850 T5 Project - Ivy
Discussion
Spent another colossal amount on parts recently (£35...) which got me these:
A replacement air induction hose for my ECUs and colour coded door handles off the P80 V70. The induction hose was bought to replace this piece which was definitely looking rather worse for wear. Not quite sure what caused it to go - almost looks like friction damage but there is nothing anywhere near it!
In any case, the 'new' piece was cleaned up, dressed and fitted as follows. I am also aware how atrocious both the alternator/PAS pump bracket and radiator jubilee clip are too. Got some Hammerite for the former and will replace the latter, they will both get sorted!
Moving on the door handles they are a straight bolt-on mod (or screw-on!). The only real issue to note is that the P80 850 and P80 V70 have different door lock cylinder barrels and are not compatible. This means you will lose the key openings on the doors. I don't personally think this is an issue as I have remote central locking and if the fob dies the key lock on the boot also triggers the central locking. To remove the handles, there is a irregular hexagonal shaped bit of plastic on the side of the door panel that you'll need to pop out. Once that is removed it will reveal two T30 torx screws that you'll need to remove. Once that has been done you'll need to pull the back of the handle straight out and then using a screwdriver lever the hook (see pictures) off the catch to release it. Tricky on first attempt but once you get one off and can see how the latch and hook interact its easy enough to do the others. Swapping the handles took me a total of 30 mins, its really not a consuming process and not worth worrying about! When it comes to doors with lock cylinders you have one additional step which is to remove the stem attached to the rear of the latch. This will just pull straight out.
As it stands there are only three handles on my car, the o/s/f drivers door hasn't been swapped yet as I did not learn about the lock cylinder incompatibility until I tried to swap them. This means I'm currently hunting down a cover for the handle without a keyhole cut-out. Should have one soon!
Anyway, pictures. Me being me I couldn't just fit the handles so they got washed, clayed, compounded and polished by hand then sealed - leaving me with the following. Hand polishing was never going to remove some of the scratches, but it did bring back a lot of the colour and gloss.
I also took the time to do the same process on the doors - the recesses were washed, clayed, compounded and polished by hand then sealed. Again, far from perfect correction but some of the smaller scratches went and got some gloss back too.
Here's a comparison of the handles. The V70 handle is slightly thicker and taller which makes it nicer to hold - feels more substantial and the fact that it isn't essentially unfinished plastic makes it feel like a more luxury item befitting a top spec car!
Lastly a comparison on the car. I have to say I feel this makes a huge improvement and takes years off the car. Plus its one less thing to faff around trying to dress to stop fading!
I also bought some genuine Volvo centre caps for very cheap on eBay, took a risk as their size wasn't mentioned and lost the gamble - but I found some more this morning that are the right size and only fractionally more expensive (okay, 50% more expensive but the first pair were so cheap it's still less than a pint) which should hopefully arrive soon.
Car is also booked in for timing belt kit, water pump and coolant change on the 3rd, and then Im away for most of August so there wont be too many updates till September. It's also a good thing I bought an estate, will need it for carting this mammoth of a creature around:
A replacement air induction hose for my ECUs and colour coded door handles off the P80 V70. The induction hose was bought to replace this piece which was definitely looking rather worse for wear. Not quite sure what caused it to go - almost looks like friction damage but there is nothing anywhere near it!
In any case, the 'new' piece was cleaned up, dressed and fitted as follows. I am also aware how atrocious both the alternator/PAS pump bracket and radiator jubilee clip are too. Got some Hammerite for the former and will replace the latter, they will both get sorted!
Moving on the door handles they are a straight bolt-on mod (or screw-on!). The only real issue to note is that the P80 850 and P80 V70 have different door lock cylinder barrels and are not compatible. This means you will lose the key openings on the doors. I don't personally think this is an issue as I have remote central locking and if the fob dies the key lock on the boot also triggers the central locking. To remove the handles, there is a irregular hexagonal shaped bit of plastic on the side of the door panel that you'll need to pop out. Once that is removed it will reveal two T30 torx screws that you'll need to remove. Once that has been done you'll need to pull the back of the handle straight out and then using a screwdriver lever the hook (see pictures) off the catch to release it. Tricky on first attempt but once you get one off and can see how the latch and hook interact its easy enough to do the others. Swapping the handles took me a total of 30 mins, its really not a consuming process and not worth worrying about! When it comes to doors with lock cylinders you have one additional step which is to remove the stem attached to the rear of the latch. This will just pull straight out.
As it stands there are only three handles on my car, the o/s/f drivers door hasn't been swapped yet as I did not learn about the lock cylinder incompatibility until I tried to swap them. This means I'm currently hunting down a cover for the handle without a keyhole cut-out. Should have one soon!
Anyway, pictures. Me being me I couldn't just fit the handles so they got washed, clayed, compounded and polished by hand then sealed - leaving me with the following. Hand polishing was never going to remove some of the scratches, but it did bring back a lot of the colour and gloss.
I also took the time to do the same process on the doors - the recesses were washed, clayed, compounded and polished by hand then sealed. Again, far from perfect correction but some of the smaller scratches went and got some gloss back too.
Here's a comparison of the handles. The V70 handle is slightly thicker and taller which makes it nicer to hold - feels more substantial and the fact that it isn't essentially unfinished plastic makes it feel like a more luxury item befitting a top spec car!
Lastly a comparison on the car. I have to say I feel this makes a huge improvement and takes years off the car. Plus its one less thing to faff around trying to dress to stop fading!
I also bought some genuine Volvo centre caps for very cheap on eBay, took a risk as their size wasn't mentioned and lost the gamble - but I found some more this morning that are the right size and only fractionally more expensive (okay, 50% more expensive but the first pair were so cheap it's still less than a pint) which should hopefully arrive soon.
Car is also booked in for timing belt kit, water pump and coolant change on the 3rd, and then Im away for most of August so there wont be too many updates till September. It's also a good thing I bought an estate, will need it for carting this mammoth of a creature around:
Expensive day, my wallet is definitely in mourning. Timing belt kit, water pump and an oil change - slightly overdue at 6k miles, naughty me was mistaken what the mileage she was on when last serviced.
Strip down to access timing belt was going well, airbox, inlet pipes, expansion tank, washer filler pipe and end cover all came off with no issues. Then we stumbled into a seized bolt holding the ECU box, didn't want to risk shearing it so left it in place as it doesn't need to be removed the do the timing belt, just gives a fraction more access to drive belts. It then went downhill rapidly, with a bolt shearing on the camshaft pullet cover. No biggy, we'll drill it out...nope, don't have the right size drill bit or a replacement bolt for it
. Blast, that's something for me to do later on then... Odd that this is the only bolt on the engine that put up any resistance, also odd its the only one corroded.
When removing the washer filler pipe I noticed the filter was rather gummed up - might go some way to explaining why it always takes so long for fluid to drain down the pipe. Gave this a clean with the only thing on hand at the time, a slow running tap. Seemed to do an okay job, but could probably do with a more thorough clean at some point.
Before.
After.
With the coolant drained, I was able to get a good look at the expansion tank. Definitely needs replacing (yay!) with a crack in one of the plastic pipes and a broken cap. Incidentally that cap is more than likely original as the design changed a year or two after this car was manufactured. It was also rather slime-d and had a fair bit of sediment build up. I also tried to clean this up a bit but with my only aide being a tap it is far from perfect. Need a new one anyway, so
Before. Can just about see the out of focus crack in the top left pipe
After. Better, but not perfect.
Cracks, cracks, and more cracks. This was replaced with the newer design from a car being broken just down the road, it's the newer design and has no cracks but with no way of knowing its actual condition I think the best bet will still be replacement.
Next up we got the belt and accessories off. Old belt looked to be in fairly good condition, despite being a few months over its 8 year recommended interval (but about 50k under the mileage interval). We also found it was the original water pump, again looking to be in good condition with no play or noise. Still, at 180k and 23 years old its safer to get it changed, especially when I'm doing 15k a year or so. There was some noise in one of the pulleys though definitely felt a bit rough too. Design of said pulley also seems to have changed since the last cambelt change, with the pulley now being 'enclosed' instead of 'hollow' - sorry for the lack of pics highlighting this!
Thankfully, being genuine the gasket came off easily and didn't require feverish scraping and cleaning up.
Lastly was installing the new parts, packing it all back together, topping up the coolant and bleeding it. Here's a (badly focused)picture of the new accessories in place, all shiny and gleaming. No pics of oil change, because well, oil change.
After the drive back home the coolant level was spot on - I will of course be double checking this in the am when its cold. Weirdly the car seems to pull better after the timing belt service - though this could be down to the ECU being unplugged for the service and hence 're-learning'.
