One down, two to go

Well I went to the dealer today. I figured that since I'm not going to buy the washer filter or pump from the dealer it made more sense to just go today and get it over with. They had the bulbs in stock, but the covers had to be ordered; they should be in on Friday. I installed them before I left the dealer. I also ordered the hardwiring kit online. No clue when that will arrive.

Rear window washer

When the car was purchased way back in May it was discovered that the rear window washer did not work. This didn't phase me too much because it was summer and since I was driving regularly I cleaned the back window when I filled up the tank.

Enter northeast winter...

Winter in the northeast is one of the worst times for a car, the roads a white, but this is not snow this is salt. Having a wagon just makes it worse because all of the salt an other wonderful road chemicals get plastered to my rear window. I have finally started to look into what is required to get this working.

My research into the area has me headed in the following direction test wise:

1. Locate/Test washer pump (replace if non operational and wires have power)
   
2. Locate washer filter (replace if clogged)

In reality I will probably replace the filter regardless (unless spotless) just to make sure that it doesn't clog up in the near future.

Today's trip to the Volvo dealer might be postponed so I can diagnose this whole pump thing instead.

Radar hardwire

Again I couldn't help myself. My current setup is with the cigarette lighter as seen here. Now this works, but I'm not a fan of having the power cord hang in front of my radio as well as my MP3 player. It makes for an annoyance and if you want to be an extremist you could possible reason it is unsafe. I also cannot see the Alert light which comes in handy if I have the radar display blacked out and muted, which does happen every now and then.

Since my car doesn't have all of the optional packages such as traction control, trip computers, and all the other fancy gizmos that the turbo and GLT versions came with I have several of these black switch covers. My idea is to cut out a section on one of them and fit a hard wired version of the switch into place. Escort makes a hardwiring kit without the integrated mute button and indicator lights, but this is a convenience that I wish to keep.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a few of these switch plates because I'm sure I'll screw at least one up.

The bulbs

Well I couldn't help myself. After laying out that roadmap to what I wanted to do with my car I just had to start. The bulbs that have been annoying me are in the headlight switch.









First I took the unit out of the dash.











Next I decided that I needed to open the unit up, wrong.










As we can see here the lights can be pulled out from behind, which makes it really easy to replace the bulbs.

I began to think about buying some LEDs from RadioShack and simply making my own lights, but I ruled this out because it would take longer and I liked the brightness where it was and I didn't want to either be blinded or left with something that I still couldn't see.

Tomorrow I'll go to the dealer and buy two new bulbs, slap them in and be done with the unit for a long time.

Upcoming projects

I received an e-mail asking what was next in the grand scheme of things for the chiseled brick. Right now I don't have a whole lot that I'm going to do because school and Formula SAE keeps me pretty busy and fresh out of funds. The upcoming projects are:

1. Hardwire radar detector such that it blends in with the car.
2. Fix rear window washer (It doesn't squirt at all).
3. Replace a few bulbs in the dash.

If anyone has anyone has any other suggestions you are more then welcome to leave comments below.

PNP Switch

The PNP switch is a common problem with the 850 series. Fortunately it is a relatively easy fix. This summer in Michigan I thought I had a transmission problem. After going through everything I could find on the transmission in my wagon I determined that I needed a new PNP switch. Well after buying it, I figured out that nothing was wrong and that I just wasn't used to the transmission.

In more recent times I've noticed that my reverse lights weren't coming on either right away or at all. Doing a little more research and consulting my mechanic I came to the conclusion that my mechanic had. The PNP switch was going bad. On average once the reverse lights failed it would take about 6 months for the switch to fail completely and leave me stranded. This winter break I took my car in for a few things that I couldn't figure out, such as a weird rubbing noise while making right hand turns, I had my mechanic raising replace the switch.

For those that don't know what a PNP switch is here is a brief summary. The PNP switch tells the transmission what gear it is supposed to be in such as Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Third, Low.

Mileage: 192,000

What good is a wagon if the trunk doesn't stay open?

This is yet another original problem with the car. The gas springs were no longer strong enough to support the tailgate, this was a hassle when using the trunk, one of the key features of a wagon. This needed to be fixed, and again I picked up the torch.

First several screws need to be removed then you can pry two pieces of molding to expose the gas springs.










I pryed the existing springs off with a large flathead screwdriver.

Pop the new one's in, put the molding back into place, and bam you're done.

mileage: 186,540

Two original problems

Two problems that the car has is that the front driver's seat doesn't recline and the clock and temp display light had burned out. Well after spending my two week vacation on the road quite a bit of it at night I had enough of this not knowing what time it is junk. I figured that I could certainly do it for next to nothing. I went to the dealer picked up the bulb for a few dollars. While I was there I asked if they had the seat cable, they did, I bought it as well. The installation of the bulb was interesting.

First the top of the dash needed to be removed by unscrewing several torx screws. This involved removing all of the vents and a bit of finesse.

After getting the top of the dash off I needed to unplug the instrument cluster and remove it.

With the cluster out of the car I took the dead bulb out and replaced it with the one I had purchased. I put the cluster back in the car, buttoned everything back up and patted myself on the back.

I have not gotten around to fixing the seat cable yet because the seat is in a decent position right now, so why bother with it?

mileage: 185,000(ish)

Front suspension

I had spent one night in my apartment. The following day my parents were headed back home and I was to meet them for breakfast at their hotel. When I came into the parking lot I heard a very loud bang. I thought I tore the airdam off the car, I didn't. I examined the car and couldn't figure out what made that sound, so it was promptly shrugged off.

The next few weeks going to and from work I kept noticing a weird feeling in my gas pedal, and a strange clunking noise whenever I went over bumps. At my apartment I wasn't able to diagnose the problem until I leaned against the passenger fender. The car moved down from my weight, but the top of the shock didn't. Now I'm no wiz, but that's not right.

