Hey guys, I inadvertently clicked on link that took me to another volvo site and found something that I have not read here, as far as i can remember. At the bottom of the airbox, there are two inlets, one for the "cold" air coming from behind the top of the front grille and another sucking hot air from the exhaust manifold. There is a damper that is controlled by a "thermostat" that closes and opens that damper depending on temperature. It seems to go out and foul your maf sensor in the process.

Well, being that I have NEVER gotten good gas mileage on this little engine(NA), i went ahead and took an early lunch. Gosh, it only took me 15 minutes to pull off the airbox from the car and take off this inlet piece, two plastic retaining clips, one inside the box and one outside on the underside take it off the main lower intake box/airfilter holder. guess what, mine was in the CLOSED/Hot air only position even though I had made a lunch run before getting my hands dirty. It should have opened up. so, as instructed and from my own personal knowledge, I went ahead and took it apart. unscrewed the 3 phillips screws holding it together and took that smallish piece apart and took out the thermostat and damper assy. I had a 4" wood screw with a 3/8" hex head in my tool box that worked perfect to keep the damper in the open position(cold air only). from my experience, this will only affect your catalytic converter if you live in cold weather. I live in Houston, so cold weather is pretty much a rare occurrence.

I put it all back together and viola, done! With time to spare during my lunch, I hit the freeway and was thoroughly impressed. Even in economy mode, the auto tranny took off quicker from dead stop and when merging on the freeway. Sport mode really felt the way I had expected when I first got thecar. Now I hope the knocking stops during rush hour stop and go traffic...knock on wood. Replacement iridium plugs, cap, rotor and wires have not fixed this...

 

Cool one day I will try it as well.

 

after further reading, this is a feature on NA engines only. It appears that turbo's do not have this thermostat/damper assy on the airbox...so, if you have a NA 850/S70, check it out. dont make me a liar

 

Good find!!

 

wow, im effortlessly driving 80mph now with tranny in econ mode...and the other update, NO MORE PINGING!!! Every day on my way home, I have to cross an overpass from a dead stop and unless I floored it, the engine ALWAYS pings...[:@] Yesterday on my way home, NO PINGING!!!!!!

 

No matter what you're working on, there's no feeling like a low-buck/no-buck fix that really makes a difference.

 

yep, that is how I felt yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow...

 

everything continues to work great, related to this FREE FIX.

 

i live in maryland where we get all kinds of weather, what kind of dammage could i do if i were to fix mine to the cold air posistion?

 

ok so i looked at this so called thermostat to the airbox, and when i looked at it the door was closed to the cold air intake side of the box. so i wegded the spring in back far enough so that only the cold air intake side was open. but when i started my car my check engine light came on (which had not been on prior), is this because of what i did to the air intake system? other than that is runs fine.

if anyone could clear anything up that would be great, i'm hoping this will help my fuel economy a little bit

 

anyone

 

I don't know about the CEL. I had bad thermostats on both of my 850s ('94 and '96). I jammed them open and got an increase in power and an increase in mileage with no CEL. Dump the codes, clear the codes,and see what comes back.

You will in no way hurt the car to drive with the thermostat jammed to the cold air side. The only thing I have noticed is that, on the coldest Kansas City day it takes an extra 1/4 mile or so to come up to full temperature.

I can live with that!

...Lee

 

I agree with Lee, mine did not cause anynew codes to appear. clear them out and see what happens. dont forget, all cars are meant to run on cold air, not hot/heated air...

 

how do you clear the codes? i don't have a reader btw


i can def. tell some improvement in how it runs, i'm not too worried about the check engine light i'm ready for this damn thing to blow up haha

i'm only 17 and this has been my first car so far i've done
-put on a new door (after it got hit by a trash truck parked) swaping out everything and i mean everything the scrap door didn't even have a window...i never knew so many pieces went into a door
-put in a new radiator after it cracked twice after i patched the first one
-replaced my pcv system
-replaced my heater core and evaporator after my thermostat stuck causing the core to crack leaving me with puddles of coolant in my rear floor boards
-replaced the right side mirror after someone nailed it in a parking lot
-replaced the molding strips on the top because they dried up and chipped away
-replaced the expansion tank after it cracked
-new thermostat
-new tail light
-new tires all the way around
-new brakes in the back
-my trans line blew out leaving me stuck on the side of the road

i'm sure theres more, all of this was done by me with the help of my dad

my rear main leaks,my odometer is broken,and i need new cv boots and axels up front, not to mention my gas tank has a leak up high somewhere ( i only fill it up half way) i just havent had the chance to look at it in this ***** cold weather

man i love my volvo box

 

You need to buy a code reader! Short of buying the really expensive Volvo Scan Tools they are all basically the same. I bought one for around $40.00 at Harbor Freight and it works fine on my son's '96. It is also very simple to use, it only has two buttons, read and erase.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94168


...Lee

 

just go to autozone and have them read and clear the codes for you, free of charge...