Aside from sorting out the expansion tank I'm really hoping that the next few months of motoring will be very quiet as between these major jobs (brakes, servicing, timing belt, suspension) and the recent works on the house my bank balance definitely needs a break. Sadly knowledge of this resulted in me passing on a great deal (£50) on 5x Columbas in decent condition. Oh well. I'm hopeful I'll find a similar deal somewhere down the line.
Strip down to access timing belt was going well, airbox, inlet pipes, expansion tank, washer filler pipe and end cover all came off with no issues. Then we stumbled into a seized bolt holding the ECU box, didn't want to risk shearing it so left it in place as it doesn't need to be removed the do the timing belt, just gives a fraction more access to drive belts. It then went downhill rapidly, with a bolt shearing on the camshaft pullet cover. No biggy, we'll drill it out...nope, don't have the right size drill bit or a replacement bolt for it
. Blast, that's something for me to do later on then... Odd that this is the only bolt on the engine that put up any resistance, also odd its the only one corroded.When removing the washer filler pipe I noticed the filter was rather gummed up - might go some way to explaining why it always takes so long for fluid to drain down the pipe. Gave this a clean with the only thing on hand at the time, a slow running tap. Seemed to do an okay job, but could probably do with a more thorough clean at some point.
Before.
After.
With the coolant drained, I was able to get a good look at the expansion tank. Definitely needs replacing (yay!) with a crack in one of the plastic pipes and a broken cap. Incidentally that cap is more than likely original as the design changed a year or two after this car was manufactured. It was also rather slime-d and had a fair bit of sediment build up. I also tried to clean this up a bit but with my only aide being a tap it is far from perfect. Need a new one anyway, so
Before. Can just about see the out of focus crack in the top left pipe
After. Better, but not perfect.
Cracks, cracks, and more cracks. This was replaced with the newer design from a car being broken just down the road, it's the newer design and has no cracks but with no way of knowing its actual condition I think the best bet will still be replacement.
Next up we got the belt and accessories off. Old belt looked to be in fairly good condition, despite being a few months over its 8 year recommended interval (but about 50k under the mileage interval). We also found it was the original water pump, again looking to be in good condition with no play or noise. Still, at 180k and 23 years old its safer to get it changed, especially when I'm doing 15k a year or so. There was some noise in one of the pulleys though definitely felt a bit rough too. Design of said pulley also seems to have changed since the last cambelt change, with the pulley now being 'enclosed' instead of 'hollow' - sorry for the lack of pics highlighting this!
Thankfully, being genuine the gasket came off easily and didn't require feverish scraping and cleaning up.
Lastly was installing the new parts, packing it all back together, topping up the coolant and bleeding it. Here's a (badly focused)picture of the new accessories in place, all shiny and gleaming. No pics of oil change, because well, oil change.
After the drive back home the coolant level was spot on - I will of course be double checking this in the am when its cold. Weirdly the car seems to pull better after the timing belt service - though this could be down to the ECU being unplugged for the service and hence 're-learning'.
Aside from sorting out the expansion tank I'm really hoping that the next few months of motoring will be very quiet as between these major jobs (brakes, servicing, timing belt, suspension) and the recent works on the house my bank balance definitely needs a break. Sadly knowledge of this resulted in me passing on a great deal (£50) on 5x Columbas in decent condition. Oh well. I'm hopeful I'll find a similar deal somewhere down the line.
So I'm back from holiday, so I thought I'd do a quick end-of-six month review to remind myself of my progress made with getting her back into a respectable condition. She also behaved herself during her 3 week sleep-over at Heathrow, which was nice to see and continued to behave herself on the 550 mile trip home via West Wales to collect my puppy.
I'll start this by saying just how much I love this car. Everything seems effortless, from nose-to-tail traffic in rush hour to six hour cross country trips. Car is great for pushing on, handles far better than I'd ever expect and has a decent turn of pace when you keep it on the boost. Peak torque from 2000-5500rpm certainly helps too! On a more boring note I am averaging 31.3mpg though this can drop significantly depending on how much of the aforementioned nose-to-tail traffic I end up in!
Anyway, lets look back at the first post and what we started with.
- Central locking not working *Fixed*
- FM radio not working *Replaced*
- Missing front bumper trim *Replaced*
- Missing rear brake light cover *Replaced*
- Broken gear shift gaiter *Fixed*
- Slow draining washer fluid (far from a significant issue, but a bit tedious spending 15 minutes topping up your washer fluid!!) *Fixed*
- ABS ECU fault *Fixed*
Of that list, the majority were either free or very cheap fixes. In fact, the most costly was the door check strap - which ended up actually being a cracked A-pillar. £50 to address that one. Everything else was off a breaker. The only item left there is the alloys and the seat, more on those to come.
If we then look at the list of things I had planned (minus repeats from above) we'll see how much progress has been made there. As I'm writing this paragraph it feels like I've done very little, but hey ho.
Onto modifications: I have found some Columbas, just need to free up some funds post-holiday, puppy purchase and garden renovation. The HU got replaced, with an SC-805. SC-901 plans never happened due to cost and scarcity. It would also really have needed the factory amp, sub, and upgraded Dynaudio speakers to get the best from it and I was not in a place to drop £300 on the audio alone... Badges are still eluding me, the only one I can find is the T5 badge and that costs £45. On the touch up front she did get a full decon in and out and a glaze/sealant combo. Here's a beading shot and a reflection/gloss shot:
There have also been some other modifications that weren't planned on purchase, namely the door handles, and the addition of the cupholders... Also retrofitted dog-guard mounts and replaced multiple broken interior trim pieces, as well as adding a pollen filter. Oh, and I've tidied up a few cosmetic bits, like wipers in silly positions, flaking grills and poorly installed bumpers!
So 6 months in and I realising I bought more of a shed than I ever thought, what's next?
Well, the EML just came on, looks like I have a faulty coolant temperature sensor so that will be addressed (£40 for a genuine part). I'm also going to get a genuine expansion tank cap and a new expansion tank as there is a slight leak there. Beyond that I'm hoping for a cheap few months motoring as I've had an awful lot of big expenses recently but I'm still looking to sort out the seat and grab some different alloys. Definitely more to come though!
This evening, during a spare hour whilst the puppy was napping I decided to tidy up a few little cosmetic niggles in the engine bay. Apologies for image quality, camera is pretty poor in low light! Firstly the very rusted jubilee clip on the upper radiator hose - I just unwound the old and new fully to avoid having to drop the coolant:
Next up was the massive eye-sore (one of!) that is the power steering reservoir bracket:
Whipped the bolt out of that which had what looks like dried out coolant or some similar corrosion on and tidied that with a wire brush:
Onto the bracket. Wire brushed that down, cleaned it off and was left with this:
Coated it with Hammerite Kurust that I found in the shed the other day. First coat didn't take well at all, ended up with three coats to get a decent coverage. First and third shown:
Then it was time for a spot of Hammerite Direct-To-Rust that I also found laying in the shed. Managed to get two coats on before the light went on me. Might add another tomorrow after its dried and had two heat cycles, we'll see. Again, crap pic in low light.
Whilst I had the Kurust and paint out I thought I'd tidy up another little eye sore that caught my eye every time I cleaned the car or opened the bonnet:
I also investigated the coolant temp sensor, hoping to find that it was just corrosion on the plug. Sadly not, it looked pristine. I do have a genuine replacement already, I'm just waiting on the expansion tank to arrive so I can do them both at the same time and only drop the coolant once.
I'll start this by saying just how much I love this car. Everything seems effortless, from nose-to-tail traffic in rush hour to six hour cross country trips. Car is great for pushing on, handles far better than I'd ever expect and has a decent turn of pace when you keep it on the boost. Peak torque from 2000-5500rpm certainly helps too! On a more boring note I am averaging 31.3mpg though this can drop significantly depending on how much of the aforementioned nose-to-tail traffic I end up in!
Anyway, lets look back at the first post and what we started with.
'Cookeh' said:
So, I recently - and very sensibly - decided to sell my ultra-reliable, cheap to run Toyota Corolla and buy a 180,000 mile 1995 Volvo 850 T5 for shed money.
