850 Fuel Tank recall

In yesterday's (Thurs July 29, 2004) Globe and Mail newspaper...

Volvo Recalls 105,000 cars

About 105,000 1994-97 Volvo 850 sedans are being recalled because their
gasoline tanks may leak.
Volvo said that new heat shield mounting bushings will be installed on
all affected cars.
Fuel tanks will be replaced if they have begun to leak.
Volvo said the problem develops only after the cars have prolonged
exposure to extreme heat.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Anyone know where online to find out if a particular vehicle is affected by
this recall? I've got a 1994 850 that I bought second hand so I know that
Volvo doesnt have my address as the owner of the vehicle.

Thanks,

 

Quoting from Mike's post (below), this particular problem develops
after prolonged exposure to extreme heat, so perhaps the best thing
to do is to take the car into a dealer.

However, if you want a general website where you can see which month/year
of a particular model is affected by a recall, I have found the NHTSA site
to be quite useful:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/recalls/

The only problem is that their online data is current up to 7/21/04, and
this recall was announced after that.

 

I have a '94 850 Wagon. Ironically, I have had an ever-increasing gas
vapor smell in the last couple of months. Usually, the gas smell was
primarily occuring during operation when the tank was low on gas and in
hot weather (I live near the entrance to hell, known as the State of
Arizona), but there was no evidence of a leak (yet).

Of all the crazy things, the 850 started to develop slow leak a little
over a week ago, apparently from near the top portion of the tank. Today,
I filled it to about 8 gal and it is really running out now (getting
worse). I wonder if this recall will be extended to the wagons?

 

I should edit my prior post by stating, for one, I thought that the gas
vapor smell was from the extraordinary build-up of vapor pressure in the
tank in the heat - that was the general area where it seemed to originate
- I was not anticipating or looking for a gas tank leak then. Also, I
should restate my original leak observation by stating that, I first
"noticed" the leak coming from up above/behind heat shield on the drivers
side a little over a week ago. Then, it was a slow spotty drip. Today it
is much worse.

I'm not in a position to mitigate this problem nor rent a car right now.
Does anyone think my problem is too coincidental and that Volvo should
consider a look? What's the difference between the bushings on the
wagon's heat shield vs. the sedan?

Until then, it's "fill 'er up please, but only 5 gallons at a time -
thank you."

 

Without knowing much about 850's (my wife and I have driven about
400,000 mi. in 240's), I would still say -

If you think you have a fuel leak, you definitely should have it checked
out by someone who knows that make and model. Since there's a recall
for the sedan version, I would definitely bring it to Volvo's attention,
even if you prefer to have an independent mechanic examine your car.

Bruce

 

Here's a link to the Newsday story from Friday...

http://tinyurl.com/6chdw