A/C clutches are magnetic. So when power is on, the magnet is on, and this attracts the part of the clutch that moves over and it hits the face of the pulley. So this will engage and the compressor will be running.


The main reason the compressor stops is freeze protection. This is necessary because of the variations in engine speed in a car and the use of outside air about all the time, so as far as I know all cars are this way. If it ran flat out, it would freeze water in the evaporator until it is fully blocked.


On the 850, there is a low pressure switch that does the commanding for this. The pressure is a proxy for temperature. Almost all cars are this way, so evidently the pressure measurement must be a lot cheaper or more practical than direct temperature measurement. When all the refrigerant leaks out, the compressor won't run because of this switch.


I don't think low refrigerant will cause the ECC lights to flash but you be the judge on that.


As far as the extra cars go, the 98's are a lot easier to troubleshoot, but if you get the 03, you could still get tools to talk to the computers and probably survive. I would much prefer the T5 as it's lower miles and also more serviceable. The interior of the 98's has a variety of plastic problems, though.

 

Maybe thats what they (the mechanics I've talked to in the past) meant by pressure driven clutches then...truth be told, outside of charging the system or swapping parts/diagnosing blown compressors, my knowledge of HVAC is pretty limited...

Kind of leaning towards the 98 honestly. Carfax shows it was in 1 accident with a sign pole and another vehicle back in 2009, but was fixed by a Volvo dealership...It really is low miles and is in absolutely gorgeous shape...Asking price is just shy of $3k, and if I finance it I suspect I'd have it out the door for just shy of $4k by the time its paid off...

From what I can tell, its definitely worth it. Southern car (spent most of its life in MD) and dealer maintained by Bill Kidds Volvo for most of its life. Carfax has detailed records of all that was replaced/services done.

Its my understanding though that it has the 15G turbo on it since its an automatic? My 16T from the 850 should swap over, as well as my BSR stage 3 tune (its my understanding the former owner of the 850 bought this used from a V70 part out on one of the forums) and my OBX 3" exhaust also (with a minor change over of the cat converter to an OBDII compliant high flow)... Which would put me on par with the power the 850 is putting out now...

May have to put in an app for the financing and see what happens...drive that daily and keep the 850 as a track/weekend toy...

 

Second drain and fill on the transmission is done. That BG Quick Clean really did a great job...Popped the plug and the new fluid from the first drain and fill came out looking like a blueberry smoothie (dark milky purple). Either that or I have a hole in my transmission cooler that is letting coolant into the ATF (assuming the cooler is internally mounted in the radiator). Doubtful of the latter, seeing as my coolant level hasn't dropped since I topped it off 2 weeks ago after doing the hoses and reservoir tank.

I'll run her for another 100 miles, then do the final drain and fill with a can of BG ATC conditioner in the oil. Considering the idea of getting another 3 gal tote of ATF and running her another 2-3 rounds to make sure I get as much of the cleaner out of the transmission as possible to avoid breaking down the fluid or knocking anything loose while driving.

So far in 2 passes she's looking pretty good on the dipstick/white cloth test. Dark red as expected. Haven't taken her out for a drive yet since putting the second round of fluid in, we'll see how she shifts today when I run over to see my cousin about putting the new brake lines and suspension parts on.

 

Got the 'Wagen out for a drive today, and I must say this...The new tranny fluid has made a HUUUGE difference. Still a small shudder between 2-3 shifts but holy crap will she wind up the tires and spin easier than she did before at 1/2 throttle.

Went out tonight to try and tackle my rear brake lines. That's going to be a job best left to professionals... May have to replace/reflare the line running from the left rear wheel up, the fitting is pretty seized up and slightly rounded over. Hit everything on both sides with a heavy soaking of PB Blaster, we'll see if that breaks anything loose. Worse case scenario, if I decide to tackle it myself I'll break out my little butane torch and give it a bit of heat. My luck I'll boil the fluid in the lines and explode (yet another) brake hose LOL (they tend to pop and sound like a small caliber gunshot when they explode )

The rear stainless steel Stoptech lines look like they will fit, albeit a bit longer than stock rubber hoses. I may have some trouble with the right rear, it may be a bit too long...

Probably tackle the front lines first on Friday morning before my dentist appointment and leave the rears for my cousin to do next week. While I'm under there I may do my lower turbo coolant return line to get it out of the way, then its down to the top one as well as the lower hose from the reservoir, and I'll flush and fill the system on Sunday.