She's not without her faults, by any means. So far, the list of things not working and needing replacement includes:
- Saggy headliner *Replaced*
- Rip in bolster
- Rear exhaust mount has rusted away (only rust I could find, actually) *Replaced*
- Heated seats don't seem to work
- Cruise control doesn't work *Fixed*
- All speakers on the N/S of the car don't work *Fixed*
- Both front indicator lamps are cracked *Replaced*
- Alloys are in dire need of a refurb
- O/S/F door check strap needs adjustment *Fixed*
Turns out a few more items needed to be added, including:She's not without her faults, by any means. So far, the list of things not working and needing replacement includes:
- Saggy headliner *Replaced*
- Rip in bolster
- Rear exhaust mount has rusted away (only rust I could find, actually) *Replaced*
- Heated seats don't seem to work
- Cruise control doesn't work *Fixed*
- All speakers on the N/S of the car don't work *Fixed*
- Both front indicator lamps are cracked *Replaced*
- Alloys are in dire need of a refurb
- O/S/F door check strap needs adjustment *Fixed*
- Central locking not working *Fixed*
- FM radio not working *Replaced*
- Missing front bumper trim *Replaced*
- Missing rear brake light cover *Replaced*
- Broken gear shift gaiter *Fixed*
- Slow draining washer fluid (far from a significant issue, but a bit tedious spending 15 minutes topping up your washer fluid!!) *Fixed*
- ABS ECU fault *Fixed*
Of that list, the majority were either free or very cheap fixes. In fact, the most costly was the door check strap - which ended up actually being a cracked A-pillar. £50 to address that one. Everything else was off a breaker. The only item left there is the alloys and the seat, more on those to come.
If we then look at the list of things I had planned (minus repeats from above) we'll see how much progress has been made there. As I'm writing this paragraph it feels like I've done very little, but hey ho.
'Cookeh' said:
In terms of my plans for her....well, the list is ever growing but looks something like this atm:
Fixes:
- Fix the rip in the drivers seat
- Auxiliaries *Cruise control fixed*
- Stage 0 *Completed*
Modifications/Other:
- Alloys
- Badges
- Suspension *Replaced*
- Touch-Up *Ish..*
Fixes first: Also completed an unplanned timing belt + water. I've also ended up replacing discs and pads all round and three of the brake calipers. So again the only thing left here is the seat. More on that shortly.Fixes:
- Fix the rip in the drivers seat
- Auxiliaries *Cruise control fixed*
- Stage 0 *Completed*
Modifications/Other:
- Alloys
- Badges
- Suspension *Replaced*
- Touch-Up *Ish..*
Onto modifications: I have found some Columbas, just need to free up some funds post-holiday, puppy purchase and garden renovation. The HU got replaced, with an SC-805. SC-901 plans never happened due to cost and scarcity. It would also really have needed the factory amp, sub, and upgraded Dynaudio speakers to get the best from it and I was not in a place to drop £300 on the audio alone... Badges are still eluding me, the only one I can find is the T5 badge and that costs £45. On the touch up front she did get a full decon in and out and a glaze/sealant combo. Here's a beading shot and a reflection/gloss shot:
There have also been some other modifications that weren't planned on purchase, namely the door handles, and the addition of the cupholders... Also retrofitted dog-guard mounts and replaced multiple broken interior trim pieces, as well as adding a pollen filter. Oh, and I've tidied up a few cosmetic bits, like wipers in silly positions, flaking grills and poorly installed bumpers!
So 6 months in and I realising I bought more of a shed than I ever thought, what's next?
Well, the EML just came on, looks like I have a faulty coolant temperature sensor so that will be addressed (£40 for a genuine part). I'm also going to get a genuine expansion tank cap and a new expansion tank as there is a slight leak there. Beyond that I'm hoping for a cheap few months motoring as I've had an awful lot of big expenses recently but I'm still looking to sort out the seat and grab some different alloys. Definitely more to come though!
This evening, during a spare hour whilst the puppy was napping I decided to tidy up a few little cosmetic niggles in the engine bay. Apologies for image quality, camera is pretty poor in low light! Firstly the very rusted jubilee clip on the upper radiator hose - I just unwound the old and new fully to avoid having to drop the coolant:
Next up was the massive eye-sore (one of!) that is the power steering reservoir bracket:
Whipped the bolt out of that which had what looks like dried out coolant or some similar corrosion on and tidied that with a wire brush:
Onto the bracket. Wire brushed that down, cleaned it off and was left with this:
Coated it with Hammerite Kurust that I found in the shed the other day. First coat didn't take well at all, ended up with three coats to get a decent coverage. First and third shown:
Then it was time for a spot of Hammerite Direct-To-Rust that I also found laying in the shed. Managed to get two coats on before the light went on me. Might add another tomorrow after its dried and had two heat cycles, we'll see. Again, crap pic in low light.
Whilst I had the Kurust and paint out I thought I'd tidy up another little eye sore that caught my eye every time I cleaned the car or opened the bonnet:
I also investigated the coolant temp sensor, hoping to find that it was just corrosion on the plug. Sadly not, it looked pristine. I do have a genuine replacement already, I'm just waiting on the expansion tank to arrive so I can do them both at the same time and only drop the coolant once.
So, visited Bielawski's Sheffield Trimming Company this morning on the way to work and was duly informed that my seat could be turned around in one day for £70. That was for replacement panels where they were ripped and rebuild foam for the bolster which had collapsed. No way was I going to turn that down! Picked it up at 1630 today, and I am very impressed by the colour match and how much more comfortable the seat is with fully supported bolster.
Quick reminder of the before:
The afters:
Thanks for the recommendation, Rob!
I also painted another coat on the bracket and then wiped the engine bay down with a quick detailer to get some of the dust off it.
Quick reminder of the before:
The afters:
Thanks for the recommendation, Rob!
I also painted another coat on the bracket and then wiped the engine bay down with a quick detailer to get some of the dust off it.
Yes, I was thoroughly impressed - especially for the price and time frame. EML light extinguished itself today...weird. Shame it chose to do that the day after everything I needed to fix it arrived. Oh well, will still change it all as I have the parts anyway and there must have been a fault in the first place.
SnazzyJake, I sure do, drop me a pm. Yeah, looking forward to sorting the wheels, and as you say they really are sublime refinement wise - perfect for long distance trips.
Fermit, I am absolutely with you and its certainly something I want to do (and will do!). Want to sort out a lot of the bolts and fitti gs actually as they're all a bit mediocre.
Fermit, I am absolutely with you and its certainly something I want to do (and will do!). Want to sort out a lot of the bolts and fitti gs actually as they're all a bit mediocre.
Edited by Cookeh on Thursday 13th September 21:11
Small little update today, managed to grab and fit a couple of items off a breaker... The most significant was addressing the broken trim on the horn. This was rather damaged indeed and an utter eyesore anytime the bonnet was up. Here's a reminder of the state it was in, followed by the replacement part.
Now, I know these horns are hideous snail-like looking things and I am tempted to replace them with something less hideous at some point but its really not high up the list. I could also simply relocate them into the wheel arch area. Many other more important things to address first, though.
Next up was the expansion tank hose clip. Horrible screw thing in there at first, which really bugged me - more so than it should to be honest! That got replaced by a much shinier (and less-ugly) jubilee clip.
Before:
After:
I am aware of the dire sticker situation, but with the tank to be replaced that won't be a problem for long. I am trying to find a place that will print vinyl stickers for a reasonable price but I am struggling. Any suggestions welcome! I would just buy it but cant see it anywhere online and Volvo don't stock it.
More to come shortly!
Now, I know these horns are hideous snail-like looking things and I am tempted to replace them with something less hideous at some point but its really not high up the list. I could also simply relocate them into the wheel arch area. Many other more important things to address first, though.
Next up was the expansion tank hose clip. Horrible screw thing in there at first, which really bugged me - more so than it should to be honest! That got replaced by a much shinier (and less-ugly) jubilee clip.
Before:
After:
I am aware of the dire sticker situation, but with the tank to be replaced that won't be a problem for long. I am trying to find a place that will print vinyl stickers for a reasonable price but I am struggling. Any suggestions welcome! I would just buy it but cant see it anywhere online and Volvo don't stock it.
More to come shortly!
Decided to replace my broken passenger door check strap during lunch today - turned out to be a little more broken than I first thought...as you'll see! Rubbish pictures again as I did this in the dark of the underground car park - which annoyingly has motion based lighting..Grr! First things first, get the door card off, nice and simple process as outlined previously in the thread.
Next we unplug the speaker cable to avoid damaging it, unclip the loom from the plastic cover and then remove the cover itself, which exposes the door check strap. Undo the T40 torx bolt in the A-pillar and the two 10mm bolts on the check strap and then manoeuvre the check strap out of the way. Here's the old one.
