YOWZA!! Volvo 850 turbo wagon content

So I've had this Volvo 850 turbo wagon for over a year now, and have been working to get it to "stage zero." It's always felt like a turd to me, the acceleration just wasn't what I thought it should be. But the boost gauge said it was boosting, I had done an extended service tuneup, everything seemed like it should be good to go. But a couple weeks ago I was poking around under the hood and found a tear in an intercooler boot. AHA!! I ordered the silicone boots from FCP Groton [see note 1] and installed them last night. HOLY E36 M3. What I thought was hitting boost was actually not. This thing is fast enough to be a problem with front wheel drive. Loads of throttle understeer. And the best part is that it turned what was a "meh" car I wanted to dump into something I'm excited to get out and drive.

Note: DO NOT buy the silicone intercooler boots from FCP. They're horrible. Too small (2" instead of 2.25") and most of the boots have problems ranging from being either too long or the wrong angle. The IAC hose is too short so the IAC motor is now at a funny angle. At least one of the boots is constricted a bit due to flexing from being the wrong angle. I regret not just buying the stock replacement parts. You get what you pay for, but I thought $120 was enough to at least have them fit. Apparently not. It turned a sub-1-hour job into a 4-hour job. I almost gave up three times, and had to take a beer and fuming break 2/3 of the way through. Argh.

I also replaced the messed up front seats with clean junkyard seats and roped my wife into helping me clean it up inside. It looks a thousand times better but still has a thousand nasty squeaks and rattles. Oh well, it is a Volvo after all.

And I know I need pictures. Soon, I promise.

Sounds like you are shopping at my parts supplier. (nothing ever fits for me)

Congrats on finding your lost boost!

When does the boost controller get installed?

As soon as I hit a solid stage zero.. need to get all the kinks worked out before I start modding. The poor thing was neglected for a long time. I got it for free!!

For future reference, you can get any kind of silicone couplers from siliconeintakes.com.

I also used the FCP hoses,yes they are a bastard to install and I've had some trouble keeping them on at stock boost levels.The outside of the hose seems to be slippery enough that they eventually slip free of the clamp.Something to keep an eye on.

My experience with my '95 850 wagon was that the black seats of that era last/wear much better than the tan of the same vintage. I hope if you had tan you replaced with black.
My wagon rear seat rattled. The fix was to make sure the seat fold latch/lock on the right side was well greased. That is, on the back of the seat where the latch is make sure there is a ton of standing grease in the mechanism.

If the rear door rattles a lot, make sure it closes properly by clearing debris out of here and making sure the torx bolts are tight and the striker is as far rearward as possible.

As for the rear door plastic trim, there are clip kits available that help but for me, I found a drill bit and some long, large head sheet metal screws did the trick. Drill straight through the plastic from the interior side and then just slightly into the metal frame. That keeps her in place but still makes it removable if needed.

Kevlar, yep, I'm planning on getting ahold of the stock parts and swapping back to stock if/when these ever come off for service. It sucks that the word isn't out about how bad these are, I feel like I threw away $120.

jrw, thanks! The car came with the medium gray interior and I swapped for black (well, dark gray really) seats from a '99 v70. Minor wiring change to the heated seat connection and swapping over the seat belt latches and wiring and it seems good.

On the rear door, mine rattled pretty bad. I got a striker from the junkyard that was the "improved" design according to MVS. I have it adjusted pretty tight - when it was rearward the door rattled still, but moving the striker forward (toward the front of the car) made the door a bit hard to latch but reduced the rattles. Should I readjust it and figure out another way to stop the rattles?

My back seat squeaks like what you mentioned. I need to get in there with some grease.

-David

On the rear striker: Forward or back; i am just doing this from memory but what I remember most is that it can move and may need to be moved back into place (weather that is fore or aft I am not sure.)

On the rear seat:
Just remember when you fold the seat of the whole grease thing. The metal hoop/bar that remains stationary will be grease covered as well as the mechanism which when folded will now be the load floor.
Fold down the seat, take a grease gun and squirt/fill the mechanism then fold the seat back up into place. Result, less metal on metal rattle of mechanism meeting hoop/bar and other internal metal pieces of mechanism.

Cool. My g/f has decided she wants a late 90's 850/V70 T5 wagon (preferably A/T and FWD) and has been on a war path looking for one.

We're finding it amusing that many of the cars she's finding are 5 spds... and for once, we're looking for an automatic (the other 9 cars in the fleet are all manuals). There's some level of irony there...

dculberson wrote: Kevlar, yep, I'm planning on getting ahold of the stock parts and swapping back to stock if/when these ever come off for service. It sucks that the word isn't out about how bad these are, I feel like I threw away $120. jrw, thanks! The car came with the medium gray interior and I swapped for black (well, dark gray really) seats from a '99 v70. Minor wiring change to the heated seat connection and swapping over the seat belt latches and wiring and it seems good. On the rear door, mine rattled pretty bad. I got a striker from the junkyard that was the "improved" design according to MVS. I have it adjusted pretty tight - when it was rearward the door rattled still, but moving the striker forward (toward the front of the car) made the door a bit hard to latch but reduced the rattles. Should I readjust it and figure out another way to stop the rattles? My back seat squeaks like what you mentioned. I need to get in there with some grease. -David

I don't feel like I threw money away at all,the oem parts are about triple the money and these seem to be staying put after a couple of redo's.

@Kevlar: Well, my alternative was $5 for a junkyard boot, which I wish I had done.

@IanF: Throw one my way! Actually, if you found a nice one I would gladly trade.

I've been wanting to get my 940 turbo wagon to stage zero for a while now so I'm in the same boat. Other than having some suspension work done and regular oil changes, I have't done anything to it. I hear everyone writing things about installing silicone hoses but I don't see the point, especially if the darn things don't fit right.

I've been running for awhile now on stock boost. I read once about a rather sophisticated adjustable boost controller made by SAAB that is supposed to be better than your typical fish tank boost device. One of these days I will do something to get further along, right now I just drive the car 10 mins to work each day so not a lot of opportunity to have fun with it.

dculberson wrote: @Kevlar: Well, my alternative was $5 for a junkyard boot, which I wish I had done. @IanF: Throw one my way! Actually, if you found a nice one I would gladly trade.

Haha,that $5 seems like a good idea untill the 1st time you boost it up and rip the bottom out of the nearly 2 decade old oil soaked rubber boot.