I'm interested in figuring out just when this A/C problem occurs. Do all of them fail? After how long? For example, my 1995 (75k) is still going without repair (but I'm beginning to think it's not as cool as it used to be).

Gerald C

93 850 GLT owned for eight months. No cold AC at all. Charged last week. So far, so good.

94 850 Turbo owned for a month. Previous owner told me to get the AC recharged every year. "Just one of those Volvo deals".

Mark in NJ

1996 65,000 miles base 5 speed with manual AC. Blows very cold. All original AC parts. Never serviced.

F*cking recirc. door stuck open, though. Need to reattach/fix actuator
--
www.fidalgo.net/~brook4

94 850 turbo 120K miles...no problems
98 R wagon 45k miles...no problems

My mechanic told me the main reason the evaporator has problems is from the engine shifting due to the upper engine bushing/mount being bad...the engine moves and stresses the evaporator line causing leaks/failure.

All my engine mounts are IPD which have a lifetime warranty, nothing moves.

Stay Cool!

Spence

1996 855 GLT: 81k miles, original evaporator (bought used and not sure if it was replaced within the first 29k miles or not, have maintenance receipts for 29-79k miles), A/C blows cold, no problems (yet). But I did recently have the recirc and A/C lights simultaneously flashing (indicating a problem with the ECC), but that seems to have stopped.

1st: 3 yesrs and 44000 miles, replaced under warranty. 2nd: 4.5 years, 67000 miles, replaced by dealer at my expense. 3rd: 8 years, 94000 miles. Replaced at my expense by independent shop.

Gerald,

I live on the beach in Florida, have 1994 850 turbo with many mods, 125,000 miles. Here, accepted max life for factory aluminum evap is 40,000 miles. I finally got smart; put in all- copper unit. Even off the beach, with 75,000 on the clock, would expect your evap is dead.

Senilesurfer

Where did you find/buy an all copper evaporator?
I think mine might be dying.

Mine failed within the first year- no problems since then.

--
Nathan - 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo w/70K miles. Ask me, I've probably fixed it.

I just had the evaporator replaced @ 94k miles. AC was recharged in last July. My car is about 7 years old.

Ching-Ho Cheng
--
1995 855 NA, Bilstein Shocks, K&N Filter

Our 95 required a re-charge a couple months ago. Now it is blowing
very cold air. I suspect it may need this every couple of years and
hope any leaks are slow.

i am on my second 850. the first one i had was a 95 GLT, and the A/C started acting up on me during the spring of 2000. i took it for a recharge which made it as cold as ever, but it didn't last for long. so i took it to a shop a few months later and spent $300something for a flush, replacement of the evaporator/dryer (and possibly another part?), and recharge. i'm now on my second 95 850, and the AC is not very cold at all. if it were a simple recharge i would take it in ASAP. i won't be surprised, however, if it's time to have some of the components replaced. in fact, i was about to put up a thread about this but then i saw you had already raised the issue.

I have a 1993 850glt with 170,000 km - A/C works great, no problems!

1994 850 Turbo - 131K miles, no problems with AC related to evaporator. (Now, the condensor is another story... (Grin).