T5 Update

Done a couple of hours of fettling today.

Boost gauge is now fixed - rubber elbow in the engine bay had split. MP3 player fitted and sounds suprisingly good, although cannot get MP3s to play off a CD at the moment, works off a USB stick though. Crappy frosted rear lights have been swapped for some nicer ones which has made the car look much tidier. Went to fit strut brace, but the ABS ECU mounts on the n/s strut so need to modify that, but couldn't be bothered today. The bar also sits very close to the master cylinder, apparently because mine's and early car so has a larger one. Hopefully it'll be ok, but I'll need to watch it in case it rubs badly. Also removed a plastic protector from behind the grill - nice idea for keeping stones out, but blocks about 3/4 of the airflow to the intercooler / rad - I think I'll risk it!

Tomorrow it'll be washed (and maybe polished) if the weather's nice. But in the mean time here's a couple of pics and a cheeky little vid of a how well she goes (not doing bad for 170k miles and 14 years old!).

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Reply to
Carl Gibbs
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Woo, from the photo's I see you also have the retro-fit reverse-flow intercooler pipework which improves the efficiency of said item. (not that its undersized in the first place).

The grille baffles are also part of the pipe kit; to stop snow / rain freezing on the intercooler. (not really a problem in the UK)

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

Oh and watching the boost gauge, I would say it's a trifle down on boost (soft actuator) but if you're happy with how she goes, leave it as it is...

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

"Carl Gibbs" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Nice, I have a hankering for one of them.

Reply to
Tunku

I'm happy for now. Although reading up on the VOC website anywhere between

1/2 and 2/3 into the white is considered normal, as they're not the most accurate of gauges.
Reply to
Carl Gibbs

70? You big wuss.

Unless of course it was through the town centre, in which case I take my virtual baseball cap off to you.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Do I? Cool ;)

They weren't baffles, just a bit of plastic - see photos again I've just posted a pic of it

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

I call them baffles, and they are the "snow shields"

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

Watching the video reminds me of why I like Swedish turbo things.

I've always had a strange fascination for the 850, always figured if I bought one, it would have the VAG donk, though...

Reply to
DervMan

Fairy snuff. Mine's now safely in the garage :)

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Common fault on Volvos of this age. If you lose power (i.e boost) there's another long pressure sense line that runs across the front of the engine bay to a sensor somewhere cooler. That has a couple of these rubber elbows on it, all prone to rot.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Yeah, so I gather. I've checked the rest and they seem ok at the moment. Might try and get some spare one's from the stealership to keep 'in stock' though just in case I need them.

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Few more jobs done today... ABS ECU mounting bracked modified so I could fit the strut brace, and with it all bolted down there's a few mm of clearance between itself and the mastercylinder resevoir - hopefully it'll be ok. Also worked out how to reset the service light. Few other niggly bits fixed too. But also discovered the spare wheel is flat - doh. So got a can of tyre weld in the back for the trip to Devon, but will try blowing it up at a garage tomorrow anyway. Also washed and polished the car and back-to-blacked the plastic bits. Looking much tidier now (see updated pics).

So now hopefully all ready for the road trip tomorrow. If all goes well I'll be back on Friday :)

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Tidy speedy car for not a lot of cash. Sadly it doesn't have V8 power, massaging/leccy adjustable rear seats or a tape deck built into the rear arm rest like Elder's Celsior. (c:

Bon voyage.

Reply to
Douglas Payne

It did indeed have some random toys didn't it...

Ditto'd.

Reply to
Iridium

Aha, but my centre arm rest turns into a childs booster seat, bet his doesn't do that!

Ta

Ta

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

Few days late, but 800 miles later we've arrived home. The 850 did great. Only problem was the ECU came on about 100 miles into the journey. Fault codes read an O2 sensor error and ECU memory loss but it still drove fine. Reset it and it stayed out, so maybe just a dodgy connection? In the dry it's great and even handles respectably. The power/torque is great for overtaking and ideal for the hilly areas of Devon we went through. Coming home in the wet today wasn;t so good. Full throttle in 1st, 2nd and even

3rd is a joke and it's a bit understeery too, although I'm sure the crappy front tyres are a major course for this. Still, with no aggressive driving it still went great and was nice and comfortable.

Economy avaeraged 26.4mpg for the whole trip. Bit less than I hoped, but not overly suprising. It topped 30 when we got to Devon, but it never really recovered from the hilly/twisty roads in the towns and the blat across Dartmoor and other fun roads we found.. Ah well

All in all I'm very pleased with the car :D

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

26 odd mpg does sound a teeny bit heavy, but it depends on your driving style- they tend to prefer 4th gear until about 70mph too for best mpg.

If the o2 sensor is abit flakey then it will pull down the mpg.

Change the tyres- although yes they are wayward in the damp if you try too much steering and too much power at the same time! (but only if you are a tit with the loud pedal)

Tim..

Reply to
Tim..

It did get a bit of abuse but also a fair bit of steady cruising. I'm don't entirely trust the computer anyway. Doing another long run this weekend so I'm gonna test it out.

Yeah, I was thinking of replacing it anyway just as a precautionary measure.

I only had one occasion of problematic understeer as I was exiting a roundabout, which caught me completely by surprise I I wasn't coming out fast and wasn't even on the power. The rest of the time it was as I expected for a powerful FWD car so you just drive accordingly.

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

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