The Chiseled Brick

Stupid E-torx

2008-10-17T18:31:00.002-05:00

The bearing hub is held into the upright by 4 E14 bolts. I managed to get two of them undone, but the last two stripped. I'm currently trying to figure out a way to get them off.

The weekend of work

2008-10-16T20:14:00.002-05:00

I've been saying for a very long time that I've got several things I need to work on, yet I haven't had the time or the money to do so. Well tomorrow I'm taking a half day from work and then I'll be working on the following in order:

Driver's side front wheel bearing
Passenger's side outer tie rod (alignment done by shop later)
Oil sump seals (Oil change done as well)
Rear tailgate rattle
Misc Vac leaks
Transmission fluid flush
Transmission oil cooler install

I doubt that I'll get to the trans stuff, but I added them anyways. Let the weekend begin...

The list of things to do

2008-05-02T15:26:00.002-05:00

So the summer is coming up and now it's time to think about what needs to be done or would like to do this summer.

Replace oil sump seals
Add transmission cooler
Flush transmission fluid
Paint touch up
Clean up gauge wiring

That's all I've got for now.

Been a good long while

2008-04-22T00:19:00.002-05:00

Well it's been around year since I last posted so here is the low down on what's happened:

New rear main seal
New CV boot
New oil pump seals
Switched to Mobil 1
Got a set of gauges
Fully detailed the car for the first time (last summer)
Found some rust (doh!)
Replaced 2 Calipers
Neglected my trans fluid

I guess that covers the basics.

I can see and stop

2007-04-26T08:37:00.000-05:00

Well it's taken me a little bit to post this but the new headlights are in and boy are they fantastic. I love having white light and not the yellowish halogen light. The hardest part was finding a good place for the ballasts, which was to be expected.
I also managed to fix my brakes so they work now. This was the first time where I was replacing a caliper and pads, and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

Brakes

2007-04-01T20:14:00.000-05:00

Recently I've been all psyched about putting in my new gauges and headlights, but I have come up with a more pressing matter. After some racing over spring break I noticed a squeaking coming from my front passenger side wheel. I figured I had finally damaged the bearing significantly. I then noticed that this squeak would disappear when I used my brakes. I then started to think that maybe I got something stuck somewhere by the rotor. Well today ladies and gents I figured it out. I went for a drive and the squeaking was the worst its ever been. When I went to look at the wheel I noticed that it was noticeably hotter than the others and was also covered with a significant amount of brake dust that the other wheels didn't have. It is now obvious that the caliper is sticking. Just another thing I have to replace this week.

New projects

2007-03-16T08:22:00.000-05:00

It seems kind of odd announcing new projects after spring break considering the amount of free time I have is significantly less, but since the events that inspired these projects occurred during spring break this is how it must be.

Inspiration:

Over spring break a few friends and I did some racing. We all had a good time, but I noticed a few things. My car despite having the heater on full bore still managed to gain some significant amount of heat even after we had stopped. We all know heat is the enemy of both engines and transmissions because the oil in both breaks down and causes parts to fail early. The following projects address this.

Project 1: Instrumentation

It's no secret that I like information and that new cars with very view gauges upset me because I like to know exactly what my car is doing. This is particularly important when driving the car hard. Hard cornering can cause a drop in oil pressure as the pump becomes starved. Cornering is one thing my car impressed the group with. Temperatures are obviously of concern as mentioned above. The car has a lot of vacuum operated and controlled systems maintain the correct level is important for peak performance levels. Fuel pressure must be maintained in order for the sustained performance. The following gauges are going to be added:

Water temp
Transmission temp
Fuel pressure
Oil pressure
Boost/Vac

Project 2: Cooling

Heat is a tricky subject. Too little is bad, and too much is worse. Overheating various components reduces their lifespan dramatically. When excessive heat forms in the engine the head can warp leading to expensive machining and repair costs. Excessive heat in an automatic transmission leads to varnishes, hardened seals, and ultimately a slipping transmission also known as junk. I will be adding an auxiliary transmission cooler to augment the stock cooler which is built into the radiator. By adding the extra cooling capacity the reliance on the stock cooler and the temp of the engine is reduced. This will also allow for longer and harder runs. In addition to the temp gauge addition above an "idiot light" will be added to provide an early warning as to when the trans is getting hot. This light will be located in the stock instrument cluster.

