#45 Rear Spring Bump Stop

When the rear shocks were replaced I noticed that the suspension bumper on the driver’s side was knocked loose and had fallen down inside the spring.

This is a common problem on these cars because a cheap plastic pin is used to hold the rubber bumper in place and that breaks over time and the bump stop falls off.  The bump stop is a mechanical damper which cushions the chassis against the rear control arms when the suspension spring bottoms out.  That doesn’t happen very often but it can make a racket when it does, as may the loose bumper rattling around inside the coil spring.

The replacement piece is somewhat misleading since, unlike the original part, the center pin doesn’t move.  It’s just there to give something to push against when it is installed.  The new pin is slightly larger in diameter to hold in place but that makes it harder to install.  You have to really pry up against it to push the pin in place, which I did with a deep well socket on an extension and used a large screwdriver as a pry bar.

Old bump stop in place with new retaining pin:

I know the whole bottom of the bumper is worn away but it will still provide some cushion.  It was likely damaged when the shock absorber failed on that side and the car hit bottom many times.

$1.26

#44 Muffler Hanger, Round 1

Noticed that the passenger side of the muffler was detached from its hanger.  This is not a big deal but probably puts strain on the exhaust system pipes where it could break loose easier.

The rubber connector is torn (lower RH corner) so can’t be re-used.  Got a generic replacement and installed that while I had the car raised for the fuel filter.  Now at least it will keep the muffler from falling down to the ground if/when an exhaust pipe breaks.

I’m not happy with the fit and stretch of this generic part so will order a real Volvo hanger to have on hand if/when this one breaks loose.

Still, it’s doing the job and the exhaust system is more secure and moves less now.

$4.99

#43 Fuel Filter

Volvo 850s have these honkin’ massive fuel filters located under the car on the passenger (right) side under the rear door.

Even though they have a lot of capacity, the fuel filters need to be replaced every 5 years or 50K miles.  This doesn’t look like the original part but it still looks old and long overdue for replacement.

Just one bolt securing it and a slip-on hose fitting at both ends of the filter.  Pulled the fuel pump fuse with the car running to depressurize the line first, then relieved pressure further with the Schrader valve before the filter.  No sense spilling fuel around and NO SMOKING while doing this job.

Nevertheless, these giant filters hold maybe a pint of gasoline so I still splashed a lot around on the driveway and on my arms; it’s hard not to.

Slapped the new filter in place and secured with the bolt.  Then pushed the fuel line fittings onto the filter tubes and it is ready to go.  Of course I made sure it was pointing toward the engine.

$12.02

#42 A/C Refrigerant Charge

Air conditioning seemed to work when we got the car but I never measured temperatures or checked refrigerant pressure.  Noticed the refrigerant lines frosted up everywhere when it was running:

Also noticed that the AC compressor was short-cycling (clutch engages/disengages frequently).  Both of these indicators are symptoms of low refrigerant charge.

Using a thermometer in the center vent on max AC, I measured 52 degrees for a feeble 18deg split (70 outside), which is the difference between outside air temp and the cooled air coming into the cabin.  On most cars you can expect 30-40deg of cooling (split).

Connected pressure gauge to low side refrigerant port and measured nearly no pressure on the suction side of the compressor.  Should be 30-40psi.  This car is unusual in that it has no high side pressure port to monitor compressor output.

Added two 12oz cans of R-134a refrigerant through the gauge set and got the low side pressure up to 40psi where it belongs.

Vent temperature is now a cool 42 degrees at 82 ambient which is a 40deg split.  That’s at idle.

While driving the car around, it can go below 40deg with the compressor running faster and air flowing through the condenser.

The compressor no longer short cycles and the refrigerant lines sweat but do not frost up now.

Noticed fluorescent yellow leak detect dye at the low pressure port so somebody was looking for a leak sometime back.  With such low pressures obviously there is a leak, which is no surprise on a 15 year-old car.  If it’s a small leak, I can just refill with refrigerant periodically.  If it discharges quickly, I’ll have to go hunting.  Most likely a compressor shaft seal in that case.  Will keep an eye on A/C performance this summer.

2x $12 cans of R-134a

#41 Rear Turn Signals

Now rear turn signals are causing the flasher to change speeds and make a dragging sound.  Looks like the rear lamps should be replaced as well since the fronts were done already.

