James A Sousa

Sand away - even the worst touch-up will look a lot better on your car than a big smash from hitting a bridge abutment!!!

Volvo techs have decision trees to troubleshoot multiple codes. One problem may set other codes after time.

Many recommend resetting codes and see what pops up first.

Wooaah dude - actually, it is normal for 850s to get a milky deposit on their dipsticks if they are driven for short trips in the winter. The dipstick tube fills with this gunk as well and just wiping the dipstick will not get rid of it.

As others have suggested, do a compression check and dump the oil if it is compression is OK at all.

As for visions of sugar plums dancing in your head about modifying the car - just fix it and drive it - you will spend enough on it as it is.

One of our 850s has been repaired with a piece of nylon strap - this has worked for more than 120K and 11 years!

Look carefully at the hex socket.

I used to work with splined Bristol screws and the socket was drilled round, then a stamping machine cut the splines. This lefd a little pile of shavings squashed at the bottom of the hole.

I used to take the proper sized wrench and cut a little chisel tip on the end. Then I would drive the sharpened wrench into the fastener and this extra grip would often do the job.