This looked decidedly different to the part I put into the o/s/f and the replacement part that I had:
Swapped the new piece back in. Can be a bit fiddly and you generally have to put the part in at 90' to get the latch through before rotating the spring part through (makes sense if you try it, promise!). Probably the most time consuming part by far, certainly the most frustrating. Then we just bolt everything back up (2x 10mm bolts, T40 torx). Whilst in here I decided to take a look at the bottom of the door to try and track down a rattle. Well, less a rattle and more the sound of something metallic sliding around. Pulled the plastic inspection cover out and low-and-behold...:
That will be the source of the noise and the it also explains why the removed door check strap looked so different:
I have no idea how it broke, and I am mildly concerned about the fact its gone rusty. There must be some water ingress here (unless its just from the window when it gets rolled down?) to cause it to rust. I did check the underside of the door and that's all fine, no signs of rust there. I may now buy some cavity wax and line the bottoms, not sure if its worth it?
After that fun interlude I put the door card back on and noticed that one of the four clips at the bottom was broken, really not sure what to do with that. Don't want to replace the whole doorcard because of it as the rest of it is in superb condition. We'll see.
Next we unplug the speaker cable to avoid damaging it, unclip the loom from the plastic cover and then remove the cover itself, which exposes the door check strap. Undo the T40 torx bolt in the A-pillar and the two 10mm bolts on the check strap and then manoeuvre the check strap out of the way. Here's the old one.
This looked decidedly different to the part I put into the o/s/f and the replacement part that I had:
Swapped the new piece back in. Can be a bit fiddly and you generally have to put the part in at 90' to get the latch through before rotating the spring part through (makes sense if you try it, promise!). Probably the most time consuming part by far, certainly the most frustrating. Then we just bolt everything back up (2x 10mm bolts, T40 torx). Whilst in here I decided to take a look at the bottom of the door to try and track down a rattle. Well, less a rattle and more the sound of something metallic sliding around. Pulled the plastic inspection cover out and low-and-behold...:
That will be the source of the noise and the it also explains why the removed door check strap looked so different:
I have no idea how it broke, and I am mildly concerned about the fact its gone rusty. There must be some water ingress here (unless its just from the window when it gets rolled down?) to cause it to rust. I did check the underside of the door and that's all fine, no signs of rust there. I may now buy some cavity wax and line the bottoms, not sure if its worth it?
After that fun interlude I put the door card back on and noticed that one of the four clips at the bottom was broken, really not sure what to do with that. Don't want to replace the whole doorcard because of it as the rest of it is in superb condition. We'll see.
Today I decided to make the most of a break in the weather and do a spot of (early) winter prep and rotate my wheels. I'm fairly sure the wheel arches in this car hadn't seen more than a rinse in a very very long time and were suitably covered in tar and general filth. They were pretty bad, as I'm sure you can see...
Front:
Rear:
Thankfully cleaning wheel arches is one the easiest of the 'detailing' jobs to do. Lots of APC and degreaser combined with a good scrub with several brushes and it almost cleans itself. After a good scrub I was left with what I thought was a staggering amount of tar deposits:
I had picked up a can of Simoniz Tar, Sap & Glue Remover for a bargain £2 from Tesco a few weeks prior and decided that this was probably the best opportunity I had to test it. Easy application, as its an aerosol; spray it on the tar from 15cm or so and leave to soften the tar for about a minute, before wiping off. You can see in the second picture that it really does break the tar down, and the third picture is the difference on the rears after one application. I did a total of two applications front and rear.
After two coats and a quick dressing the arches looked much cleaner and refreshed. There are some patches on the plastic that almost look like its been covered in some sort of rubber protectant or stonechip paint in the past that did not remove but I'm quite happy for the additional buffer! The factory stonechipping and seam sealer also looks to be in good condition which is fantastic news.
Front:
Rear:
Front:
Rear:
Thankfully cleaning wheel arches is one the easiest of the 'detailing' jobs to do. Lots of APC and degreaser combined with a good scrub with several brushes and it almost cleans itself. After a good scrub I was left with what I thought was a staggering amount of tar deposits:
I had picked up a can of Simoniz Tar, Sap & Glue Remover for a bargain £2 from Tesco a few weeks prior and decided that this was probably the best opportunity I had to test it. Easy application, as its an aerosol; spray it on the tar from 15cm or so and leave to soften the tar for about a minute, before wiping off. You can see in the second picture that it really does break the tar down, and the third picture is the difference on the rears after one application. I did a total of two applications front and rear.
After two coats and a quick dressing the arches looked much cleaner and refreshed. There are some patches on the plastic that almost look like its been covered in some sort of rubber protectant or stonechip paint in the past that did not remove but I'm quite happy for the additional buffer! The factory stonechipping and seam sealer also looks to be in good condition which is fantastic news.
Front:
Rear:
Spent 40 mins this evening fitting a set of cargo nets I got from a breaker for a tenner. Being a GLT my car should have had these and had all the provisions in place for them, but the actual mesh was missing. No longer the case. Relatively simple job, just pop the trim covers on the side of the seat off (horrible push rivets, not reusable obviously), slide the mesh in and secure it with the lock washer. The lock washer prevents the mesh carrier from spinning which also tensions the spring and allows it to roll back in.
Here's the parts, you can see the lock washer.
Silly push rivets that need removing. Thankfully the other side of the seat - you need to remove both trims - has T20 torxs.
Move the trim piece out the way, and of course clean the crap behind it...
Remove the other side trim piece. You can also see in this picture the curve that the lip of the mesh carrier locks on to.
Clean the inside of the area, which is frankly nasty. So many hairs..?!
Slide the mesh carrier into place, aligning it as so and making sure the other end passes through the hole (no tension otherwise, obviously!). Then just pop the lock washer in place to secure it and bolt the trim back on.
Voila!
P.S.A., when you remove the trim there is nothing to stop the seatbelts from returning fully - so when you put the seat flat to get better access you may find that when you try and put the seat back into place there is too much tension from the seatbelt - which is now stuck - to put it upright...
The solution is to unbolt the seatbelt, return it slightly further to release the locking mechanism and you'll then be able to pull it out far enough (add some slack!) to bolt it back in with the seat in place.
You can then marvel at how seatbelts that look black are actually more like brown compared to the "factory" black. Might have to get some fabric dye for these, its pretty bad!
Here's the parts, you can see the lock washer.
Silly push rivets that need removing. Thankfully the other side of the seat - you need to remove both trims - has T20 torxs.
Move the trim piece out the way, and of course clean the crap behind it...
Remove the other side trim piece. You can also see in this picture the curve that the lip of the mesh carrier locks on to.
Clean the inside of the area, which is frankly nasty. So many hairs..?!
Slide the mesh carrier into place, aligning it as so and making sure the other end passes through the hole (no tension otherwise, obviously!). Then just pop the lock washer in place to secure it and bolt the trim back on.
Voila!
P.S.A., when you remove the trim there is nothing to stop the seatbelts from returning fully - so when you put the seat flat to get better access you may find that when you try and put the seat back into place there is too much tension from the seatbelt - which is now stuck - to put it upright...
The solution is to unbolt the seatbelt, return it slightly further to release the locking mechanism and you'll then be able to pull it out far enough (add some slack!) to bolt it back in with the seat in place.
You can then marvel at how seatbelts that look black are actually more like brown compared to the "factory" black. Might have to get some fabric dye for these, its pretty bad!
Edited by Cookeh on Thursday 27th September 23:06
Another little update, from yesterday. Finally got around the sorting out the faulty coolant temp sensor that was throwing the EML, and to changing out coolant expansion tank and cap to try and stop the slight coolant leak. Easy enough, childs play to most but I'm still fairly pleased about it. First step was to remove the radiator cover/air guide, which is held in by 2x 10mm bolts on either side and then 3 'z'-clips that hook onto the lip of the front bumper. This is it removed and cleaned - there was a build up of about 1cm worth of grease/oil/dirt in the lower part of the tray that needed scraping out and degreasing. Presume it came about after someone spilt oil when doing a change?
Whilst down there I also saw an electrical connection that was just floating around. Not quite sure what this is, I'm thinking it might be for the front fogs? If so that would be nice as it would give me the option of retrofitting fogs in the future (not that I use them, and it would be a sizeable job as requires a different front bumper). After a quick look around I found a bracket that appeared to be its home. Going to have to get under here for a clean and to whip some of these parts off for some rust treatment in the not-to-distant future.
Next was draining the coolant. It seems that at some point Ivy has had a replacement non-OEM rad fitted as the drain plug is different. In any case I drained 3L to empty the expansion tank, upper rad hoses and to get far enough down the block to clear the thermostat housing. I did read that you only needed to drain 2L for this, but in the pictures from that same claim you could see coolant dripping when removing the sensor, so I went with three. Then you remove the small hose from the top of the expansion tank, its a 12mm jubilee clip. Then you can pull up on the expansion tank to get at the plug for the level sensor and the lower coolant hose (30mm jubilee), which then frees the expansion tank.