The evening wasn't a total wash though. While I was under there I did manage to find some rubber fuel line coming off the tank into a check valve behind the fuel filter that was broken/rotted away. A quick trip to Advance auto for some 1/4" fuel line and worm clamps, and all is well. Had to replace both sides, so hopefully that will fix one of my fuel leak issues. Still suspect the vent hose on top the tank or the fill neck gasket is shot, we'll see on Friday when I fill the tank up all the way if it still leaks.

 

New stainless steel front brake lines went on tonight. Pretty straightforward for the most part. Passenger side one broke free pretty easily on both ends, driver side not so much. Broke the hard line free from the rubber line ok, but the caliper end was seized up and ended up rounding over. If it weren't for my cousin living next door, and having a set of large channel locks, I probably would've screwed around with it half the night til I finally cracked and got the torch out...Install went smoothly, lines are just the right length, a tad bit longer than the factory rubber ones, but thats not a real concern. Cracked the bleeders open a bit afterwards to let it gravity bleed, will do a full bleed procedure tomorrow evening when I can get a helper to pump the pedal.

Only real complaint I have is that every damn flare fitting on the car is 11mm, and of course its the one flare nut wrench size I don't have

For anyone thinking of doing this themselves, one thing I want to note: Make ABSOLUTELY sure your bleeder screws break free before removing the lines. I cannot stress this enough. My driver side one took half a can of PB Blaster to get it to break free. I opted to back them in and out a bit then remove them entirely from the calipers to rethread them. I may be replacing the driver side caliper in the near future, the amount of rusty fluid that came pouring out was a bit unnerving. Not to mention that side has been squealing lately, although I suspect that to be from overtightened lug studs (last shop torqued them to 100 ft-lb)

 

Not much to report for today. Got the AC working again, added a can of R134 and the compressor kicked in. If I plan on driving her much though (and using the AC) I definitely need to get that serpentine belt and tensioner replaced ASAP. As soon as the compressor kicked on I could hear the belt tensioner tapping as the clutch kicked in. Not good. Last thing I need is to throw a belt somewhere from a failed tensioner and lose battery. The last belt tensioner that blew on me mid drive left me stranded in the bottom of a canyon 30 miles from the nearest city in Oregon, holding a sign for a ride at 11 pm, so needless to say I learned my lesson there

Its on the list of things to do. Waiting on my foam core mats to show up by next saturday, then I'll get the carpet back in the car. Need to pull the padding from the front floor pans and let it air out/dry in the sun. Still some moisture under them. May pick up a few cans of rubberized undercoating to spray down in the floor pans before I lay the sound deadening mats...Haven't decided yet.

 

Transmission fluid changed today. Finally finished. She looks good now, nice dark red color. Conditioner in, we'll see how well it helps.

Took the car over to the car wash this morning as well, mainly to vacuum and scrub the new carpeting. Pulled the foam padding out of the front floor pans, there is/was definitely a coolant leak somewhere (suspect the heater core). The foam is absolutely soaked thru with coolant. Have the pads sitting in the sun right now to try and dry them out best I can, but I may never get all of that coolant out of them. May require a trip to the car wash again to pressure wash everything and run the vacuum over it after, then an afternoon in the sun to dry.

After giving her 2 washes thru the auto wash, she looks pretty good. I'll have to get the clay bar out and some wax, but surprisingly the paint is in pretty good shape. I think she'll shine up nicely. Also ran a good bead of silicone around the sunroof gasket last night, no more leaks in the roof as far as I can tell. I did find one leak in the driver door window gasket at the top, but its only 2-3 small drips. Could have been that my window wasn't sitting right in the frame, it does give me some trouble with the sliding block on the regulator at times when rolling up (slips forward out of the rear of the door and noses down).

Waiting for the car to cool down now from the tranny service so I can drop the lower coolant hose from the turbo and get that changed over. From there its down to getting the new thermostat next week, 6 gallons of distilled water, and 2 gallons of concentrate antifreeze to do the system flush. Once thats all finished, I'll get the heater core ordered and installed, then do the sound deadening of the floor pans and reinstall the carpet. Also have to do the serpentine belt and tensioner once it arrives, and finish up the rear brake lines, bleed/flush brake fluid, and install the front end parts (tie rods) and I'll be done with major maintenance for awhile.

 

Lower turbo coolant line replaced tonight. What a pain in the **** that is while the car is on jack stands...Not doing that again.

