okay, i've had my volvo for just over 14 months now and this car is breaking me, both financially and emotionally. over $6000 in repairs!! evaporator, 2 knocks sensors, control unit, thermostat, and now the abs motor pump! will my luck change? is it a lemon? at what point do i sell.

My car recently went through a year of hell. I'm still paying it all off and I assure you I spent a lot more than US$6000. Thing is the car is running great now. I think you will find trouble comes in waves. I reckon you've sunk your money now so give it some more time and keep driving.

I seriously thought of offloading my car, I'm glad I didn't. As for repair prices, talk to Volvo Clubs or other Volvo owners in your area and find a good repairer. The 850 has its problems but I haven't found a car yet that doesn't (except my 1988 GM J car).

Oh no! Another mad Volvo owner departs the ranks! Hurry, before it's too late! Tell her how shortsighted she is for not dumping her life savings into the car.

-Malcolm

(looking for greener pastures)

Yeah and when your transmission craps, it's another $2500.

Check your mechanic,,not your car

Maybe, maybe not. I've seen all that with one exception, the ABS pump motor as I've not needed to replace on of those yet (the code(s) for that are more often the ABS control unit (still not cheap).

I think if most people tallied up their total auto repair expenses with ANY car (not just 7 yr old Volvos) they'd be surprized.

I try not to think about it as what's your alternative, new car payments every month? Can't compare 850s and newer to the old 240s either, those days are gone.

NM= no message

Dunno, the car has two knock sensors originally but the replacement is a kit of one part combined (both attached), but then the plot can thicken because although that seems to be the logical starting point for knock sensor codes, it sometimes ends up needing a control unit as the same intermittant code can still re-appear later (no good fault tracing diagnostics exist for this intermittant code, the choices are knock sensor kit, control unit or the wiring in between and I've never seen the latter)

Not fun, not good but I've seen the same thing happen more than once for knock sensor codes on '94s only.

that's exactly what happened with my car. the check engine light came on with the knocks sensor code up. i had the knocks sensor replaced. the same code came up a few more times and another new knocks sensor was put in. after that, more check engine lights (8 in total) and that same code. they (the dealer) then in turn put in a new control unit. keeping my fingers crossed that the wiring system holds up because they did mention that as an expensive fix if the problem continued.

I'm sorry to hear about your problems with this but as I said before, there's really no better way ("to my knowledge, at this time") to go about solving a problem like that. If I had a "parts car" handy (like a used '94 turbo 850 on the lot, not a customers car), I'd prefer to start with trying a control unit swap first to see if that cures the problem BUT unfortunately, we don't always have those oportunities where I work in every situation either. Parts departments won't lend out new control units, they must be purchased and those aren't cheap, so usually the cheapest first step is to try the newer style knock sensors and hope for the best. It's also very intermittant so no immediate fault tracing does any good, the code can be cleared and might not return for weeks.

Although it was a costly journey and I'd be upset too if that was my car, at least that problem should now be solved.

Amen!

Bryan