Mine was, well, past its prime. Horribly discoloured, several cracks and a leak from somewhere. The design of these means there is a metal sleeve inside both outlets, these eventually corrodes and expands cracking the plastic a la:
Nasty. Anyway, next up we need to remove the level sensor. Just pull it out (not by the wires though! Shouldn't need to say that, surely). Sensor itself and the wires looked in good condition so I didn't see the need to replace. To put it into the new expansion tank simply push it in.
Now with the easy part over its time to tackle the harder job. The temperature sensor. This lives beneath the thermostat housing, next to the PAS pump and the manifold. Access does not exist. At all. Correct procedure is to remove the thermostat housing which then gives you plenty space to drop a 19mm spanner over the sensor and remove it. Proper procedure also dictates that you remove the housing for the clips in order to get the spanner into position. The thermostat housing is secured by 2x T40 torx bolts. Which are very shallow, and in almost 100% of reported cases round off immediately. All of this, Volvo, is bloody stupid.
I only had to look at my torx bolts to know that they were already shot, and without replacement bolts in hand - or the time to drill the old ones out, I had to take a less conventional approach. I first removed the upper radiator hose from the housing (yes, I cleaned it up. Nastiness, clearly a leak here at some point). I then removed one of the supporting bolts from the PAS pump to enable me to get the 19mm spanner in place. I could only get this 'end' on, so I then used an socket extension to apply torque whilst using my other hand to keep the 19mm in place. Absolute bodge but it worked.
Old sensor, and old vs new. I suspect this sensor got damaged when my car overheated back in June? July? Whenever. It almost looks like coolant is burned on. The bolt section is also covered in corrosion, which backs up the idea of there being a coolant leak from the upper rad hose at some point. Which reminds me I should consider replacing that.
New sensor installed. I hope this gives an idea of how ridiculous access here is. To the right is the manifold, the left is the PAS pump and reservoir, and above it the thermostat housing. I used the same spanner and extension bodge combo to tighten the sensor (dont forget to replace the aluminium crush ring).
We're now at reassembly stage, but this thread has been around long enough for people to know I cant simply put things back. No no no, there's things to be cleaned, like the area beneath the expansion tank. Once everything is cleaned we can reattach the plug, the hoses and refill with coolant. Job done. I sincerely hope I don't have to replace this sensor again as its a proper pain in the rear. It's also meant I have to replace the bolts on the thermostat housing. I might look at replacing them with hex headed bolts instead of torxs for longevity.
Whilst down there I also saw an electrical connection that was just floating around. Not quite sure what this is, I'm thinking it might be for the front fogs? If so that would be nice as it would give me the option of retrofitting fogs in the future (not that I use them, and it would be a sizeable job as requires a different front bumper). After a quick look around I found a bracket that appeared to be its home. Going to have to get under here for a clean and to whip some of these parts off for some rust treatment in the not-to-distant future.
Next was draining the coolant. It seems that at some point Ivy has had a replacement non-OEM rad fitted as the drain plug is different. In any case I drained 3L to empty the expansion tank, upper rad hoses and to get far enough down the block to clear the thermostat housing. I did read that you only needed to drain 2L for this, but in the pictures from that same claim you could see coolant dripping when removing the sensor, so I went with three. Then you remove the small hose from the top of the expansion tank, its a 12mm jubilee clip. Then you can pull up on the expansion tank to get at the plug for the level sensor and the lower coolant hose (30mm jubilee), which then frees the expansion tank.
Mine was, well, past its prime. Horribly discoloured, several cracks and a leak from somewhere. The design of these means there is a metal sleeve inside both outlets, these eventually corrodes and expands cracking the plastic a la:
Nasty. Anyway, next up we need to remove the level sensor. Just pull it out (not by the wires though! Shouldn't need to say that, surely). Sensor itself and the wires looked in good condition so I didn't see the need to replace. To put it into the new expansion tank simply push it in.
Now with the easy part over its time to tackle the harder job. The temperature sensor. This lives beneath the thermostat housing, next to the PAS pump and the manifold. Access does not exist. At all. Correct procedure is to remove the thermostat housing which then gives you plenty space to drop a 19mm spanner over the sensor and remove it. Proper procedure also dictates that you remove the housing for the clips in order to get the spanner into position. The thermostat housing is secured by 2x T40 torx bolts. Which are very shallow, and in almost 100% of reported cases round off immediately. All of this, Volvo, is bloody stupid.
I only had to look at my torx bolts to know that they were already shot, and without replacement bolts in hand - or the time to drill the old ones out, I had to take a less conventional approach. I first removed the upper radiator hose from the housing (yes, I cleaned it up. Nastiness, clearly a leak here at some point). I then removed one of the supporting bolts from the PAS pump to enable me to get the 19mm spanner in place. I could only get this 'end' on, so I then used an socket extension to apply torque whilst using my other hand to keep the 19mm in place. Absolute bodge but it worked.
Old sensor, and old vs new. I suspect this sensor got damaged when my car overheated back in June? July? Whenever. It almost looks like coolant is burned on. The bolt section is also covered in corrosion, which backs up the idea of there being a coolant leak from the upper rad hose at some point. Which reminds me I should consider replacing that.
New sensor installed. I hope this gives an idea of how ridiculous access here is. To the right is the manifold, the left is the PAS pump and reservoir, and above it the thermostat housing. I used the same spanner and extension bodge combo to tighten the sensor (dont forget to replace the aluminium crush ring).
We're now at reassembly stage, but this thread has been around long enough for people to know I cant simply put things back. No no no, there's things to be cleaned, like the area beneath the expansion tank. Once everything is cleaned we can reattach the plug, the hoses and refill with coolant. Job done. I sincerely hope I don't have to replace this sensor again as its a proper pain in the rear. It's also meant I have to replace the bolts on the thermostat housing. I might look at replacing them with hex headed bolts instead of torxs for longevity.
Ivy has recently been pressed into action as a load lugger. Saved me the equivalent of two skips in one weekend alone and has swallowed a 175 x 60 x 55cm sofa, a 220cm IKEA flatpack (only the best for me), and several 6x4ft fencing panels. Definitely paid for herself in terms of just skip hire this summer.
I also happened upon some rear tweeters when scrolling through eBay, as you do. £7.50 plus P&P...irrefusable. To the best of my knowledge all 855s (850 estates) have the loom for this pre-installed. Location and part numbers are in the picture below. They don't make a huge difference to me in the front seat, though they do open the soundstage up a touch. The biggest impact is for the rear passengers. Still, well worth the price I got them for!
Looking sorry for themselves, straight out of the crap packaging (who posts speakers from Ireland in a Jiffy bag..?!).
Part number. The two sides (L & R) have different last digits, 3 and 2.
They live here, behind this grill. Pop it off (2 plastic clips on the LHS as pictured, then slides out to the left.
The loom can then be seen clipped into this tab. Simply remove it and you can plug them in.
To fit, pop out the red tabs (pull towards you), then locate the top tab in the hole and clip the sides in. You can then push the red clips in to lock it in place.
Voila, working rear tweeters.
I also happened upon some rear tweeters when scrolling through eBay, as you do. £7.50 plus P&P...irrefusable. To the best of my knowledge all 855s (850 estates) have the loom for this pre-installed. Location and part numbers are in the picture below. They don't make a huge difference to me in the front seat, though they do open the soundstage up a touch. The biggest impact is for the rear passengers. Still, well worth the price I got them for!
Looking sorry for themselves, straight out of the crap packaging (who posts speakers from Ireland in a Jiffy bag..?!).
Part number. The two sides (L & R) have different last digits, 3 and 2.
They live here, behind this grill. Pop it off (2 plastic clips on the LHS as pictured, then slides out to the left.
The loom can then be seen clipped into this tab. Simply remove it and you can plug them in.
To fit, pop out the red tabs (pull towards you), then locate the top tab in the hole and clip the sides in. You can then push the red clips in to lock it in place.
Voila, working rear tweeters.
S100HP said:
That's a great bit of design isn't it. I had to remove mine at the weekend in order to replace rear light (which is less of a great design)
It really is. There are some great design nuances throughout the car, but then many other very silly things at the same time (like the rear lights, as you say) - almost like the car was designed in two different departments!Yesterday I decided it was finally time to do something more permanent about the trim situation.I was getting extremely tired of slathering on the likes of Autoglym, Megs, et al every 2 weeks for it to last about 3 days before fading away again. Enter Würth and their highly reviewed but dreadfully named Plastic Dye Plast PT.