Off to the dealer the car went. I've got to give the service guys some credit, they treated me very well. I told them what had happened and I handed my car over to them.

The next day I received a call at work from the dealer. He listed every suspension componet that I knew of and then a few more. Oh how it hurt. The quote was for about $3,100.00 . Well I can't afford that, so I called home real quick. I gave the dealer the go ahead with them knowing that my parents would be paying for the work over the phone.

A day or two later my was ready. The following work had been preformed for just over the original quote:

• Front spring seats
• Front shocks
• Control arms
• Spindles
• Protecting plates
• auxiliary belt
• Coolant Cap
• Gas tank recall

The reason so much had to be replaced was because at some point these the bushings that fit into these parts were redesigned, and since all of my bushings were shot to hell everything pretty much had to go. It was certainly painful, but the car feels great now, what a difference!

Here's most of what they took out:

Well at least it came with a 1 year warranty.

Mileage: 183,323

Preventive maintenance

With the blower motor and resistor pack done. I took the advice of fellow Volvo owners and bought a cabin air filter. This was later standard on these cars. This involves the purchase of both an air filter along with an air filter adapter. Both can be purchased through IPD.

The air intake is underneath that large piece of black plastic. Access is gained by unscrewing two torx screws and releasing the drain pipe.







The air intake for the cabin. Notice the blower motor is not installed and we can see into the passenger footwell. This picture was taken after a piece of plastic was removed which shields this port from water.








The filter adapter simply pushes into place.













Put the filter element in and put it all back together.

Mileage: Approx 181,000

Inspection & repair of the HVAC system

Armed with instructions from Bay 13 and my trusty toolbox I tried to figure out what made my trip out to Michigan so wonderful.



First I needed to remove this wonderful cover, behind it is a knee bolster, even more removal fun.









The glove box also needs to come out which gives us a nice internal view of the dash.










We can see that I've already removed the fan assembly (large hole) and the resistor pack (small hole). If you look closely the door in the fan hole is what controls the air recirculation.









Notice how dirty this resistor is, the fan was even worse and had almost seized up causing those pesky blown fuses and a failed resistor.









To satisfy my own curiosity I activated the recirc control and nothing happened. Turns out this little guy broke, and notice that the material has changed on the new one, guess Volvo figured something out.

Everything gets put back and closed tight.

And so ends my first fix-it-yourself experience (with this car).

Long hot drive

The drive to Michigan was great except that a few hours (less than 5) into the trip (10ish hours) the blower for the AC stopped working except on position 4 of 4, also known as high. After awhile that stopped working as well. At a rest stop a faulty fuse was linked to the high speed failing, but the low speed was not so easy.

After settling into my apartment in Michigan I borrowed a few forums for Volvos and figured out what probably happened. The first three speeds are controlled by a resistor, this resistor probably failed. I also learned that my blower motor may have started to die from dust and debris. Time for an inspection.

First Arrival

I was not personally involved in the purchase of this car because I was finishing up my semester
at RPI. I merely gave the following wish:

I would like another Volvo 245 if at all possible.

obviously that wasn't possible, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things the 855 was the next best alternative.

When we got the car it looked like this...

As far as exterior changes go the front air dam has been repainted, and many small paint chips have been dealt with. It should be noted that there is still plenty to do when it comes to paint. The previous owner must have gotten into a fight with a bush.

The interior was completely cleaned down and came out really well. The only problem with the interior is that at some point a dog had sat in the front passenger seat and scratched up the door a bit. The rest of the interior really couldn't be complained about too much.

Overall the car was in pretty good shape I don't like a few things about it, but beggars can't be choosers. My two main gripes are the color and the instrument cluster. I would have liked another silver car. As for the instrument cluster I would have liked to have the tach on the left side, and some depth to the gauges instead of everything being completely flat.

As with just about any used car bought from a private seller some work is needed. Even though Volvos are known to last forever the need maintenance like any other car on the road. The following work was done:

• New Radiator
• All New Rotors/Pads (brakes)
• Rear Calipers (brakes)
• 4 New tires (aligned & balanced)
• Oil Change
• Misc bulbs and other small items

The car was now ready for action (read: It was now ready to transport me safely half way across the country to Michigan.)

Mileage: Approx 181,000

A name is found

Ok well I'm a car nut if you haven't figured that out already. Now part of being a car nut, or maybe a male car owner is that a name is needed for the car. My last car was named The Silver Bullet because it wasn't too fast, but it was silver. That car was a 1985 240 (245 for the true fans) DL. Volvo nuts like to call the 200, 700, and 900 series cars bricks because of their fairly boxy styling. Now this car is a 1994 Volvo 850 (855 for the true fans). While it can't escape the boxy styling completely it does have more curves to it. Thus my car is now known as The Chiseled Brick, which of course you already know because that's the title of this site.

And so it has begun

As of last may I began to drive what I'm referring to as The Chiseled Brick. This is the "replacement" to The Silver Bullet. Now for those that know me personally there is truly no replacement to my old car, which isn't dead by any means. The whole reason for this car is my parents in their infinite wisdom decided that since I was bound for Michigan last summer I needed a car, so they wouldn't have to worry about me breaking down. Thus begins the tale...

Now a brief intro to this blog. This blog is to catalog most everything that goes on with my car. This doesn't mean I'm going to post things like "I went to the supermarket today and logged exactly 3.4 miles" No, that's boring, pointless, and quite frankly I don't have that kind of time. What I do plan on posting is what I've had to do to my car (I got it last May remember?) as well as what I'm doing with my car (Time waits for no one). So I end this first post.