Thermostat removed (without rounding out the torx bolts), system drained and ready to flush, snapped off the radiator drain valve :doh:

Looks like the Volvo is off the road again this week until I get the new valve (unless my cousin has good luck welding the old one back together with his plastic welder...temporary fix even then...but if it allows me to finish the flush while I wait on a new drain valve...)

Just goes to show, the easiest jobs are never so easy...

 

Oh Wanderwagen, how I absolutely despise you right now. Let me count the ways....

Started to tackle my tie rods yesterday. Started out smoothly and quickly turned into one big old F***ing NIGHTMARE!

Broke the castle nut free on both sides, no problem at all. Quickly found that I didn't have a wrench large enough to break the jam nut free from the outer tie rod. So I proceeded to purchase a shiny new Craftsman 22mm from work today, figuring "Ok, I'll go home and break everything free, pull the boots off, and worry about breaking the inner tie rods free on Friday". Boy was I wrong...

Managed to break things free all right...Passenger side I got the outer tie rod off, but the jam nut is rusted fast and wont move at all. I can't get the inner tie rod to hold still while I try and heat/PB blaster the jam nut then turn it. The inner tie rod end spins and the flats on it behind the jam nut are rounded over...F**K ME.

So, I move to the driver side. Manage to break the castle nut free again, no problem at all. Ok, on to the jam nut and removal of the outer tie rod end....NOPE! This time, I was able to break the jam nut free, but the outer tie rod end is rusted fast to the inner, and any attempt to turn it results in yet again spinning the inner tie rod end. Sonofa*****!!!!

At this point, I'm ready to get an oxy-acetylene torch and just cut the damn inner tie rods in half, then pull the boots and remove the inner tie rods that way.

Oh, did I mention the boots are still in excellent condition? I'm sure this job would go much, much smoother if I weren't being a cheap *** and refusing to buy new boots over reusing the old ones that are still good...

Anyone have a 25lb sledge hammer and a new windshield laying around? I'm at my wits end here and ready to throw something...

The real pain in the *** of it all? I need to have this stuff done by 6/23 before the insurance drops off of the Mazda so I can get to and from work. The kick in the stones about that? I have 2 days to finish it before I have to leave to go to my moms on the 21st to pick up the new thermostat from the shop that my buddy ordered direct from Hella for me

Someone shoot me already....2 in the back of the head, you'd be doing me a favor and at least I wouldn't see it coming...

On a more positive note, my first roll of sound deadening material arrived today. Oh, and my belt and tensioner will be here by tomorrow night...Yet another thing I'm really looking forward to fixing

 

How good is your selection of vice grips? I have not had much trouble with rust on these, but of course the inner tie rod ends in a totally free-spinning ball joint. You have to hold it.

 

Not very good lol.

My cousin is supposed to be bringing tools to help get these off. From there it should be a cinch. Told him to bring the oxy torch home and we'll just cut em off lol. I tell ya this much though, upon reassembly, the outer tie rod ends are getting a thorough coat of hi temp anti seize

Finished up the cooling system. Still need to get the new thermostat on Tuesday and put it in, and reorder the heater core. So I'll be draining the system again anyhow...Probably wouldn't hurt though, when I refilled the system it only took about a gallon of 50/50 mix after running straight water thru the system and opening both drain valves...suspect theres still about 3 qts left in the heater core...

Its definitely a lot cleaner now...

Also got my first batch of sound deadening material, thats a project I'm going to shelve for a bit. Went out this morning and I still have a leak in the sunroof Its coming from the passenger side rear of the roof assembly itself, right in the corner near the drain. So either something is blocking up the drain itself on the roof assembly or ? Need to pull the glass anyhow when I get the new headliner so I can recover the sunshade, I'll give the drains a good cleaning then...The leaks are a lot better though now after running silicone around the gasket on the glass, its just this one left that I can see...Found a puddle of water in my new carpet

Still waiting for the new belt/tensioner to arrive...Should be here this evening, and hopefully with enough time to get it put in. If not it'll have to wait til Sunday...

Crunch time now, the car has to be back on the road by 6/23. Easier said than done at this point lol

 

...And she's back together with new tie rods installed. Ended up cutting the inner rods off with a cut off wheel and pulling the boots off that way. Slapped the new inners and outers on with the old boots, zip tied the old boots back up in place, eyeballed the toe and away we went. Got the toe set on the driver side pretty close, the passenger side is toe'd out a bit. 2 turns in should get her set good enough to drive until I get an alignment next week. Don't really notice it til highway speeds, once I hit 70 mph she starts to vibrate though. Steering wheel sits a bit off center also, but it did that prior to putting these on, so its on the list.