Let's first get a little reminder of how faded and patchy my bumpers are (or were).
Application calls for the surface to be clean, so I broke out some rather strong APC and vigorously attacked them down before wiping dry. I was surprised at the amount of old protectant that was picked up by the microfibre, so I repeated this step until the microfibre came up clean. The instructions then state to soak the supplied sponge and scrub the surface again. Next, the big important step. Using the slightly damp supplied sponge to apply an even layer of the dye across the plastics. If you get this on your paint it will just wipe off - if you're quick about it. If you don't notice it until the next morning then you need something stronger (think APC and/or clay).
The whole process took me about twenty-five mins but then I was quite anal about the cleaning so it could probably be done in fifteen or so. I used approximately one third to half of the tube for this, and the tube retails at around £21.
As for the after pics:
Lets address the elephant in the room first. No, they aren't black. No, they aren't very dark. But they aren't meant to be. The 850s trim was an anthracite colour from the factory, which is why I chose the anthracite dye as opposed to the black dye.
With that out the way, I have to say I am very impressed initially. Coverage is much more even than the regular detailing choices which failed to mask the zebra-esque striping and uneven fading. The Wurth has managed to bring it all back to an even, factory looking colour which is exactly what I was looking for. I can't, as of yet, comment on durability or protection levels (i.e. beading of water etc) as its only been on for 9 hours at this point and the only weather we've had has been frost. No doubt I will keep this updated and pictures of future work on the car will probably show its progress too, but I would highly recommend it at this point.
What I might look to do now is put further protection on it - a decent sealant maybe, to try and maximise its longevity.
Went parts shopping today. Ran up a total of £120... the most of I've spent in a single go yet. Still, I think I got a reasonable deal... The first and most costly of the purchases were a set of Perfos:
£100 for these with decent tyres (5mm or so of tread, paired tyres). Two are in good condition, two desperately need a refurb. Unsure if to try and rattle can them myself or to get them powdercoated - in any case it will probably be a few months before that happens due to the financing joys of being a student. No pictures of them on the car as I want to refurb them first, and I'll be keeping my current rims, at least for the time being, as a winter set.
I personally prefer the look of the Perfos to the Columbas, they look less fussy thanks to the removal of the lettering around the lug nut holes, and I like the flatter look the 'cut' gives the face. Bonus: they facilitate a 302mm brake upgrade as they will clear the calipers (unlike all the other 16" wheels Volvo have for P80 cars).
The second most expensive purchase was a set of gutter trims. I've been looking for these for a very long time (since getting the car!) as they are very rare without the roof rails, an addition I don't need - in terms of added drag and the fact that I got the OEM roof bars very cheaply. Bonus: they came off a V70 so build quality of the coating is improved and they have an added channel that guides water over the roof-line instead of allowing it to be blown onto or in the side windows.
Here's a reminder of the dingy state my old ones were in, next to the new. You can see the channel, as it stands above the surface of the glass.
Fitting these was surprisingly simple, and offered no real nasty surprises. The internet is full of posts where every metal clip was broken or too badly corrodded to be used again. Given you need around 20 of the damn things and they're priced at £4.30 each I was desperately hoping to avoid this. Thankfully only a couple of mine were rusted through and I was able to recover plenty spare from the breaker car. To remove its a simple case of starting at the base of the windscreen and rolling up and towards you. Once you clear the corner where windscreen meets roof you have two options: i) pull sharply toward front of the car - this will remove trim and the plastic+metal clips, or ii) continue lifting and rolling toward you - this leaves the plastic+metal clips in place. I personally did the second method and found it much easier to install the new set as a result as the clips were already secured and all I had to do was press the new trim into the clips.
They need a good coating to keep them in good condition and perhaps darken them a shade but I am very happy with them. Whilst I did like the brightness of the peeled aluminium it didn't really suit any other part of the car and so its nice to be back to matching.
Continuing with the unconscious-theme of turning my 850 into some sort of franken-V70/850 monster I also swapped out the 850s aluminium wiper arms for the V70s steel ones. Anti-weight saving I know... Still, being aluminium the 850 ones bend over time due to the spring tension and ultimately end up lifting off the windscreen towards to last 1/3rd of the wiper stroke. I had been remeding this as I went along by simply re-bending it but it was time for a better solution. Bonus: V70 ones are also lower profile and so intrude into vision less.
Alu 850:
Steel V70:
They currently have Bosch Aerotwins on them. The adaptor for these blades is what is causing them to stick out so much towards the left... I'm probably going to refit the ones from my 850 to rectify this. Can't say I've noticed the Aeroblades performing any better, though they certainly are noisier.
Again with the franken-theme, I got hold of some clear side-repeaters. Problem is I can't actually decide if I like them or not. Unlike most, I have no intention to de-tango my rear indicators, preferring the tango look. Keeping the tango side-repeaters would hence make sense and 'fit' the look of the car. I can't, however, say that the clears don't modernise the car a bit more. And so, I leave it up to you....tango or clear?
Of minor note, I also picked up some tiny bits of trim I was missing, such as the cover for the door handle, two spare V70 handles and a rubber dirt-blocker for the door catch strap (latter two are not pictured).
£100 for these with decent tyres (5mm or so of tread, paired tyres). Two are in good condition, two desperately need a refurb. Unsure if to try and rattle can them myself or to get them powdercoated - in any case it will probably be a few months before that happens due to the financing joys of being a student. No pictures of them on the car as I want to refurb them first, and I'll be keeping my current rims, at least for the time being, as a winter set.
I personally prefer the look of the Perfos to the Columbas, they look less fussy thanks to the removal of the lettering around the lug nut holes, and I like the flatter look the 'cut' gives the face. Bonus: they facilitate a 302mm brake upgrade as they will clear the calipers (unlike all the other 16" wheels Volvo have for P80 cars).
The second most expensive purchase was a set of gutter trims. I've been looking for these for a very long time (since getting the car!) as they are very rare without the roof rails, an addition I don't need - in terms of added drag and the fact that I got the OEM roof bars very cheaply. Bonus: they came off a V70 so build quality of the coating is improved and they have an added channel that guides water over the roof-line instead of allowing it to be blown onto or in the side windows.
Here's a reminder of the dingy state my old ones were in, next to the new. You can see the channel, as it stands above the surface of the glass.
Fitting these was surprisingly simple, and offered no real nasty surprises. The internet is full of posts where every metal clip was broken or too badly corrodded to be used again. Given you need around 20 of the damn things and they're priced at £4.30 each I was desperately hoping to avoid this. Thankfully only a couple of mine were rusted through and I was able to recover plenty spare from the breaker car. To remove its a simple case of starting at the base of the windscreen and rolling up and towards you. Once you clear the corner where windscreen meets roof you have two options: i) pull sharply toward front of the car - this will remove trim and the plastic+metal clips, or ii) continue lifting and rolling toward you - this leaves the plastic+metal clips in place. I personally did the second method and found it much easier to install the new set as a result as the clips were already secured and all I had to do was press the new trim into the clips.
They need a good coating to keep them in good condition and perhaps darken them a shade but I am very happy with them. Whilst I did like the brightness of the peeled aluminium it didn't really suit any other part of the car and so its nice to be back to matching.
Continuing with the unconscious-theme of turning my 850 into some sort of franken-V70/850 monster I also swapped out the 850s aluminium wiper arms for the V70s steel ones. Anti-weight saving I know... Still, being aluminium the 850 ones bend over time due to the spring tension and ultimately end up lifting off the windscreen towards to last 1/3rd of the wiper stroke. I had been remeding this as I went along by simply re-bending it but it was time for a better solution. Bonus: V70 ones are also lower profile and so intrude into vision less.
Alu 850:
Steel V70:
They currently have Bosch Aerotwins on them. The adaptor for these blades is what is causing them to stick out so much towards the left... I'm probably going to refit the ones from my 850 to rectify this. Can't say I've noticed the Aeroblades performing any better, though they certainly are noisier.
Again with the franken-theme, I got hold of some clear side-repeaters. Problem is I can't actually decide if I like them or not. Unlike most, I have no intention to de-tango my rear indicators, preferring the tango look. Keeping the tango side-repeaters would hence make sense and 'fit' the look of the car. I can't, however, say that the clears don't modernise the car a bit more. And so, I leave it up to you....tango or clear?
Of minor note, I also picked up some tiny bits of trim I was missing, such as the cover for the door handle, two spare V70 handles and a rubber dirt-blocker for the door catch strap (latter two are not pictured).