While I’m in the tail light assembly, might as well change the brake, running and backup lamps on both sides as well so the car will have all new lamps in rear.  A couple of them were obviously like-new so I didn’t bother changing those.

Turn signal no longer changes speed or makes a strange sound.

#40 Windshield Wiper Arm, Round 1

Driver’s side windshield wiper arm on these models tends to change shape over the years to the point that it doesn’t apply sufficient pressure on the wiper blade to properly clear the glass.

This was the case here where it didn’t wipe cleanly even with new wiper blades.  Temporarily tried bending the arm back for some improvement but it isn’t much and won’t last.

Replaced the wiper arm with a new part.  You can see the difference in the angle of the arm at the motor end (new one at bottom).

Just a single nut holding the arm in place; easy job.

Edit 4/14/2013:  IPD posted a video on this common problem and their suggestion for improving wiper performance by selective bending. I have had little luck making this work well or for long, which is why I replaced the arms on both of my 850s.  Perhaps the most useful tip in the video is tweaking the angle of the blades to cure chattering.  You can locate the video here:  http://www.ipdusa.com/techtips/10127/wiper-arm-fix-for-850-models   Fun how their car in the video looks much like this one (red wagon).

$47.95

#39 Cabin Air Filter

Cabin air filters are apparently an option on these cars, but should be standard equipment.  They filter out debris, dust, pollen, hair and other contaminants from getting into the cabin from the outside air intake.  Important in allergy season and to protect the blower from chunks of particles.

No filter on this car.  You can see the blower fan directly underneath the air intake along with lots of debris around the air duct.

Fortunately you can buy a cheap adapter bracket for this and then put a cabin air filter right where it belongs.

First vacuumed up all the debris in the area, then removed the existing air duct and installed the adapter:

And new filter:

Now the girls will be breathing clean air.

$17.27 Adapter, $14.82 Filter

#38 Oil Filler Cap Seal

The cheap gasket on the oil filler cap is practically a consumable item.  Dealers and independent Volvo shops often replace the gasket every time as part of an oil change.

This one hadn’t been changed in a long time.  It was rock hard and getting brittle and didn’t seal well.  Lots of oil leaking past it onto the top of the engine.

Cleaned up the top of the engine (under the spark plug cover) fairly well without over-doing it.  Lots of chemicals and/or water will get down into the spark plug wells and cause ignition problems so didn’t get too aggressive.  Mainly just cleaned up the wet oil.

Replaced the seal on the cap with a heavy duty after-market Viton gasket from IPD which should last a long time and not need changing often (certainly not every oil change).

$9.95

#37 Oil Change

Before we got too many miles on the engine after adding Seafoam cleaner, the oil needed to be changed.  Seafoam is breaking up deposits and crud in the crankcase and taxing the oil filter.  It was probably time anyway since we don’t know how many miles have been put on the car since the last change.

Drove the car for a few miles to warm up the goo so it would drain out better.  Raised the front end of the car and rested on jack stands for access.  Put catch pan underneath and opened the oil pan plug to drain out all the thick crud and oil.

Unscrewed oil filter and replaced with a new high-quality Fram ExtraGuard filter.

Installed new after-market oil drain plug which has a magnet on its tip.  This should catch any metal particles (or loose tools 😉 ) swimming around in the engine to protect it and help alert us to significant engine wear.  Used new sealing washer, which is recommended practice although people do re-use them.  Tightened to specified 26 ft-lb torque.

Lowered the car and filled with 5-1/2 qts of fresh Castrol GTX semi-synthetic motor oil for high-mileage engines.  There is a lot of debate about full synthetic vs. normal oil.  I just split the difference by using something in between.  Checked dipstick to make sure level was correct.

Disposed of old oil properly.

$17.67 oil, $3.77 filter, $7.95 drain plug

#36 Spark Plugs

After Seafoaming the engine, the spark plugs were replaced.

After removing the old plugs, cylinder compression was checked again to see if Seafoam made any difference.  Not much; the numbers are perhaps slightly higher overall:

Cleaned out the spark plug wells in the cylinder head with cleaner and a rag as best I could.

The 5/8″ (16mm) magnetic swivel spark plug socket by Gearwrench (in photo) is great!  I like the captive extension and magnetic feature a lot.

