Boom goes radiator?

Hello everyone,

Last night while out driving around town, I came across a beautiful 89 745
Turbo sitting in the middle of the road with a panicing elderly lady at the
controls -- the engine had died and I saw that the car was bleeding out in
the middle of the road. Pushed the car out of the roadway for her, then
tugged it up a hill with my car (wasn't my volvo I had with me this time,
unfortunately!) to a parking lot so they could wait for AAA in safety and
took a peek under the hood -- half way down the radiator was lots of
moisture, and I could see where the water had fallen out of the engine
compartment. Resiorvoir was empty. The lady said they just had the car
serviced a few days ago which included filling the coolant... sounds a bit
suspicious.

She started it up a few times and I definately heard knocking... but she
said it'd been pretty gutless above 20mph when she was driving it around
through the past few days. That one really stumped me... does anyone think
A. over filling could have caused the radiator to blow, B. a slowly leaking
radiator could cause power degredation without the car blowing up, and/or C.
she could have cracked/warped the head?

I'll probably never see them again, but I'm curious what could have happened
for my own knowledge base.

Side note -- the lady's son pulled up in a very nice white 850T, and I
couldn't help feel out of place without my brick! I'm definately a
committed brick-er!

Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

I had a catastrophic failure with a '90 960 Turbo radiator and thanks
to Volvo's space saving design had to part with mega bucks (about
$3K).

My symptoms were a serious loss of power and what became evident as
slipping within the auto gearbox. The auto gearbox fluid radiator is
located within the main water radiator and shares joint walls. A
failure in any of the walls allows water and gearbox fluid to mix with
disastrous consequences. My auto gearbox was totaled and due to the
corrosive nature of auto fluid on rubber, every engine hose had to be
replaced.

Mine did not leak out through the core which I was informed was
unusual because the pressures generated with auto trans fluid mixed
with water and circulated around the engine often blows out all over
the place.

My engine did not knock but was under severe strain when run . If the
vehicle you saw was an auto and the radiator failure has taken the
auto gearbox with it, then I suspect that the knocking was indicative
of even more damage and I suspect that the vehicle is an uneconomical
repair.

If the Auto radiator was not involved then she may have suffered
another failure which was my displeasure to endure. I had a
straightforward head gasket failure which although cost mega-bucks did
almost no damage. My wife was driving and saw the temp gauge climb
into the red and stopped in a cloud of steam. Often people fail to
spot the gauge and one result I saw was totaled 850 turbo engine.

The order in which things went wrong for the car you saw is unknown
but I would bet that the repair costs are going to pose serious
questions as to whether to proceed.

(A) It is very unlikely that over filling could have caused the
problem. If the system becomes over pressured there is a blow off hole
in the cap on the filler reservoir which would have let the excess
out. It is more likely that filling up was mentioned because too much
had vanished. (B) A slowly leaking radiator which mixes with auto
gearbox fluid can cause all the symptoms. (C) If the engine was
"cooked" then the head is probably warped but the knocking is
indicative of more serious engine damage.

I doubt that you or anyone will ever see that vehicle on the road
again. I traded my '90 960 Turbo a year ago for about $3.5K (UK) at
which price big repairs fell into the domain of owner do it yourself
work only. Maybe Volvos are worth more in the USA but an '89 would not
be worth a new or refurbed auto gearbox over here.

BTW I did buy another Volvo (V70 T5) but also bought the best 4 year
after market warranty that was available.

Liam

 

Some nice person has overheated her car and stuffed the head gasket. The garage
that did the service should do the repairs for free and give her some
compensation for the inconvenience she has suffered.

Cheers, Peter.

: Hello everyone,
:
: Last night while out driving around town, I came across a beautiful 89 745
: Turbo sitting in the middle of the road with a panicing elderly lady at the
: controls -- the engine had died and I saw that the car was bleeding out in
: the middle of the road. Pushed the car out of the roadway for her, then
: tugged it up a hill with my car (wasn't my volvo I had with me this time,
: unfortunately!) to a parking lot so they could wait for AAA in safety and
: took a peek under the hood -- half way down the radiator was lots of
: moisture, and I could see where the water had fallen out of the engine
: compartment. Resiorvoir was empty. The lady said they just had the car
: serviced a few days ago which included filling the coolant... sounds a bit
: suspicious.
:
: She started it up a few times and I definately heard knocking... but she
: said it'd been pretty gutless above 20mph when she was driving it around
: through the past few days. That one really stumped me... does anyone think
: A. over filling could have caused the radiator to blow, B. a slowly leaking
: radiator could cause power degredation without the car blowing up, and/or C.
: she could have cracked/warped the head?
:
: I'll probably never see them again, but I'm curious what could have happened
: for my own knowledge base.
:
: Side note -- the lady's son pulled up in a very nice white 850T, and I
: couldn't help feel out of place without my brick! I'm definately a
: committed brick-er!
:
: Thanks in advance,
: Mike
:
:

 

Those plastic radiators are notorious for blowing up, she probably kept
driving it until it severely overheated and warped the head, motor is
probably shot if it got hot enough that it was knocking.

 

Why? What did the garage do? The driver should have been paying attention to
the temperature guage and shut it down when it started to overheat.