Thanks both, it won't harm my attention to detail I don't think - not if my latest tinkering has anything to say anyway! For those wondering I do now have a quote for fixing the bumper damage (fairly reasonable, with the same bodyshop I've used before so I'm confident in their work), but its not booked in yet as I don't have a spare 2-3 days I don't need a car for at the minute.
Ivy got abused last weekend at in the start of the week, with 4 dump runs (full of soil and clay, which because rather liquid in the rain) and a trip to buy 65 sqm of turf... I'm impressed by the travel on the 'new' suspension, despite her sitting very low indeed she still wasn't on the bump stops and actually rode better than she does empty! Much less crashy over bigger bumps with some weight over the rear axle. Makes me wonder if the springs need some preload.
Whilst still being gutted over the damage to the front bumper I decided to try and cheer myself up by tarting up another part of the car. Namely those rusty bolts for the front bumper, as previously touched in with Hammerite. Finish wasn't great and they just didn't look right in black.
So this time I though't I'd do them properly. Stripped them back to bare metal using some 240 grit sanding discs on a rotary tool (was surprised at the amount of surface rust under the Hammerite, makes me wonder if it and the rust-converter actually do anything). I then painted them with a zinc-primer and some silver VHT paint. VHT because I had some left over and know that its fairly resilient stuff suited to exposure to all sorts.
Sanded:
Primed and VHT'd (3 coats):
Installed:
Now I know that process seems to work well I may well use it for some of the other bolts in the bay - like the fuel rail bolts for example.
Ivy got abused last weekend at in the start of the week, with 4 dump runs (full of soil and clay, which because rather liquid in the rain) and a trip to buy 65 sqm of turf... I'm impressed by the travel on the 'new' suspension, despite her sitting very low indeed she still wasn't on the bump stops and actually rode better than she does empty! Much less crashy over bigger bumps with some weight over the rear axle. Makes me wonder if the springs need some preload.
Whilst still being gutted over the damage to the front bumper I decided to try and cheer myself up by tarting up another part of the car. Namely those rusty bolts for the front bumper, as previously touched in with Hammerite. Finish wasn't great and they just didn't look right in black.
So this time I though't I'd do them properly. Stripped them back to bare metal using some 240 grit sanding discs on a rotary tool (was surprised at the amount of surface rust under the Hammerite, makes me wonder if it and the rust-converter actually do anything). I then painted them with a zinc-primer and some silver VHT paint. VHT because I had some left over and know that its fairly resilient stuff suited to exposure to all sorts.
Sanded:
Primed and VHT'd (3 coats):
Installed:
Now I know that process seems to work well I may well use it for some of the other bolts in the bay - like the fuel rail bolts for example.
New tyres on the new alloys today. The 'new' alloys came with a matched pair of Pirelli Cinturato P7s (averaged 7.5mm of tread). They're not the best tyre, but have respectable braking distances in wet ad dry, pretty much on par with Eagle F1As. My spare had an unused Goodyear EfficientGrip on it, so I bought another EfficientGrip to put on the front with it. Weirdly the Pirellis were paired with a set of A-Three-A winters, which I've kept as an experiment to see how budget winter works vs premium summer if we get some snow again.
Car is filthy, covered in crap...been a fortnight since the last bath and winter isn't kind to aesthetics. Also being winter the light is rubbish! Apologies for that. I much prefer the shape of these wheels, though I will be getting them redone in Volvo Champagne 933 - the same colour as my old ones as I feel that slight tint of colour suits the paintwork better than the bright silver currently on it. Should have bought that spoiler all those months ago too as I now feel that with these wheels it would suit!
Car is filthy, covered in crap...been a fortnight since the last bath and winter isn't kind to aesthetics. Also being winter the light is rubbish! Apologies for that. I much prefer the shape of these wheels, though I will be getting them redone in Volvo Champagne 933 - the same colour as my old ones as I feel that slight tint of colour suits the paintwork better than the bright silver currently on it. Should have bought that spoiler all those months ago too as I now feel that with these wheels it would suit!
Bit of a longer update as managed to get a few jobs done over the Christmas break. First up was a small little fix - broken clip on the door courtesy light meant it kept falling out. Simple fix, pull out twist the housing off the bulb then swap the housings and do the reverse. Comparison of broken and new - two are slightly different despite being from the same MY but they work...
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Next up was a replacement of my o/s headlight wiper motor which recently died. Replacement used one sourced for £10.50 from eBay and got that fitted. Being the o/s it turned out to be a real ballache, as the ECU loom and various ancillaries severely impede access.... Where it the n/s it would be as simple as removing the wiper arm, headlight trim and then just unbolting it.
Anyway, no point talking about n/s as ours was the o/s. So, obviously we need to get the wiper arms removed (8mm nuts, don't forget to pull the fluid hoses off), then the headlight trims (just pull, held on by two metal S-clips), indicator lenses (just release the spring and the wiring loom) then the 3x 10mm bolts to remove the o/s headlight. Once those are out we can undo the 3x 10mm bolts securing the crash bar to the slam panel. I'd definitely recommend a ratcheting 10mm spanner, wish I had one!! Next up is the 4 bolts holding the spam panel onto the front of the chassis, also 10mm, and then finally the two bolts securing the slam panel to the fan shroud - again 10mm, access these from the engine side.
Leaves us with an Ivy looking very sorry for herself:
From here we can tilt the slam panel forward about 30' or so and you can just above manoeuvre the motor out. Fitting the new piece really is the reverse of removal and is much easier. Before reinstalling the wiper arms use the wipers first so they return to their parked positions.
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Recently my heater blower motor had started to squeak on occasion, a sign that the grease in the bearings was failing. If you re-grease those bearings you can get a good few more months/years out of the motor before it needs replacing - and when replacement motors are £190 new its definitely worth the hour and a half or so of effort.
First things first is to remove the glove box liner. Use a pick or small screw driver to release the arms of the glovebox, if you push the pick down about 1.5cm and tilt it to the right (o/s) it should release the arm. Then its 6x T25 bolts and the liner can be pulled out. You can then see the blower motor as per:
Dropping the passenger kick panel (3x T25 bolts, and sliding it out towards the passenger seat) allows access to drop the motor. This rather sorry looking piece was of course cleaned up before being reinstalled!!
There are 4x T25 bolts on the blower motor to remove it. Access to these is easier if you remove the cables first. Only one needs to be unplugged (the one going to the motor), the others just slide off (double connector slides up to the left to release, others just lift off). Bolts are located at 4 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock-ish! Once removed you can just pull the motor out and turn it down towards the floor to pull it through where the kick panel used to be.
Quick tangent: You may recall a while back I fitted a pollen filter and remarked that one of the things that kills AC in these cars is that without the filter all sorts of detritus can accumulate on the evaporator. Here is an image showing its location relative to what is a hole on the majority of these cars... Mine has a bit of crap on it but no damage, cleaned it up as best as I could given the access.
Back on track, with the motor out we undo the one T15 bolt on the top of the housing and lift the two tabs on the plastic cable connector (bottom of the first image) to remove that connector. That lets you pull the housing off the motor and fan cage assembly:
Because of the lack of pollen filter you will quite likely find a lot of detritus in the housing/motor/fan cage... Moving on, whilst supporting the cage so the motor is elevated clear of the floor/table/whatever surface you're using, use a punch to drive the motor shaft out of the housing. MAKE SURE YOU MEASURE THE DISTANCE THAT THE SHAFT IS PROUD ON BOTH SIDES AND ENSURE THAT WHEN YOU PUT IT BACK TOGETHER YOU USE THE SAME DISTANCES. If you failed to do this you will have clearance issues that will either foul the cage or result in the rear of the shaft rubbing on the housing - creating another noise and big time wear/increased load.
You can then use some lithium grease to relub the bearings (top and bottom of the motor - I found WD40s sprayable lithium grease to be best here, definitely easier to get in... Once again, refitting is the reverse of removal, but please please please make sure you get the shaft distances correct. Voila, no more squeaky motor, fans running smoother and quieter than ever.
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Next up, finally got myself a soldering iron so finally was able to make myself a flash code reader. All 850s from 94 onwards are OBDII compliant to meet emissions laws at the time, but they are not particularly communicative and if you dont have a 97 or newer 850 with the Motronic 4.4 you wont be able to get much out of it it all! So you'll need to spend about 40p on some wire and a 12v LED... There is a plethora of info out there on how to build these and read the codes so I wont repeat it.
I built a switch into mine to avoid awkwardness of having to get timing right on resetting the codes.