I need to bleed the power steering now. She's a bit clunky when I'm quick to turn back the opposite way. Noticed after doing the tie rods that the fluid was a bit foamed up...She'll work her way back to normal shortly. Still need to drain and fill the system anyhow. Speaking of power steering, it looks like I will be replacing the rack next time I need tie rods. When my cousin pulled the boot on the passenger side, it had fluid in it. So theres a slight leak in the seals on that side.

Next up: Belt and tensioner, new thermostat, and new plugs/wires/cap/rotor. Then the major stuff is finished and its on to little annoyances and reassembly of the interior.

 

Drove her to work today...Definitely running a lot smoother now, and steering feels a lot tighter. Need to eyeball adjust the passenger front toe, I can see its toe'd out about 2-3 turns and I can definitely feel it when cornering. Feels like that wheel is dragging. I'll get it close enough and get a proper alignment done when I order the new tires soon. Transmission feels stronger on the full throttle pulls, but she still kicks out coming downhill...I'll keep an eye on it for now and if it gets any worse...well, I suppose at that point I may be looking to retire the old gal and use her as a parts car :/

Power steering feels ok now, driving it must have bled the air bubbles out. I'll check the level tomorrow and see where its at and go from there. Still need to suck the old fluid from the reservoir and swap it over to the new synthetic BG fluid. May opt to put some MaxLife high mile with stop leak back in instead of the BG...or just run some stop leak thru the system then "flush" out the old fluid.

Need to go back thru the cooling system and tighten down the hose clamps and bolts again as well. I think the lower return line I replaced may be weeping just a bit. Haven't noticed any change in the level in the overflow tank, but I did see a small puddle this morning under the car when I stopped for coffee...

Got the new belt tensioner assembly today and new belt. Kinda wondering if they sent the right belt, it looks waaay too short. Guess we'll find out when I go to put it all together tomorrow night after work.

Sunday night after work marks the start of putting the carpet back in the car. Hopefully will have it done by the end of next week (if all goes accordingly and I get the rest of the deadening material in the mail before I leave Tuesday night for moms). I'm definitely going to have to replace the head unit soon. I suspect the new speakers are overdriving the internal amp of the factory unit...My front dash speakers keep cutting in and out and my rear speakers seem awfully quiet, even when I bias the sound towards the rear. I may opt to run new wiring entirely once I get the new head unit and add an external amp to drive the dash speakers or the rear speakers (something small/used/cheap from craigslist or ebay to isolate one channel)

Not sure how much more I'll be doing on the car for a bit. Some major "restructuring" going on at work and everyone seems pretty tight lipped about it. I suspect the company has been sold and they are waiting til the end of the quarter to announce it. Which means I'll probably end up with a pay cut by the end of July if thats the case...

 

Tonights update:

F*** you Volvo. I'd rather be covered in honey and raw meat and wrestle a bear than ever change the serpentine belt again

Now that I've said that, here's the scoop:

Got home, managed to get the old belt off and remove the old tensioner, no problem at all. Original idea of using a 1/2" to 3/4" drive adapter on my torque wrench went bust when I found I didnt have enough room to get it in there due to the length added by the adapter (hits the corner of the ecu box). So since I'm cheap (and would rather the car pay me to work on it) I opted to use the 3 quarters in a pair of vice grips method. That went pretty smoothly, all things considered (damn they don't make US coins like they used to...these quarters are pretty mangled LOL).

Old tensioner was definitely on its way out. Spring is about shot. Its loose enough that I can almost work it by hand far enough to put a pin in and lock it in place. Old belt was definitely not factory, and had some cracks in it, but overall wasn't terrible. I'll keep it around in the trunk as a spare.

So, on to reinstall. Got the new tensioner in, bolts tightened down (started to torque them, but opted to stop because I didn't want to shear them off and I'm pretty sure they were starting to twist). Routed the belt and tried the reinstall with the 3 quarters method, new tensioner is slightly larger hole than the factory stamped Volvo tensioner on the car (even though the new one is a Continental). So it was off to the hardware store (lowes) to pick up a 7/16"-14 1" long bolt, a matching nut, and a matching thread square nut at about 10 til closing on a Saturday night. Got the bolt, hex nut, but no square nuts...They don't stock them :wtf:

So that plan went bust. Came home and went back to the drawing board. Managed to make the hex nut and bolt work enough to pull the tensioner all the way back...Couldn't get the belt to stay in place and stretch enough to get it over the idler pulley. *&$^ Me... Wrenches flying everywhere, windshields about to be broken, I'm getting pissed.

