Our low mileage 1994 850T has had many problems in the past few months: first the fuel sensors both had to be replaced (expensive), then there was a crack in the return fuel line and today the coolant light is on (which I judge may mean there is a leak). Are all of these things par for the course with this age car and although I am just going out to get more coolant what is the possibility that that this will be another repair?

Interesting about the fuel line. My 96 850R had a recent event where fuel was leaking and a fire started in the area of the fuel lines at lower rear of engine bay. The dealer denies wrongdoing (car was just worked on by them) and Volvo denies there is any problems with fuel lines.

Volvo Car Australia assured me they had not been aware of any fuel line failures in Volvo 850s. Perhaps you could tell me where your fuel line split.

It would be interesting to see how often this is occurring...

Unless it's leaking, it probably just needs to be topped off and that's normal in the winter for many cars as I'm doing it daily to cars at work (topped off once in a while that is). If you add coolant and it's low again soon, then I'd say chances are that it's leaking somewhere and you should see coolant on the floor where its parked.

As for other repairs, all cars have problems with many differant things as time/mileage goes on. Even new cars are plagued with problems from what I see. There is no perfect car made by anyone.

Numerous problems I have had with my '94 Turbo: First transmission fault: various diagnoses included shift solenoids (dealer), burnt fluid (independent shop) and finally internal failure (trans experts) which will mean a new trans. This has been going on for over 45K miles, seems better after a flush but the fault code returns. Every few times that flashes it goes into limp-home. And it will not shift out of first in the morning (not temperature dependent).

Just for fun, my other problems have included fried turbo, self-destructing fuel pump, inoperative park interlock, inoperative drivers side seat heater, skipping/useless CD, inoperative side mirror defogger, almost-inoperative rear window defogger, burnt-out and inaccessible dash lights, and for that final and current insult A BURNT VALVE necessitating an upper-end rebuild ($3K worth).

No bitterness here but for obvious reasons my first and last Volvo. I have a very good buddy who teaches auto tech at the local community college, and makes a lot of bucks doing consulting work for Volvo's attorneys in product liability and lemon law cases. He is quite outspoken about the deteriorization of quality in the parts and materials Volvo has used in the 850/70 and later models. I am convinced to say the least.

--

Normal...