It's a brand new 1996 855 NA with around 165,000. I picked it up Sunday afternoon and drove the 85 miles home. I had forgotten to check the carpet before I bought it, I know - shame on me. This morning it was sticky and wet after I removed the rubber floor mats.

QUESTION: Can the heater core leak just some times? I drove about 50 miles today, pushed the engine to red line twice, and not a drop of antifreeze. I took the panels off so I could see whenever I stopped the car.

This is so strange! The bottom of the heater core is not wer, though there is evidence that something had run down the side of the tunnel sometime.

Could it be that the windshield/sunroof leaks??? And a left over antifreeze residue just got wet? The seal where the windshield meets the roof is not very good and water could get in there. Not sure about the sunroof, haven't sprayed water on it yet. Good idea, wash the car tomorrow and look again.
I am not going crazy, I already am,

Klaus
--
Just driving a 1998 V70R :)

Klaus,


Congratulations on your "new" Volvo. Sounds like you have a red (color code 601) wagon. Is it automatic or manual? I ask because I have a '96 na wagon with a 5 speed manual.

Hugh

I bought that car for C.A., a long time Brickboarder with cancer. She loves it!! It is an automatic because she can no longer handle her 4 speed 122. And it is red with dark gray interior. There is a photo of it in the Pictures section, under 850.
The AC works, the evap was replaced a few years ago. The local dealer gave me a copy of it's history, it was sold locally and stayed at the same dealer until 2005.
C.A. thinks the 850 is better than the 740's she has driven the last few years. And she likes the climate control, set it once and forget about it.

Klaus
--
Volvoless. Sold the R. There is now a void...

I had a similar problem a few years ago on an 850 I had. It only gave me a problem during seasonal changes, then about a year later the heater core went.

Best of luck with it,

Mitch

I think on various cars I've had an instance of every kind of leak described in the various posts. I also find (on various cars) that when the outdoor temperature changes seasonally one or another coolant fitting may leak sporadically or just get a little loose. The door sealing strips and sunroof can also let in water time to time and that could trickle down to who knows where along who knows what path.

Are you smelling antifreeze? If not, maybe it's just somebody's old bottle of Sprite. What's it smell like?

My 850, at about the same mileage, smelled of antifreeze for a minute or two everytime the heat was turned on. There was absolutely no signs of leakage from the core. New core (or perhaps just new o-rings at the connection to the core) fixed it. I was just about to throw out that old heater core...

Another spot to check would be the cowl area and under the fusebox. Did a PO have a stereo system that was hastily removed, leaving a hole in the firewall?

The sunroof is more likely to leak water on your head than into the footwell. With an open sunroof I used a little squirt bottle to test those drains.

You'll finger it out.

-Will

I washed the car, no leaks. It rained 1.5 inches. No water inside. It snowed 2 inches, no leaks.
Then I drove it for 20 minutes at 65mph. When I got into city traffic, it leaked!! But, it leaked from the top of the A pillar, one drop at a time. Not from the window seal, but from behind the plastic cover over the pillar at the top where the cover levels out to go past the windshield.
Where could that have come from? The car sat outside in the snow, which melted when I drove off. The sunroof forward drains work, I poured water in them and it came out at the bottom of the car. Unless the rear drains are clogged and I would have to remove the sunroof to inspect that area, I cannot immagine the water sloshing forward and coming out of the A pillar.
There should not have been enough water under the fake roof rails to amount to much. It got cold here and I really don't want to take off the plastic trim right now, just for a look-see.

Klaus
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Just driving a 1998 V70R :)

It still could be the windshield seal...is it the original windshield? I went through this same problem with a Passat...sitting in the driveway, there was no leak, but in motion, I had a steady drip. It had to do with a void in the sealant (bad installation of a replacement windshield) and it's orientation near the top of the glas, and the angle, if you will, the air flow would push the water up and into the void (which was not visible) and then it would drip.

Upon removing the windsheild, the void was obvious, as it had dust in it and water marks on the inside of teh pillar confirmed it was the surce of the leak.

Ron

Hmm, my guess is that the sunroof drain is half broken. It runs right down the A-pillar. On my car, all four of the sunroof drains work, but the right rear one has been known to drip water from the seam in the interior trim where the roof meets the C-pillar. It doesn't do it often, but when it does it drips right onto the seat belt strap. That's what got me checking the drains. After I found them to be clear I just gave up, didn't want to tear into the headliner for just few drops.

Are the wagons that different that you can't check those drains? The other source of leakage is around the frame of the window itself. Mine is showing some corrosion in that area and will sometimes drip water on my head at first acceleration after a long heavy rain.

