Hey, I have a pretty simple question.

I'm looking at buying a 96 850 glt wagon. The current owner bought it when it was a little over 100,000 miles, and was told the timing belt was changed at 90k. It is currently at 158k. The current owner says the timing belt needs to be replaced every 90,000 miles. The automechanic that works on my 240 says it needs to be changed every 60,000 miles. Finally, I was searching on google and found something that said every 70,000 miles. Does anybody happen to know which it should be? It is important to know before I buy the car, as I will want to negotiate it into the deal if I need to get a new timing belt right away.
thanks!

My Haynes manual says 80K. Regardless, if you do not know and the car has that many miles on it, I would do the belt and the tensioner now.

Timing belt AND tensioner at 140K miles.

Klaus
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Please answer, we need to know if the advice is good or bad. The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are 2 turbos :)

From the Volvo USA website:

850 1993:

# 50,000 and 100,000 MILES:
TIMING BELT ('93 Models): REPLACE and LUBRICATE TENSIONER PIVOT BEARING -
# Ensures proper tension is maintained.
# Check for belt wear.
# Replace worn belts to avoid belt failure while driving.

850 1996:

# 70,000 MILES:
TIMING BELT ('94 -'97 models): REPLACE -
# Replace worn belts to avoid belt failure while driving.

FWIW, Volvo has all the owner's manuals and maintenance schedules posted on it's website.

-BTC

'98 V70 T5 5-speed, 173k mi, heated velour cloth comfy chairs, factory HD suspension, Bilstein HD, front IPD stabilizer bar, Volvo strut tower brace and skidplate, XC grill, C70 jewel E-Codes, V-1, Lidatek, IPD stuff, JB Weld, Original Duck tape, zip-ties, two '06 Honda license plate nut impressions in back bumper (gift from daughter), Mobil-1 since new.

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair." - Douglas Noel Adams (1952 - 2001)

The official word from Volvo is 70k for 94-97 timing belt. 60k for 93.

I thought it was shortened in a Service Bulletin but I haven't been able to confirm that.

This car is due for one and I wouldn't waste any time. I'm not sure how much it costs to have that done but it isn't overly complicated. It's just a big thing if it breaks. than its a VERY big thing.

Personally, having had two belts break on me (and two top-end rebuilds), I would recommend immediate replacement regardless of what you are told. That may seem a bit paranoid but at used car prices, if you have to have the repairs done by a mechanic, a broken belt essentially kills your car.

Hope this helps.

Bryan

You are in about the same position as me. Over in the UK they say every 80K or 6 or 7 years. My feeling is 1...do a visual check, if in doubt change the belt and the tensioner. 2... if the belt is OK and you have the money to change the belt an tensioner then do it anyway.

3, and im gussing here that you may be tight on cash at the moment since you are asking, but if you can only stretch to the belt without the tensioners, and the current belt seems OK, then dont do anything till you have saved for the tensioner as well. Every second belt change do the tensioner as well, if not there is a good chance it will fail since it has been disturbed recently and the new belt will slip and engine damage will result. There is a tiny hint here of if its not broken then dont fix it....at least until you can do it right.

Let us know what you do :-)