Hi there, a couple of weekends ago, I found myself unable to start my 1994 850 wagon (non-turbo edition). Engine cranked - battery healthy - but would not catch. After numerous tries, I gave up, guessing it was flooded due to a strong odor of gasoline. Ended up having the car towed to the Volvo dealer in town. Mechanic there told me it was badly flooded -- they pulled the plugs out, blew compressed air into the cylinder heads, and changed the oil, which was contaminated with unleaded. Now, I didn't do anything different than normal -- don't pump the gas before starting etc.

Mechanic says that I haven't been driving the car "hard enough" and that unless you really drive the sh*t out of these cars, carbon deposits build up on the valve heads, eventually stopping them up. When I tried to start it, fuel pump borught in fuel but valves were apparently gummed up and not admitting air. "You need to drop the hammer to blast em out of there," says mechanic, who gently scolded me for "casual driving." This sounds suspicious.

Car now drives fine. We take it up to freeway speeds all the time and floor it on the onramps.

ps We noted heavy black carbon deposits on tailpipe, suggesting the engine is running too rich, but mechanic assures me the mix is electronically monitored and adjusted and a fault would have shown up in the fault codes check. We live at 7,000 feet, by the way.

Comments?

-James