Used genuine Volvo plugs which are fairly expensive, although there is vigorous debate about which plugs to use.  Seems the consensus is that Volvo plugs are best so I went with that.  These appear to be platinum- or Iridium-plated plugs with triple ground electrodes permanently gapped.  Compared to original single ground electrode copper plugs:

Put all five new plugs in

And tightened to specified 18 ft-lb torque

Fired the engine up and it runs smoothly.

$24.32

#35 Seafoam Internal Engine Cleaning

Seafoam is a highly-regarded petroleum cleaner that removes carbon build-up, breaks up sludge, stabilizes fuel and generally cleans everything inside an engine.  It cleans the intake manifold, engine internal parts, lubrication system (oil), and fuel system.

Measured out 1/3 can into the fuel tank:

Induced 1/3 can from a glass container via a vacuum hose to a spare intake manifold vacuum port with the engine idling.  This part is tricky because you need to get it in quickly but not stall the engine:

Switch off the engine right after it all gets sucked in.

Poured the remaining 1/3 can into the crankcase to mix with the oil:

Let it all sit for 10 minutes, then started the engine and hoped the neighbors didn’t call the fire department.  It blows out an impressive cloud of smoke which is all the crud that was built up inside the engine and intake.

Drove the car around a bit to warm the engine and get things circulating and burning junk out the exhaust at high RPMs (low gear).  Oil needs to be changed before driving too many miles since a lot of sludge may be knocked loose.

#34 Throttle Body Cleaning

Before injecting Seafoam engine cleaner into the intake manifold, I wanted to clean the throttle body butterfly plate.  To access this you have to remove the throttle pulley cover and main hose from the air cleaner box.

Used ordinary TB spray cleaner for this and washed out as much gummy residue as I could.

Before:

After:

Also removed the idle air control (IAC) valve and sprayed a lot of cleaner in both sides to clear it out.  Maybe engine idle will improve a bit with cleaner air passages.

Seafoam treatment should help further clean the throttle body and IAC valve.

Approx. $4 spray cleaner

#33 Flame Trap

Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) is an important feature of all car engines.  Volvo has an unusual (but not unique) PCV system which involves an oil separator under the intake manifold (for all models) and a flame trap near the throttle body (for normally aspirated = non-turbo models like this).

Volvo PCV systems have a tendency to clog up easily if oil is not changed regularly.  One sign of this is smoke coming from the dipstick and oil leaks at the fill cap, camshaft seals, or (worst of all) main seal at the crankshaft output.

This car has light smoke but no measurable pressure at the dipstick so it seems as though the oil separator and hoses aren’t too clogged up.  But the flame trap is always suspect so removed the flame trap screen and found it fairly clogged with globs of oil and bits of solid crud:

Disassembled and cleaned all the separate parts of the flame trap assembly well using throttle cleaner, toothbrushes and toothpicks.

Sealing o-ring was OK so didn’t need to be replaced.  Seafoam treatment may also help clear out the entire PCV system a bit.

Many experienced owners say to just remove the flame trap screen since Volvo reportedly stopped including it in 1998.  But I’m content to just clean the flame trap and re-install it.  Needs to be cleaned about once per year and is not hard to do.

One other issue with the flame trap on this car is that the original hose to the intake manifold vacuum tree was gone and had been replaced with an oversized soft rubber tube which had holes worn in it and did not fit tightly at either end.

Replaced this vacuum line with proper Volvo parts.

#32 Throttle Pulley Cover

There is a big plastic cover over the throttle pulley, held in place by a single screw.

The original sheet metal screw had been replaced by some fine thread machine screw somewhere along the way.  It was undersized so wasn’t holding the cover on securely, not to mention looked wrong.

Ordered a new screw and installed the cover properly.  Had to re-form the proper threads just a bit after having the wrong screw installed previously.

Much better now:

Wrong screw and correct screw shown laying on top for comparison.

$0.41

Engine Cleaning/Degreasing

Since I’ll be doing a lot of work around the engine now, I thought it would be smart to clean it up a bit.  Used two applications of chemical engine cleaner/degreaser to knock down the level of grime.

Not as nice as a professional steam clean, but got a lot of the surface oil and dirt off so I won’t pick as much up on my hands, arms and clothes when I’m wrenching away.

$4.34