Project 3: Filtration

Metal particulate is harmful to mechanical systems. If this weren't the case engine oil wouldn't be filtered. Most transmissions are filtered as is The Silver Bullet. The Chiseled Brick on the other hand doesn't have a filtration system. There is an internal filter that is non-serviceable, and with more than 210,000 miles I'm going to write that off. Along with the cooler a filter will be added to extend the life of the transmission.

Bumper

2007-02-26T01:27:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't get to the auto recycler yet, but I got the estimate back from the auto shop the insurance company told me to go to. It's a whole $280.00. This is a lot better than I was expecting. I'll deal with this in the spring time when the snow is gone and my car should look nice again.

Stupid other drivers

2007-02-20T13:35:00.000-05:00

I love snow, but apparently Troy doesn't know how to plow their streets which means that parking is few and far between at best. I left my car in the snow because I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and I didn't feel like losing my parking spot. A day or two later I noticed that the front and back of my car had been cleared. I thought this was pretty cool since it ment less work for me. It turns out that whoever cleared my front broke one of my little headlight wiper nozzles which incidentally also holds the actual wiper blade. Ok so casualty number one. I'm upset but from the looks of it not too hard to fix. Friday rolls around and it's time for me to get my car out of the snow. I go out and start shoveling the side of my car and when I reach the rear of my what do I find? Someone hit my bumper.

Now I'm pissed.

I know it's a 13 year old car and the paint isn't perfect but that bumper was. I looked at the car behind me and found out that the person who hit me remained parked behind me! I did the whole leave a note thing, but they haven't called me back and let's face it they aren't going to. Good thing I got the police report before he left.

So now what? I'm not sure. There is an auto recycler up the road that claims to have my bumper so we'll see how that pans out. If nothing else I could probably learn how to paint and restore a bumper.

It never ends

2007-02-20T13:34:00.000-05:00

As with most projects that I start I always end up finding another. This time was no exception. While I had the wheels off my car I decided to take a look at the flexible brake lines and was horrified to find that the two lines that went to my front calipers had huge gashes in them.

I figured that since I was on such a performance kick and the front OEM rubber lines were $50 a pop from the dealer that I would upgrade to stainless steel braided lines.

Replacing the front lines was easy, it took a little PB nut blaster but they came off with out any major trouble. This sadly was not the case with the rear lines.

I ended up having to fabricate 3 of 4 hard lines for the rear of the car after trying for 3 days to get the flexible lines off with no avail. This required a bubble flare tool which was harder to get than I expected, but a small auto shop near me came through and got it with minimal fuss.

These are the lines I needed to remake.

Lower transmission mount

2007-02-16T00:41:00.000-05:00

As I said before I was having some clunks during shifting. The other mount that is prone to go is the lower transmission mount. While mine wasn't completely gone I figured that as with the rest of the work I was doing it is better to get it out of the way now. Again the job was easy as pie.

Front motor mount

2007-02-16T00:20:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks out in Michigan began to reveal a loud thud upon shifting. Since I had the car up on jack stands and the wheels off I decided I should look at the front motor mount. Well upon inspection it was obvious that the current mount had failed.

The sketchy part of this operation is lifting the engine by the oil pan. This is accomplished by using the edge of the pan.

Here is the old mount notice the oil splatter all over the place, another time though.

Here we see the old and new engine mounts pretty obvious which is which right?

Ta da all installed and cleaned

Rear sway bar

2007-02-16T00:06:00.000-05:00

Continuing our handling upgrade we have the rear sway bar. This does the same thing as the front bar. Now it is important to note that Volvo did not put a rear sway bar on the 855s with a naturally aspirated engine. This little upgrade was left for the Turbo, T5-R, and R versions of the 855 line up. The trailing arms are the same between the different models so the mounting points are there which makes this upgrade as easy as the front if not easier.

Again IPD came through with good directions and it was only my shear idiocy that made me attempt to put the one end of the bar in the wrong spot which it obviously didn't belong. This job only took an hour or two and that was mainly because of stubborn bolts.

Front sway bar

2007-02-16T00:05:00.000-05:00

So as I said a long time ago there aren't a whole lot of engine upgrades that I can easily do with a naturally aspirated engine so that leaves visual (cosmetic) and handling upgrades. One large component in vehicle handling is the sway bar also known as the anti-roll bar (further explanation).

