Hello fellow brickers!

                      I recently bought a Volvo 850 SE with 75K miles on it. Works great, but with a few exceptions that I
                      hope you can help me out with:

                      My tempmeter is a little bit over 'normal'. If you relate to a halfsized clock, it reads about '2:00-2:30'. All
                      other 850's I've seen has been right at '3:00'.
                      It doesn't get any hotter than that, I've pushed the engine quite hard to see if it did but the meter is
                      steady. It has been this way ever since I bought the car 2 months ago.
                      Should I be concerned or is this nothing to worry about? Thing is, we've had outside temperatures
                      between -4 to 40 degrees F here in Sweden the last couple of months, and I'm a little worried about
                      what's gonna happen when it gets warmer. Is it just a bad thermostat?

                      My car has also started to squeal when running below 2000 rpm's. Sounds like the fanbelt. Don't know
                      if the temp-thing is related to this, it has only squealed the last couple of days, and there's been a lot of
                      humidity during this period.

                      Another clue to the temp-thing might be the fact that the big, middle air intake in the spoiler doesn't have
                      any 'net' to protect the radiator! Should there be one? I've tried to look at other 850's, but people tend
                      to get annoyed when a stranger crawls around their precious 850... :)

                      Well, I think that's all! I hope you understand my english and can give me a few hints on what to do..
                      Thanks in advance!

                      Stefan
                      1995 850 SE, B5252, manual transmission.

                      Regarding your thermostat, I would wait and see whether it actually does climb when the weather gets
                      warmer. From other posts on this board, after putting in a new thermostat, some people have higher
                      operating temperatures. So if a brand new t-stat tends to make the reading slightly above the 3-o-clock
                      reading, then I wouldn't worry about it that much; as it sounds like your t-stat is behaving like a brand
                      new t-stat. Just pay close attention to it as the weather warms up.

                      Regarding the sqealing, try to localize it. Many things could be causing this. A few are alternator
                      bearings, water pumps, pulleys, the belt itself. Try to get one of those stethoscopes (sp?) with a metal
                      rod. You should be able to get this at an auto parts store. With the engine running, touch the rod to
                      different components to try to localize the sound. I'm sure you don't want to replace anything you don't
                      have to.

                      I wouldn't worry about the central air duct in the front. Only the two side ducts came with plastic inserts.
                      You can tell because the two side inlets have four tabs that allow the insert to clip into place, while the
                      central duct does not.

                      I have a 97 T5 (high pressure turbo) and it too, reads about 2:30/2:00. It has never overheated, even in
                      the hot summer sun. There are at leat two different thermostats, depending on where you look. One
                      opens sooner, I want to say at 186 or something, and the other at 190, not exactly sure on temps. I
                      believe the turbo gets the one that opens earlier, I'll have to go back and look. I have a feeling I have the
                      warmer thermostat. Perhaps you suffer the same ailment. Either way, I've never experienced any
                      problems with overheating. I believe the wrong thermostat can cause variences in mpg and emissions.
                      Anyone with any other info on this would be a great help to me as well! Good Luck.

                      --
                      Tyler