1996 Volvo 850 850R review from UK and Ireland

Rear main seal leaking (gearbox out jobbie)

Upper engine mount cracked.

Suspension tired.

Thermostat housing cracked.

Thermostat stuck open.

Wastegate weakened.

Both front wheel bearing becoming noisy.

Balljoints and control arm bushes creaking.

ABS ecu failed.

Electric mirror mechanism not working.

Evaporator leaks.

Starter motor sticking.

Turbo return line seal leaking.

O2 sensor failing.

The 850's are very good cars overall once you get the common problems out of the way. But to do this can be expensive (rear main seal leak will cost £700 at dealer).

The engines in the 850's are solid and you will rarely find example of them suffering head gaskets and excessive oil usage. My engine has covered 158,000 miles and still is going strong.

automatic gearbox is also going strong and 158k. fluid changed every 10k.

Interiors are excellent in the 850's with lots of open space unlike modern cars that seem to have you sitting in a pod.

Fuel consumption is OK for a big car, I average from 25-30 mpg. though to achieve this you need to keep on top of servicing.

Running costs are OK if you can do the work yourself with lots of patent parts available for reasonable cost.

Performance from the turbo motors is very good and a std t5/r will have no trouble going past 150mph. many companies offer upgrades to bring the power on these close to 300bhp with no reliability issues. I have done 25k miles so far with my rica ecu running near 300bhp.

Brakes are OK, but I feel are not man enough for the t5 cars and be overheated without much trouble. this can be solved by fitting the larger brakes from the s70 t5 and some track pads.

Gearboxes are strong, auto's need to be looked after with regular fluid chnages dispite what volvo says and an extra cooler will help you get more miles out of them. The auto's have not trouble handling the power of the t5 and r's (even when chipped), and are often quicker to 70 than the manuals.

Handling is good with a stiff chassis and the delta link rear suspension. tired suspension on high milers can result in traction problems for the t5/r.

sound system, 8 speaker premium system as std with 6 cd changer. sounds very good.

to sumerise, once i have done all the little problems i expect this car to last me easily to 250,000 miles.