This job was pretty straight forward the directions that IPD included were excellent for the most part, a little hicup now and then but overall the job was easy. I took my time, so I forget how long it actually took but I know it wasn't a multiple day project. I also took the time to replace my end links again an easy job.

My only complaint with the IPD links is that they are harder to tighten than the OEM ones because griping the stud is harder since there is no torx insert on them which the OEM features.

Since I'm paranoid when working under the car I had it supported at 4 points. Two jack stands on the front lift points and two hydraulic jacks on the center jacking points. The blue scissor jack was used to lower the rear of the sub frame.

Look at that she lowered just fine. You can also see the old sway bar with it's stupid non replaceable bushings.

Here we can see the new bar and end link, so pretty.

Snow!

2007-02-15T19:43:00.001-05:00

Well we finally got a good amount of snow. Someone shoveled my front out so it looses a bit of the effect but here you go.

Blogger

2007-01-29T02:18:00.000-05:00

I just realized that I forgot to mention that a revamp in design might appear soon now that Blogger is no longer in beta and has new tools and being the person I am I feel I need to fiddle.

Edit: Soon shouldn't be taken as this week.

Upgrades

2007-01-29T02:16:00.000-05:00

I must apologize for the lack of updates to the site here. I completed all of the upgrades that I had wanted to before I came back to RPI. By the end of the week I'll have a lot more to show here for your viewing pleasure.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Chiseled Brick took a bath yesterday, and now awaits it's upgrades this coming week.

A few updates

2006-12-08T23:13:00.000-05:00

Alright I've got a few updates from good ol' Michigan. First, I finally bought the IPD sway bar kit. I plan on installing this over the course of my winter break. Everything that I've read says it should only take a few hours, but since my track record isn't that good I'll say I need a day or two.

Second, I'm due yet again for an oil change as The Chiseled Brick has hit 208,000 miles. I doubt I'll get to it this weekend though.

Finally, my car is completely covered in salt. If only a brilliant chemist could figure out a way to make salt a anti-rusting compound while retaining the deicing abilities.

Brake lights

2006-11-19T12:10:00.000-05:00

I've always kind of suspected that my brake lights weren't coming on early enough, but never really got around to doing some real testing on it; however, last week I was stopped at a traffic light with someone stopped behind me. I decided to stretch out a little bit and noticed that the car behind me just got a little redder.

I fiddled with different brake pressures and realized that I was able to stop my car without having the brake lights come on at all. Not only is this dangerous it is also annoying for other drivers.

This morning I dug around under the dash and found the brake light switch and readjusted it, so now my brake lights activate the right pressure.

Strut brace installed

2006-11-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

Well apparently the factory brace isn't designed for cars before the 1996 model year. All this really meant was that I needed to modify a bracket and reroute a harness on the driver's side strut tower. The whole process took about an hour since I had to make a trip to Lowe's and Autozone once I realized that I needed to make some modifications. I didn't realize this until I had undone all the nuts first though.

This is how the strut tower on the driver's side looked before the strut brace.

This is how it looks now. I unplugged that wiring connector and rerouted the one end back underneath a wire tunnel on the strut tower and back up to where it is shown in that picture. Since I modified the bracket that it was originally attached to I zip tied it to the ABS module and what was left of the bracket.

Strut Brace

2006-11-18T10:10:00.000-05:00

As in my last post I mentioned that I was going to put a strut brace on the front of my car in addition to a few other performance modifications. Today ladies and gents is when I'm going to put the strut brace on the chiseled brick.

There are a lot of different strut braces out there, but probably the two most common are the OEM and OMP braces. I went with the OEM brace. I was a little concerned when I got it because it had some dents in it, but the guys on the Volvo Speed Forums lent me a hand.

Here is the plan. I'm going to take a quick drive around the apartment complex and see how the car handles before the brace is installed then repeat the same loop when the brace is installed.

Performance

2006-11-18T09:29:00.000-05:00

Volvo's that are have NA (naturally aspirated) engines are pretty limited in their performance abilities. That is unless you do some major work which typically involves swapping the engine and tranny out, something I don't plan on doing. The one area that can be improved is the handling, and to be completely honest I almost prefer better handling to raw power. Now again you can go crazy in this area too. Right now my car has a 100% stock suspension from a 1995+ 850 since the dealer was an idiot. So technically I could replace just about every component with performance components (shocks, springs, control arms, bushings, ect...).

