you. Good luck with the 850R.

Ahbefive

11,657 posts

171 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
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Great thread. My S60R is currently with Tim having the head gasket replaced and a few
other bits done. The block replacement was my big cost 20months ago.

sinbaddio

2,357 posts

175 months

Tuesday 13th November 2018
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I see Jay Kay has just sold his at Silverstone Auctions at the NEC:

http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1996-volvo-850r...

Cracking car OP!

Stedman

7,213 posts

191 months

Wednesday 14th November 2018
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cosworth330 said:
Elliot's 850R was crazy, he was doing 8.15 lap times at the Ring. Don't quote me but i think he said it stood him in about 20k or so to get to that spec. Hence why he broke up a perfectly good car to get some money back rather than selling the car as a whole. He was a very good driver though. I was on track with him at Silverstone when he had his olive green 850 T5R estate that was very well modded. You can make the 850 very very quick and handle/brake very well but its big bucks to do it properly. I would love to build an 854 track car with no expense spared, just love the look of the 850.


OP sorry for de railing your thread a bit. Look forward to more pics and updates from you. Good luck with the 850R.
Yeah, I think some of those parts ended up on my car!

Snazzyjake

Original Poster:

27 posts

86 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
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LMPanda said:
Snazzyjake said:
Thanks for the kind words, and yes I 100% agree. Struggling to think of another car of a similar age with such a comprehensive list of creature comforts! (BMW e34/merc w124 perhaps?)
I'm in Leicester, but I have yet to see another 850 in the wild!
Love yours BTW, looks fantastic! yum. My dads T5 was in the exact same colour, minus the t-5R bumper, wheel and interior though. Hope you make it to 200k soon! smile
Thanks! I absolutely love it!! It’s tidy but definitely a 12ft car!! I came from a 1.9 Serb lupo to this!! Spent a small fortune in replacing bits too! Had new gearbox/driveshafts/R clutch a few months ago at Shemtek (mansfield) plus PAS pump and usual consumables!

What was the diagnosis for yours? You need to source a walnut gearknob too!!!

Edited by LMPanda on Monday 12th November 21:24
Diagnosis was terminal I'm afraid, will explain shortly. Also, the walnut gear knobs were only fitted on the T-5R, the 850r had one like this:

I've tried searching for one but it would seem they don't exist anywhere! It would also appear they don't last very long, there's a manual 850r saloon on autotrader with 59k (allegedly) and the gear knob looks absolutely shagged!

Snazzyjake

Original Poster:

27 posts

86 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
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S100HP said:
EddyP said:
I'm going with water pump/tensioner/idler failure and as a result lost the cam belt.
This
Right, seen as no one got it right I will explain what actually failed. It turns out that the strange noise I'd been hearing was the bottom end slowly eating away at itself. The bearing on Cylinder No.2 was the worst, so bad in fact that the piston actually smacked the cylinder head! eek

It also turned out that the engine was really rather tired with quite a lot of bore wear too.

So. The engine was scrap basically. The pistons are specific to the 850r engine and are unavailable as is the crankshaft ( unless you get it reground). This gave me two realistic options. A, was to get a new engine built (newer 2.4 block - virtually indestructible) or B was to get another 2.3 T5 engine but that would be a 20 year old engine with no guarantees. There wasn't too much difference in price so I think you can probably guess with option I went with....

Also got Tim to fit the snabb short shift kit with solid bushings (highly recommended!) along with some new front and rear engine mounts, 'japanifold' exhaust manifold, clutch release bearing, an s60r sump with me7 oil cooler setup. No pics I'm afraid though!

Got the car back at the end of September and had to run it in for 500 miles (felt like forever!). Once it was run, I changed the oil to shell helix 10w60 and changed the oil filter too.

Then I could finally give it some beans. OMG, it felt quick before but Jesus chr***! It certainly shifts now spin. It will happily spin up in second in the dry on a straight road! In the wet, first and second are a bit pointless tbh biggrin It does like to torque steer a lot more now too!

If you ever want any work doing on your Volvo, I can highly recommend Tim. Very professional with superb attention to detail.

Stedman

7,213 posts

191 months

Thursday 15th November 2018
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Has Tim done the inlet manifold/throttle body? The TB mod was well worth the small amount of money.

I can imagine that does go very very well now biggrin

airchie

6 posts

164 months

Friday 16th November 2018
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Sounds like the engine failure was a blessing in disguise. :-D

Loving the thread, makes me miss my 850 T5. Having babies meant I needed to get something that wouldn't spring £1k+ bills on me every other month. So I went for the logical alternative... a Nissan Leaf! :-D

I love driving the leaf if I'm honest but I'd love to get an old 850 with a blown engine and retrofit electric running gear from a tesla or something. Would be the ultimate sleeper that you could drive daily. 👍

Cookeh

247 posts

87 months

Saturday 17th November 2018
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airchie said:
Sounds like the engine failure was a blessing in disguise. :-D

Loving the thread, makes me miss my 850 T5. Having babies meant I needed to get something that wouldn't spring £1k+ bills on me every other month. So I went for the logical alternative... a Nissan Leaf! :-D
What on earth sprung repeated £1k bills? I've had my 850 T5 for 10 months now and even with me buying an utter nail that had sat for 4 months I'm only averaging around £220 a month (including purchase price!), that's including 4 calipers, discs, pads, struts and springs, cambelt + water pump, full service and two interims, tonnes of trim and accessories...

Even a clutch + DMF replacement wouldn't reach £1k, full gearbox swap is still less than £1k, engine swap is significantly less than £1k, replacement heads are less than a fraction of £1k...?

klunkT5

589 posts

117 months

Sunday 18th November 2018
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^^^^ Think you will find petrol 850's have solid flywheels, Only the TDI's had DMF's! biggrin

Cookeh

247 posts

87 months

Sunday 18th November 2018
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klunkT5 said:
^^^^ Think you will find petrol 850's have solid flywheels, Only the TDI's had DMF's! biggrin
More than happy to be proved wrong as its always good to know. I have, however, seen several sources that indicate a lot of T5s had DMFs. Those same sources seem to suggest that M56s with an external slave cylinder have solid flywheels and M56s with internal slave cylinders (like mine and a lot of the P80 V70s) have DMFs.

Rs, to the best of my knowledge only have solid flywheels.

Please do correct me, my clutch is on 181k miles now so surely due a change soon and I'll feel a whole lot better about that monetarily if its solid flywheel as opposed to DMF

Edited by Cookeh on Monday 19th November 10:19

klunkT5

589 posts

117 months

Sunday 18th November 2018
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Ah, OK, i thought the late P1 V70's had internal slaves not the 850's and early pre ME7 P1's My apologies smile