850R - Better and Brighter Tail Light Installation

The greatest enemy when working on an older car is time itself. Over time things like rubber and plastic degrade due to exposure to the elements, its just something you cant control. I ran into this issue originally when removing the new taillights that we had purchased from LKQ Greensboro. The 850 Estate that I removed them from had dry, cracking, rear trim. I had hoped that this was a isolated case, but when I went to install the new lights on the 850R I found that the rear plastic on our car was also in a sad state of brittleness. This discovery did not hamper the installation, however I had to take extra care to remove the panel clips and make sure the plastic wasn't being stressed. Unfortunately in this installation I ended up cracking one of the rear speaker grilles.

Removal and installation of the tail lights is a simple process, needing only an 8mm socket, and extension, a small ratchet, and some thin hands. The upper light pieces are very easy to remove, as both of the 8mm bolts are unobstructed by any trim panels or wires, and this piece can be removed only be removing the rear tweeter cover.

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The D pillar cleaned up after removing the upper light assembally.

On the 850 wagon the lower tail light assembly is where the real fun stuff is. To get the the bolts holding the lower section, almost all of the trim pieces around the rear hatch need to be moved. On the drivers side I had a much easier time with this process as many of the clips were already broken or moved already. (I am assuming this is from one of the many rear repairs done by the dealer at some point). To get to these bolts you will certainly need a ratchet extension and some thin hands. Almost all of these bolts you will need to put on and off using your hand so that they do not fall down into the abyss below the light assembly. To make matter worse, the light harness that comes out has a much shorter loom length than the upper light, making it much harder to move it out of the way when trying to grab a bolt.

The new light with the red corner piece installed vs the old piece.

The lower light removed from the drivers side. A lot of junk has built up behind these over the years!

One thing I have to say is that being able to work on a junkyard car before your own is a great learning experience. This process is pretty straight forward, but knowing what tools I needed, and how the lights were attached before hand took out any guess work I had to do when swapping the housings out. The passenger side took me a bit more time as one of the panels that I easily removed on the drivers side was being very stubborn and required me to blindly undo a bolt using my hand instead of the socket. For this job I really recommend that you purchase a magnet-snake tool that can grab any bolts that may fall down into the car during this project.

A comparison shot: new on the left, old on the right.

Overall the project took less than an hour. Even someone with little mechanical skill can get this done. Unfortunately by the time I finished it was already getting dark so the final shots do not accurately show the progression from old to new.

As a note, I would like to mention this will probably be the last update on the 850R until January when Steve and I return from our college winter break. Hopefully then we will be able to work on installing the exhaust as well as the new intake manifold. Do worry though, updates on my personal vehicle (my 2012 S60 R Design) will still be coming over the break. Have a happy holidays!

S60R - Holiday Charity Laps at Virginia International Raceway

While the United States may not have a track that is easily open to the public like the infamous tourist days at Germany's Nurburgring, it is still nice to be able to take you car to a track every so often and really scratch that itch for performance driving that road cruises never will. Every year Virginia International Raceway does charity laps where in they allow you to pay a one time entrance fee (donation) to run on the track in a group of around 30-40 cars. All of the proceeds from this event go to benefit charities such as Toys for Tots this holiday season. While they do not let you fully track your car, the speeds dictated by the pace car are more than enough to put some serious stress on your cars without risking a crash or spinoff. The way I explain it to people is that these events are more of a glorified Cars and Coffee, with a nice track driving portion to look forward to. While cruising to the event with Andrew in his G37S we happened upon a brand new Aston Martin DB11 that was also heading to the event and ended up adding him and his co-worker to our run group that day.

My car set up in the paddock.

While the run went fine, I found myself holding back due to the limitations of my Pilot Sports having lots of wear. Afterwards I also feel like the stock Volvo brakes just aren't up to snuff for hardcore driving. Its hard to say how the car would have done just because of the wear I have put on it in the past year. I wouldn't be surprised if I need new pads and rotors some time soon.