I will be replacing the following components:

Sway bars (front and rear)
Sway bar end links

I'm also putting a strut brace in the front and possibly the rear.

New Wheels

2006-11-01T22:42:00.000-05:00

I went home this past weekend to swap wheels with my Mom's totaled 1998 V70 XC. She had what Volvo calls Silver Naiad wheels while I had Argo wheels. I asked a lot of questions on different forums and it seemed that everything would match up with the exception of the tires, which in the end wasn't a big deal since my tires have more tread life left.

We got to the body shop put the car up on jack stands and took the wheels off. We looked at the diameter difference and yeah it was big, but like I said my tires had more tread life so swapping them was worth it.

We went to STS and had them mount and balance the tires. On the way back to the body shop we noticed a slight vibration, we didn’t think of anything of it. We swapped the wiper blades and the rear wiper arm. I also snagged the mats from the trunk. I was real tempted to swipe her driver seat, but the insurance company would probably throw a fit and I’m sure there would be another problem.

As we were driving back home the vibration got worse and because of time we couldn’t get back to the STS we delt with earlier, we had to find another. The problem then was that they too were closing and couldn’t take us. We ended up at Sears where they rebalanced the tires. 2 of the wheels were off by 2 oz, 1 was off by 1.5 oz, and the third was on the ball. In the end it all worked out, took a little longer than we thought, but all is well. The car looks great and the ride is probably as smooth as its ever been.

Before:

After:

Steering problem diagnosis

2006-10-08T18:37:00.000-05:00

I finally put the car up on the jack stands this weekend to look at the steering system. I was happy to see that it wasn't the tie rods acting up because that means that I installed them correctly and that when I went for an alignment they didn't screw them up.

I had begun to suspect that one or both of the u-joints were bad. After giving steering inputs via the rotors and not finding any play I figured that both inner and outer tie rods were good along with the steering rack itself. I went from the other end of the system and provided input from the steering wheel and noticed a knocking noise that was accompanied by a hiccup in the smoothness of the rotation.

To test the u-joint I held the joint while rocking the steering wheel back and forth. This eliminated both the noise and the hiccup in rotation. I then thought about when I was experiencing the vibration and realized that it was always while I was on a straight away which makes sense because without any steering input to take up the slack in the u-joint the front wheels can do what they want.

I'll have to go to the dealer and see what a u-joint costs. I might replace them both along with the bearing just because they've all been subjected to loads that they normally wouldn't experience. It depends on the price of all of the parts.

I can steer!

2006-09-05T16:26:00.000-05:00

Obviously this is a good thing. I took the Chiseled Brick to Belle Tire today and had a 4 wheel alignment done. The steering feels so precise and for once my steering wheel is centered when I'm going straight.

I'm still getting a vibration during breaking. It doesn't feel like the rotors are warped but rather something else. I almost want to say that the ABS is turning on before it needs to . I'll take her out on I-75 tonight and see what's going if anything. Part of the trouble with diagnosing issues out here is that the roads are horrible, I need to find nice smooth roads.

Tie rods part 2

2006-09-03T13:36:00.000-05:00

I replaced the busted tie rod without issue. I used a little bit of PB Blaster to loosen the nuts as well as the tie rod it self. I ended up having to buy some new wrenches which was a lot more expensive than I thought it would be.

The old tie rod 's dust seal was just about 50% gone. I'll take the car in for an alignment as soon as I can find a place that's open, which seeing as it is labor day weekend is not going to be fun if even possible.

Tie rods

2006-09-01T16:31:00.000-05:00

Well I finally got around to actually looking at my outer tie rods. The passenger side seems solid, but the driver's side is completely shot. I was able to move it by pushing lightly on the brake rotor, so I didn't even have the mechanical advantage of having the wheel on it. If I had done tie rods before and knew exactly what I was doing I would just get it over with tonight; however, since I've never done this before I figured I would wait until tomorrow to be safe.

Medallion & Trouble

2006-08-28T17:48:00.000-05:00

Before I get to the trouble and the medallion you all need a little background

This past week I had the opportunity to travel back home and to RPI to help GM with some events that they were hosting. Part of the deal was that I was going to get to drive some new cars. I drove a New Pontiac G6 hard top convertible along with the unreleased 2007 Saturn Sky Redline. Both cars were fun. I really liked the Sky, amazing car. I really want one... Anyways when I got home I had a 100,000 mile medallion waiting for me. Since I was driving these cars I had left mine in Michigan. When I went to pick it up this morning it went through the whole I don't feel like starting situation but a lot worse than "normal" after I started it once to move it from long term parking. I also noticed that the front end vibration which seems to be related to the tie rods has gotten worse, the tires seem all out of whack, and the brake power assist seems to be failing. Time to start diagnosing the issues one by one.

