How i fixed the AC in my 850.

[Saaamon]

Been meaning to get round to fixing my AC for a while now, just needed a bit of a push, for those that read my Bosnian trip thread will probably have worked out where that push came from.

Its my understanding that when these cars were new pollen filters were an optional extra that were rarely specified. Because of that the evaporators' (behind the dash) rot out due to foliage being able to pass through and becoming trapped. Heater cores are also known to fail over time so that was replaced while the dash was out too. The compressor bearing had failed due to flood damage 18months ago so that was another part that needed replacing along with a new drier.

It took about 10 hours to replace the evaporator and heater core and clean up behind the dash, plus a couple extra hours as i replaced the thermostat, flushed the coolant and carried out extra cleaning jobs whilst it was apart.

I had a local garage replace the compressor, replace the drier, fit a new aux belt and thoroughly leak test and re-gas the system.

Amazingly the rest of the system was still in a serviceable condition despite having not been used in years. One issue encountered with the compressor was it turns out Volvo changed the design 4 times so the reconditioned one i had was slightly different but still ok to use.

A fair bit of effort went into fixing the air conditioning and have finally done it and now have ice cold air coming through the vents and very effective climate control.

Thanks for looking.