850R - Junkyard Pulls for Performance & New Rear Lights

As the weather in North Carolina has started its harsh descent into winter, progress has gotten slower on the 850R. Many of the projects still left on the car are either too time consuming, or require a professionals touch (like the interior headliner). We have started working on acquiring parts for a performance upgrade that should give the 850R a bit more power. This process involves using an intake manifold from a naturally aspirated 850, and the throttle body off of a 960. As luck would have it, our local LKQ had both of these cars in (well actually we already knew that from when we had to get the new caliper). Removing the parts was easy, and while Steve and Andrew set about on removing the intake from the 850 wagon, I began the process of removing the tail lights to replace the old, beaten, faded tail lights currently installed on our 850R.

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The rear of the 855 after removing the tail lights.

Removing the intake from the 850 was a standard affair, and while I did not take part in the removal, the process only took about 20-30 minutes. The use of an extremely lengthened wrench was needed to remove some trick bolts, however with the tool kits we brought along we had no issue getting each bolt out.

The naturally aspirated 850 features a larger, higher bore, intake manifold allowing for better airflow over the stock turbo intake manifold.

Working on removing the pieces around the intake manifold for removal.

Our haul of parts from the 850. We are also able to take the ECUs from the engine bay.

With all the parts collected, we moved on to the Volvo 960 that was also in the yard. Thankfully for us the car was only 1 row over, and was almost completely untouched. On this car the only part that we needed was the throttle body. The throttle body from the 960s 6cyl engine has a larger diameter inlet, and will allow us to increase airflow. This increase in air flow from both the new throttle body and intake manifold will create a good starting point for a performance tune on our 850Rs engine. The one down side of this modification will be the need to have the car dyno tuned to properly match the air/fuel ratio. If we can not achieve this, expect to see these parts in the Volvo Parts section of the website!

Steve and Andrew working on removing the throttle body from the 960. 

With the warm patch of weather we should be able to install the new tail lights and interior trim pieces. Stay tuned as we continue to build and work on this amazing project!

S60R - Scheduled maintenance.....yawn.

So I had planned on doing a write up on Friday detailing the process of removing my spacers as well as getting a resonator delete, however plans fell through at the exhaust shop. However, yesterday I did bring my S60 R Design in for its scheduled 75,000 mile service. While the car is at 78,000 miles now, I figured better late than never. I am slightly annoyed that my home shop (in New Jersey) failed to take note that the car needed this service 2 months ago when I went in for an oil change. For the service it got a standard oil change, new spark plugs, a balance and alignment. The one issue that they found during their inspection was oil leaking from one of the vacuum lines. While I am not worried now, especially since it was covered under CPO, I think that this issue should be monitored by other P3 T6 owners as their cars get into higher mileage. The the credit of the car, I have put close to 20,000 miles on in the past year, and this is the first time I have had any mechanical issue pop up. While I do not know who currently has the record for highest mileage on a P3 T6, I am excited to slowly make my way towards 100k and beyond.

850R - Stage 0 Dreams Pt. 1

After a lot of swearing, cursing, and collective problem solving the 850R went back on the road today. The progress towards fully stock, aka Stage 0, has made many leaps and bounds in the past few days. On both sides of the car we have installed brand new sway bar end links, control arms, tie rods, stainless steel brake lines, rotors, and pads. The final piece that we competed was flushing all the brake fluid, which was something that should have been done a long time ago. The brake fluid in the lines was so full of particulate that the initial pumps sent out a jelly like substance before any sort of fluid. We also discovered a flaw in the 850s stock brake lines (a common issue as mentioned on the forums), they had built up so much pressure, and were caked with so much road grime that they were fully fused to the brake hard-line. Luckily, like the bolts on the passenger side, we were also to use the Dremel to cut the lines and remove them for the new steel brake lines. It is also worth mentioning the CV axle was re-installed as well, as has worked great.

A shot of the new Brembo discs, along with the stainless steel hard-lines and new hadware installed.

What wheel cleaning fluid and steel wool can do to remove road grime and splattered axle grease. Unfortunately the Pegasus wheels we have still need major repairs for the curb rash that they have developed over time.

A shot of the installed CV axle with the new boots. You can also see the new tie rods and sway bar end links.

With as much as we have completed so far, there is a lot to go. A falling headliner, and a mysterious oil leak still need to be remedied. A fluid flush of the cooling system may be in order, along with new oil. In the more short term, we need an alignment, and plan on getting many more bits and pieces from some donor cars to fix pieces on the interior and exterior.