Proof again that the dealer is aptly called the stealer

2006-08-03T18:21:00.000-05:00

I went to the Volvo dealer today to see what it would cost to get my left front tie rod replaced along with an alignment. I was told $325.00! Does this sound excessive to anyone? I went to the parts department and the part is $74.00. I think I'll give Belle Tire a call see what they want to replace it and do the alignment. If they are unreasonable as well then I'll just do it myself.

Balance & Alignment

2006-07-31T19:47:00.000-05:00

I went to Belle Tire today to get my wheels both balanced because I'm tired of having my butt massaged as I drive down the road. Since my steering wheel is off center while driving straight I figured I would get the car aligned as well since I was there. As is customary with this car one thing led to another. It turns out that my car cannot be aligned because my outer tie rods are cooked.

This makes a lot of sense. When I feel a slight vibration during driving and I attempt to brake my entire front end goes nuts. I think this tie rod issue is going to fix a lot of the issues I've been having with my front end.

I'll make some calls tomorrow to figure out the best course of action.

Oil Change & Underside Inspection

2006-07-30T22:05:00.000-05:00

Well The Chiseled Brick has hit 201,000 miles. This means two things. One, the journey to 300,000 miles has begun and two, I'm about 2,000 miles overdue for an oil change (I like to change the oil every 3,000 miles). It's not that bad because the recommended interval is 5,000.

On Saturday I changed the oil. This went fine except for after taking the car for a quick spin I noticed that I was loosing oil. I put the car back up on the ramps and noticed that oil was leaking from both the drain plug and the oil filter. I tightened the oil filter a bit and then checked the torque on the drain plug. As it turns out 26 Nm is not the same as 26 Ft-Lbs. The leak has since been remedied.

I figured that since I was back under the car I should take a look around and take some pictures. Overall everything looks alright. The only thing I could find was some kind of oil/fluid leak as seen in the picture. I'll have to investigate this further.

New Project Idea

2006-07-19T20:53:00.000-05:00

As we all know the summer months can be great for being outdoors; however, the interior of our cars don't like it nearly as much. The sun heats the interior of our cars to extreme temperatures and is unsafe for both humans and other devices such as electronics that one might leave in a car. This extreme environment has got me thinking of ways to cool the interior of the car. Now the obvious solution is to open the windows. This works well for the most part but there are instances in which this doesn't work.

High crime areas
Areas prone to rain
Lack of security for items left in car (as well as the car itself)

One could argue that if you only crack the windows rain won't be too much of an issue but after seeing several storms blow through Michigan this year I don't feel like chancing it.

Cars are by no means air tight this is one of the reasons that you can close your door without expending a lot of force. Modern cars are equipped with a vent. In the case of my 855 this vent is located on the right side of the car near the tailgate between sheetmetal so you can't see it from he outside as opposed to the 245 I have.

My idea is to force air through the vent while the car isn't running. I plan on using a 120mm cooling fan from a computer. If that fan proves to be too big I'll use 80 mm fans. If the fan is too small I'll use multiple fans. The problem that I'm currently having is sourcing the power. I was thinking that I could just run the fan array off of the car battery, but after mulling that around in my head for a bit I don't think that will be the best idea. There are plenty of times where I don't use my car for several days such as the weekend or when I'm home. This means that I need to find an alternate power source. I've got two options the way I see it.

An auxiliary battery system
Solar power

I'd like to use solar power; however that could be expensive or just not look right, whereas I could hide auxiliary batteries else where in the car. I'll keep you all posted...

Back in MI

2006-07-19T20:46:00.000-05:00

I got The Chiseled Brick back without having the wheel bearing replaced because my indy wasn't confident that it was the bearing. He did find a caliper that was hanging up, as well as adjust the E-Brake. I swear I'm going to rip my arm off because it barley comes up anymore. I like it though because it can actually hold my car in place.

Next: an oil change...

