I am now the proud owner of the above vehicle. It has done 74,000 miles and is an automatic, 2-litre 20 valve model.
Does anyone have any top tips regarding when the timing belt should be changed, what would be a good interval for oil changes (mainly urban use, with the odd blast up & down the full length of the M1), which oil to use, etc etc.
I tried the Volvo Owners' Club website but it wasn't very helpful.
Many thanks in advance.
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Volvo recommend 850 timing belt replacement as follows:
To 93 May (21 mm belt) - every 50000 miles or 60 months, whichever occurs 1st.
94 May on (23 mm belt) - every 80000 miles or 96 months, whichever occurs 1st
The oil grade to use will be in your handbook.
If you do lots of cold starts, you halve the recommended interval.
That\'s it. Not fancy oil AND more frequent - that\'s just a waste of money.
checkout:-
www.chris-longhurst.com/carbibles/index.html?menu....l
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Welcome to the happy band of Volvo owners, I hope you enjoy it.
Don't forget to change the brake fluid and coolant every couple of years, as well as the regular oil changes.
Cheers
VD5D.
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For further info you can join the volvo american website which has online owners handbooks for most used volvos. All you need is an american zip / postcode to register with them (this needs to be any valid zip code)
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Now you just KNOW what I am going to say, Change the belt NOW and again in 36000 miles or three years.
Andrew ;-)
Happiness is a T70 at full chat!
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Now you just KNOW what I am going to say, Change the belt NOW and again in 36000 miles or three years.
Andrew ;-) <<
Is this not a bit premature changing every 36000 miles , I've just had my belt done after 60000 but the dealer informed me that as my car is the later V70 then I could have waited until 80000. The dealer recommends having the follower / tensioner changed which cost the same as the belt.
So about 70 quid in parts , but this provides peace of mind for another 80k.
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"Now you just KNOW what I am going to say, Change the belt NOW and again in 36000 miles or three years.
Andrew ;-)"
I can appreciate the sentiment, but the interval of 96 months/80,000 miles identified above seems to imply that it's due for a change mid-next year or in 6,000 miles. Are the recommended intervals the absolute maximum that one should go, or the minimum time a belt will last for?
And very many thanks to all the helpful tips that people have taken the time to post for me. Thoroughly welcome.
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The recommended intervals are what the manufacturers think is the optimum between spending too much on parts and labour, and not having the timing belt go, taking out the engine with it. It is in their interest to extend this interval because this implies low maintenance costs when the vehicle is new, and therefore will make the car more attractive to fleets.
By not changing it now, you are essentially betting the cost of a replacement engine that everything will be fine until you do decide to change it. Probably, nothing will happen, but if it did it would likely be catastrophic.
Every three years/36k seems a little pessimistic to me; I think you're probably safe with 5 years/50k but that's just my opinion. If you know a good garage the labour costs won't be astronomical, the costs of a replacement engine will be. The same applies to oil; a cheap oil change using the right grade of oil (it needn't be done by a main dealer) half way through the manufacturer's service interval won't cost a fortune but will preserve your engine.
My father took the original timing belt on his '91 Audi up to 96k (this was six years ago); a friend of mine has a '93 Accord on its original timing belt at 110k miles. As far as I'm concerned, he's an idiot and maybe this says something about Japanese reliability, but I wouldn't feel safe at that age and mileage.
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