Anyway, the only code I had was the DTC 2-3-2, which corresponds to the coolant temp sensor - which I had replaced earlier. Reset the code, CEL went out, jobbed.
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Next job, handbrake light doesn't come on for some reason, wasn't sure if switch or bulb but given the switches are cheap and much easier to get to I thought I'd try that first... Easy peasy, just need to raise the centre console a few inches to gain access. Centre console is held on by 2x 8mm bolts under the armrest storage, and 2x T15s under the ashtray - undo the two T25s beneath the coin tray and cigarette lighter and lift it out, unplugging the OBDII port and lighter.
Once lifted you can just about see the handbrake switch, held by one T25 bolt and one wiring plug. Undo those two, rotate the switch out and replace. My old one was looking a bit tatty but not too bad. Obviously this area was cleaned too
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Lastly, after 600 miles of spirited driving through single-carriageway Welsh A- and B- roads Ivy was looking decidedly filthy (and I mean that!) so something had to be done. I thought I'd take this opportunity to try out the Power Maxed Traffic Film Remover I recently picked up on sale for £15. I mixed this up 10:1 in a hand pump sprayer and cover the lower half of the car, letting it dwell whilst setting up the pressure washer. I was very impressed, very impressed indeed. It obliterated the dirt, as I hope the video shows - nothing came up on my finger afterwards...much more effective than snowfoam in my experience. I didn't touch the car at all before this, and all the pics are post-TFR with nothing else or any agitation - just look at the wheels!
https://youtu.be/azsm0gxsZQ8
Speaking of which, I then used some snowfoam to neutralise any remnants of the TFR before a 2BM and a top up of the LSP. No pictures of the final product as the light was fading and I had other jobs to finish up outside. First and last time I will take a picture of snowfoam on a car!
I also cleaned the glass with the CarChem ClearView Glass Cleaner that I picked up for something like £2 in a sale the other day, fantastic little product and the best I've used. Amazing how much difference a clean window makes to both the build-up and clear-up of mist.
I'm sure I can get a picture of the clean state tomorrow as I desperately need to clean the interior - dog, plus Christmas tree, and tip work has left it a state.
_____________________________________________________
Next up was a replacement of my o/s headlight wiper motor which recently died. Replacement used one sourced for £10.50 from eBay and got that fitted. Being the o/s it turned out to be a real ballache, as the ECU loom and various ancillaries severely impede access.... Where it the n/s it would be as simple as removing the wiper arm, headlight trim and then just unbolting it.
Anyway, no point talking about n/s as ours was the o/s. So, obviously we need to get the wiper arms removed (8mm nuts, don't forget to pull the fluid hoses off), then the headlight trims (just pull, held on by two metal S-clips), indicator lenses (just release the spring and the wiring loom) then the 3x 10mm bolts to remove the o/s headlight. Once those are out we can undo the 3x 10mm bolts securing the crash bar to the slam panel. I'd definitely recommend a ratcheting 10mm spanner, wish I had one!! Next up is the 4 bolts holding the spam panel onto the front of the chassis, also 10mm, and then finally the two bolts securing the slam panel to the fan shroud - again 10mm, access these from the engine side.
Leaves us with an Ivy looking very sorry for herself:
From here we can tilt the slam panel forward about 30' or so and you can just above manoeuvre the motor out. Fitting the new piece really is the reverse of removal and is much easier. Before reinstalling the wiper arms use the wipers first so they return to their parked positions.
_____________________________________________________
Recently my heater blower motor had started to squeak on occasion, a sign that the grease in the bearings was failing. If you re-grease those bearings you can get a good few more months/years out of the motor before it needs replacing - and when replacement motors are £190 new its definitely worth the hour and a half or so of effort.
First things first is to remove the glove box liner. Use a pick or small screw driver to release the arms of the glovebox, if you push the pick down about 1.5cm and tilt it to the right (o/s) it should release the arm. Then its 6x T25 bolts and the liner can be pulled out. You can then see the blower motor as per:
Dropping the passenger kick panel (3x T25 bolts, and sliding it out towards the passenger seat) allows access to drop the motor. This rather sorry looking piece was of course cleaned up before being reinstalled!!
There are 4x T25 bolts on the blower motor to remove it. Access to these is easier if you remove the cables first. Only one needs to be unplugged (the one going to the motor), the others just slide off (double connector slides up to the left to release, others just lift off). Bolts are located at 4 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock-ish! Once removed you can just pull the motor out and turn it down towards the floor to pull it through where the kick panel used to be.
Quick tangent: You may recall a while back I fitted a pollen filter and remarked that one of the things that kills AC in these cars is that without the filter all sorts of detritus can accumulate on the evaporator. Here is an image showing its location relative to what is a hole on the majority of these cars... Mine has a bit of crap on it but no damage, cleaned it up as best as I could given the access.
Back on track, with the motor out we undo the one T15 bolt on the top of the housing and lift the two tabs on the plastic cable connector (bottom of the first image) to remove that connector. That lets you pull the housing off the motor and fan cage assembly:
Because of the lack of pollen filter you will quite likely find a lot of detritus in the housing/motor/fan cage... Moving on, whilst supporting the cage so the motor is elevated clear of the floor/table/whatever surface you're using, use a punch to drive the motor shaft out of the housing. MAKE SURE YOU MEASURE THE DISTANCE THAT THE SHAFT IS PROUD ON BOTH SIDES AND ENSURE THAT WHEN YOU PUT IT BACK TOGETHER YOU USE THE SAME DISTANCES. If you failed to do this you will have clearance issues that will either foul the cage or result in the rear of the shaft rubbing on the housing - creating another noise and big time wear/increased load.
You can then use some lithium grease to relub the bearings (top and bottom of the motor - I found WD40s sprayable lithium grease to be best here, definitely easier to get in... Once again, refitting is the reverse of removal, but please please please make sure you get the shaft distances correct. Voila, no more squeaky motor, fans running smoother and quieter than ever.
_____________________________________________________
Next up, finally got myself a soldering iron so finally was able to make myself a flash code reader. All 850s from 94 onwards are OBDII compliant to meet emissions laws at the time, but they are not particularly communicative and if you dont have a 97 or newer 850 with the Motronic 4.4 you wont be able to get much out of it it all! So you'll need to spend about 40p on some wire and a 12v LED... There is a plethora of info out there on how to build these and read the codes so I wont repeat it.
I built a switch into mine to avoid awkwardness of having to get timing right on resetting the codes.
Anyway, the only code I had was the DTC 2-3-2, which corresponds to the coolant temp sensor - which I had replaced earlier. Reset the code, CEL went out, jobbed.
_____________________________________________________
Next job, handbrake light doesn't come on for some reason, wasn't sure if switch or bulb but given the switches are cheap and much easier to get to I thought I'd try that first... Easy peasy, just need to raise the centre console a few inches to gain access. Centre console is held on by 2x 8mm bolts under the armrest storage, and 2x T15s under the ashtray - undo the two T25s beneath the coin tray and cigarette lighter and lift it out, unplugging the OBDII port and lighter.
Once lifted you can just about see the handbrake switch, held by one T25 bolt and one wiring plug. Undo those two, rotate the switch out and replace. My old one was looking a bit tatty but not too bad. Obviously this area was cleaned too
_____________________________________________________
Lastly, after 600 miles of spirited driving through single-carriageway Welsh A- and B- roads Ivy was looking decidedly filthy (and I mean that!) so something had to be done. I thought I'd take this opportunity to try out the Power Maxed Traffic Film Remover I recently picked up on sale for £15. I mixed this up 10:1 in a hand pump sprayer and cover the lower half of the car, letting it dwell whilst setting up the pressure washer. I was very impressed, very impressed indeed. It obliterated the dirt, as I hope the video shows - nothing came up on my finger afterwards...much more effective than snowfoam in my experience. I didn't touch the car at all before this, and all the pics are post-TFR with nothing else or any agitation - just look at the wheels!
https://youtu.be/azsm0gxsZQ8
Speaking of which, I then used some snowfoam to neutralise any remnants of the TFR before a 2BM and a top up of the LSP. No pictures of the final product as the light was fading and I had other jobs to finish up outside. First and last time I will take a picture of snowfoam on a car!
I also cleaned the glass with the CarChem ClearView Glass Cleaner that I picked up for something like £2 in a sale the other day, fantastic little product and the best I've used. Amazing how much difference a clean window makes to both the build-up and clear-up of mist.
I'm sure I can get a picture of the clean state tomorrow as I desperately need to clean the interior - dog, plus Christmas tree, and tip work has left it a state.
Edited by Cookeh on Saturday 29th December 23:46
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