Wheel bearing

2006-07-11T23:20:00.000-05:00

The Chiseled Brick is in for service to have the left front (driver's side front) wheel bearing replaced. This isn't a major repair and I'm fully capable of doing it; however, as one may have noticed simple things seem to blow up in my face, and seeing as how I have to go back out to Michigan on Saturday it's best that I just get it fixed by someone else.

I'll also have them look at my E-brake.

196,000

2006-06-06T21:01:00.000-05:00

That's right ladies and gents my 855 has hit the 196,000 mile mark as of yesterday morning at 6:45 AM. This reminds me I need to get a 100,000 mile badge for this one.

Intake system

2006-06-01T22:01:00.000-05:00

Well in my last post I said that I removed my intake manifold . Well this post is basically some pictures of the project which ended in success.

Here we see the fresh air hose has been disconnected. The fresh air hose connects the air box to the throttle body. On the right side of the plastic elbow we see the flame trap housing which was later replaced.

Here we see the old flame trap housing after a cleaning as well as a new housing along with the actual flame trap installed.

The fuel rail and throttle body have now been removed from the intake manifold. All that holds the manifold in are the bolts on the underside of the manifold. One holds the dipstick tube a second secures the manifold to the engine the last two bolts hold the EGR to the manifold. The first two bolts are probably best accessed from underneath the car while the EGR bolts can only be accessed by struggling to get a wrench or socket on the bolts by snaking a hand down under the manifold.

The manifold has finally been removed. The large black plastic box attached to the block is the vent box which is where the tube that I broke connects into.

Looking into the manifold we see that crud had built up over the years, not a terrible amount, but while I've had the manifold off I figured I'd give it a good cleaning.

I also took the opportunity to clean the outer portion as well. I would have preferred it to clean up a little better but I really can't complain too much.

While I was on a cleaning spurt I looked at the intake valves. While they did have a little and I mean a little build up I left them alone because I was running low on time and since there was barely any build up it didn't seem worth the time.

When it was time to put everything back together I noticed two things. First, there were eight holes in my engine block; however, I only had seven bolts. I then noticed that the new gasket wasn't the same as the old one. I scrambled around for a bit and came to the conclusion that the gasket wasn't an issue and since it covered up one of the bolt holes it solved my bolt number mismatch.

Everything bolted back together real nicely and I must say that this job really doesn't take too long assuming you can find all of the bolts. My biggest setback was merely trying to find all of the bolts that connected the manifold to the rest of the car.

It all started when I checked my fluids

2006-05-25T03:35:00.000-05:00

That should be a simple task right? Well that part I suppose is true; however, what the checking of fluids lead me to is a whole different story.

I checked all of the fluids and they all came back fine which brought a smile to my face. I figured that while I had my head under the hood I should probably check the air filter. Well I popped the top of the air box found the filter to be fine, but noticed a rather large tear in the hose connecting the air box to the throttle body. I removed the hose and started digging deeper. I found that one rubber elbow had failed, removed that.

With two parts already in my “to be replaced” pile I figured that I should check the infamous flame trap. It was about 50% clogged and the housing was in poor condition. Yet more parts joined my quickly growing pile. I looked around for a little while longer and couldn't find anything.

I went to the dealer and bought the parts that I needed along with a new rear wiper blade and o-ring for the flame trap housing.

This should be where the story should say that I put everything back together and enjoyed a frosty beverage but it doesn't. When I was putting the flame trap housing together I snapped a hose that connects the housing to the vent box. The issue here is that the vent box is behind the intake manifold. I searched for an alternative and found none the intake manifold had to come out.

As of this post I finally managed to remove the intake manifold and am making a parts list so I can get this project wrapped up quickly. I'll post many pictures and a detailed explanation when time permits.

Radar Detector Hardwired

2006-03-18T15:53:00.000-05:00

That's right it's finally done. I finished installing it a few days ago and love the way it came out.

Wiring it into the car was a bit trickier than I expected. I figured that I would make the connections on the driver's side, but when I removed the panel I was greeted with more wires than I cared to count. I also failed to see any wires headed in the direction of the cigarette lighter. I partially dismantled the center stack and console. I traced the wiring harness to the passenger side where I used some tap in connectors that I bought at RadioShack. They made installation a breeze. I checked that I was getting the correct voltage on those wires, I was. I connected everything snaked a lead up to the radar detector itself and there we have it ladies and gents.

The setup now looks a lot better without wires hanging all over the place.