I put it all back together today. Dry, clean carpet and 2 sunday papers worth of yellow sticky stuff from the foam mat.
It never leaked!! I took it out and ran the heck out of her (what a nice NA) hoping to get the coolant pressure up, but nada.

I will wait to see what happens. I washed it and waxed it (nice red paint), the sunroof didn't leak a drop - the front drains are clear. I fixed the rear tailgate rattle. I will need tailgate struts but dealer wanted too much.

I need to visit a bone yard to get the SIPS cover on the passenger side seat and the car will be complete.

The dealer gave me complete service history! From invoice to 2005, when the car was sold to the person before me.

BTW, I had a new key copied and was charged $17.96

Fun,

Klaus
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Just driving a 1998 V70R :)

sounds like a peach! how much$$??

my '95 NA wagon has he smell of coolant occasionally but it happens during the change of seasons and then i dont smell it till next season. i dunno... just keeping my fingers crossed that it holds out.
--
-woodsytf '95 850 wagon 160k

Sounds like a heckuva nice car... Sounds like a pretty nice dealer too! $17.96 is cheap for a key. I'd have to check, but I think I paid 29.95 for one back in 2004. Definitely more than $18.

-Will
--
850 / Mini

Klaus,

A similar thing happened to my 1998 V70 T5 just after I had the evaporator replaced. There was a lot of water under all the carpets, but no hint of anti-freeze. I suspected that the AC condensate drain had been not been properly restored, allowing the condensate to drain inboard rather than on to the pavement below.

I returned to my indie; he checked it out and sheepishly told me that it was now corrected.

With the source now located and stopped, I sopped up what I could, then realized that the remainer would simply have to evaporate. I chose to accelerate that process by moving large amounts of air across the carpet using my electric leaf blower. It took a while, but it worked.

Good luck.
--
Dave in Virginia; 1998 V70 T5(M): IPD MOTRONIC+ ECU Upgrade, Sport Muffler, IPD Strut Tower Brace; VDO Boost Gauge, IPD Anti-Sway Bars, Rocha ABS Control Unit, Koni FDS Struts and Shocks/// 1988 245 DL Wagon// 1967 MGB Roadster

Klaus,

The sealing strip between the windshield and the roof is missing on a lot of 850s. If not glued in, they simply blow off. Mine was missing when I bought my '95 855T and a replacement was about $35 at a dealer. The strip has a lip which is supposed to snap into the channel but even with a little rubber cement mine blew off on the highway a couple of days after I installed it. It's been without it for six years now and no leaks.
Wet carpets are a pain in the rear as I learned with my '88 745T. I stripped that car's interior completely out, all the way to metal, to repair several leaks.

Good luck,

Erwin

Okay there are a couple of things being talked about in this thread.

Its a mistake if you smell coolant, but only intermittently, to think that you don't have a problem and its just "seasonal" and to ignore it.

You might not notice how much coolant is underneath your carpet pooling on the pan due to the coating on the underside of the carpet. A leaking heater core drips coolant underneath the carpet and soaks up. There is a weatherproofing layer on the bottom of the carpet (think Gore-Tex). If you smell coolant but don't see visible leaks, the problem didn't "go away" with temperature changes, or the seasons. Pull your carpet up and you'll most likely discover you have a bad heater core and coolant under your carpet. It takes a very significant leak for it to ever pass up into the carpet to the point that you actually notice soggy carpet. The time to address the problem is when you smell the coolant.

Pull the carpet, sop up the coolant (if any), and replace the heater core. If you don't find coolant after pulling the carpet, you may be able to get away with replacing the heater core O-rings. The reason the problem seems "seasonal" is because the rubber O-rings don't do a very good job of sealing across extreme temperature ranges. Remember, when we lost the space shuttle due to o-rings failing due to temperature? You don't have to be Richard Feyman to fix your problem. Replace your heater core O-rings. You can get original rubber or silicone ones that will do a better job regardless of the background temperature.

Now about that $18 key. Klaus where were you able to have the key made for $18? Did they copy the key using your original, or did they make one from the VIN? I need to get a couple of keys, so please share this information. The local Volvo dealer in Madison wants $45 a key.

My weekend joy is the heater core on my 850. Maybe it's only the o rings, but I only put a cabin filter in a couple of years ago, so if I'm pulling the thing out, a new one is going back in...not just o rings.

Replacing the core is an easy repair. Drain coolant first and then sneak a doubled plastic trash bag up around the bottom of the HC housing before finally breaking it loose. You'll capture 1-2 quarts of coolant and have nothing but a few drops to clean up.