Rear washer picture

2006-03-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the delay in my posting of this picture but I've been busier than expected. This picture shows the new rear washer pump that I installed. You can also see the wiring harness that I had to fiddle with.

I can see!

2006-03-12T17:32:00.000-05:00

The rear washer pump has finally been replaced. This was supposed to be a quick job but it was anything but.

At first I couldn't get the pump out, the bracket which held the pump didn't want to budge. After fiddling with it for a few minutes it came free. The next problem was removing the pump from the bracket.

Over the course of many years the pump and the bracket had become in essence one unit. It took me a good while to finally hammer the pump out of the bracket with the aid of some silicon lubricant. The next problem was the electrical connector.

The connector is designed to simply unclip and that should be all she wrote, but apparently after several years of being behind the bumper it had corroded. When I finally got the pump free of the connector I realized that the internals of the connector had failed and broken off. I took a trip to a local auto parts store and bought some new connectors. I then reconstructed the wiring harness which was a joy because I was cramped.

Will all of these wonderful problems solved I put the inline filters in for both of the rear and front washers. The front was fine, but since I was dirty and working on these I took care of it. The rear was clogged.

With the system back together I hit the switch to turn on the rear wiper. It took a few seconds for fluid to go through all of the lines, fill up the filter, and then finally come out, but in the end it all works again.

While I was working on my car I did notice several other issues. The washers for the headlights don't work and I had a significant amount of oil under my spark plug cover. It isn't worth trying to figure out what's wrong with the headlight washer. I am a little worried about the oil under the spark plug cover. I cleaned out what I could with out going crazy. I'll just have to monitor it to see if anything further collects or if it was just because someone spilled some oil at one point.

Tomorrow I plan on finishing my radar detector installation. I'll also post a few pictures of this project.

Ready to install

2006-02-24T00:05:00.000-05:00

I finished the cover for the switch last week, but I didn't have the time to post any pictures. As we can see the switch blends in very nicely. I plan on putting it in my car tomorrow. I doubt I'll get the chance to hook it up until the middle of next month when I have a break from classes.

Back on track

2006-02-10T16:25:00.000-05:00

Well Amazon.com sent the correct part, and I got it yesterday. I also decided that I needed to start working on my little project right away because that's how I operate.

I quickly realized that the stock case needed to be cut down to fit inside the plate. I also needed to cut the inside of the plate out.

Cutting a small opening we are left with a more or less hidden radar detector controller. Next to the modified one is an unmodified plate that I picked up from Volvo.

Now I'm not done (obviously this isn't installed in my car), but I'm not happy with the overall appearance. I was going for a more streamlined look. The current configuration looks a bit tacky and I'm not sure it's any better than what I've currently got. I plan on taking the second cover that I bought and drilling three holes (Power, Alert, Mute) and putting the sticker on the outer plate. This should give me the look I'm looking for.

Slight Setback

2006-02-07T19:32:00.000-05:00

Amazon.com sent me the wrong part! I ordered my directwire kit for my radar detector from them, but they sent me the cigarette lighter adapter version. They have since shipped a new one out and I should receive very quickly since it went out today on 2nd day air service with UPS. I guess I really can't complain too much.

I do have some good news though. My parts that I ordered from Volvo came in. With any luck I'll get somewhere this weekend with both projects.

Washer pump

2006-02-05T16:38:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't get to do as much as I wanted this weekend due to both weather and regular life. I also didn't manage to pickup my parts from the dealer on Friday so now I've got something to do tomorrow.

I did however manage to do a few things:

I found the filter for the rear washer. It was clogged.
I tested the pump which didn't seem to work. I'll find it and test that it has power sometime soon.
I found another filter (headlight washer?) which also needs to be replaced. If that's on a separate pump I don't think I'll replace the pump just yet.

That about does it for now.

One down, two to go

2006-01-30T21:57:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-30T10:32:00.000-05:00

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:

Locate/Test washer pump (replace if non operational and wires have power)
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

2006-01-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-29T21:50:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-29T00:03:00.000-05:00

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:

Hardwire radar detector such that it blends in with the car.
Fix rear window washer (It doesn't squirt at all).
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

2006-01-15T23:44:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-01-12T00:11:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-11T23:36:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-11T23:12:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-11T22:00:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-11T10:26:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-11T09:44:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-08T00:16:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-07T23:50:00.000-05:00

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.