Finally said enough is enough at about 10:30 and messaged my cousin. He's bringing the 3/4" breaker bar over tomorrow and and extra pair of hands (because Bob knows all Volvo engineers have 3 hands and we normal people only have 2). So hopefully one of us can hold tension off while the other gets everything lined up and Bob's the word.

Here's hoping...

So ready for all this maintenance crap to be done already so I can move on to the "fun" stuff (reinstalling the interior).

On another note, the air is starting to burp out of the cooling system. Topped her off tonight with about a quart of antifreeze, will have to keep an eye on it over the next few days and take a gallon with me on Tuesday when I leave to drive to moms 200 miles away. New thermostat goes in first thing Wednesday morning, and its off to the junkyard thursday morning to get the rest of the interior parts from the 98 V70 I pulled the carpet from.

Looking forward to figuring out what is wrong with the cruise control also, driving the Mazda lately has reminded me how much I enjoy having it. Haven't tested the column switch yet, nor have I tested the output voltage/resistance of the speed sensor on the tranny...Although I'm wondering if my slipping issue with the transmission may be causing the cruise not to work. I may just have to get used to not having it again and go back to using poor mans cruise control...

 

ECU and its box takes total of 1 minute to remove.

Tool cost $20.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VOLVO-Serpen...150989&vxp=mtr

 

...And I'm done with this car. Removed the ecu box, managed to get my 1/2" to 3/4" drive adapter in with a long bar, promptly proceeded to snap the BRAND NEW Continental tensioner. So, now it'll be another 2 weeks before I can get the damn car back on the road. Thanks Rock Auto for selling me a defective tensioner assembly (and quite possibly a belt thats too short, even though its listed as the "revised routing" belt)

F*** this. I've had enough of this car. Anyone want to come take it off my hands? I'll sell for a decent price, enough for a down payment on the 98 V70...

Went so far as to try and reinstall the old tensioner and new belt (using revised routing) and the damn belt wont even go on. Tried reinstalling the old belt...And no luck.

Flashlight went flying, new belt ended up 2 yards over, 1/2" drive torque wrench almost went thru Mazda windshield....Lost my 3/4" adapter somewhere in the yard with half a dozen other tools...

At this point I'd rather deal with my ex girlfriend than this damn car. At least she put out...

 

Instead of getting upset, try to figure out why you can't put the belt on. It came off, so it must go back on. I like to slide the last portion of the belt over the a/c compressor, but I also have the belt tool.

98 V70 will have the same engine setup, same belt tensioner and more complicated stuff than the 95.

I'd go to a junkyard, and bring a 12mm socket, short extension, and racket and get a good tensioner off a car.

 

Personally I've never been able to get a 3/4 adapter with a 1/2" power handle into that thing. I am going to have to make a tensioner tool, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I have been rolling it around with a big pipe wrench that belonged to my grandfather.


I am not sure which routing for that belt is considered "alternative" but it sounds like you need whichever one is sorter...

 

It wasn't easy. I had to remove both the ECU and TCU, take the top and middle of the box off, then remove the rear bolt and slide the bottom portion out of the way about 1" to make room for the adapter/handle.

The alternate ("revised") routing is crank to AC, over the AC and alternator, under the idler pulley, over the power steering, and under the tensioner assembly. Supposely puts more grip on the alternator pulley vs the original early routing.

Its also my understanding that one can switch between early and revised routing without anything more than buying the longer/shorter belt. It looks as though the old belt is the shorter (early routing) style. I would prefer to run the late(revised) style.

The only thing I can think of that is holding me up with the new belt is that its a 6pk1754 part number, vs a 6pk1755 part number. Going by belt part numbers and what they stand for, this new belt that I have is 1mm shorter than what it calls for, but honestly that 1mm shouldn't be an issue and shouldn't cause reinstall problems. I suspect it may be the size of the idler pulley causing the problem, but I have no way of testing this without buying a new idler pulley (which is on the list but has to take a backburner for awhile).

From what I can tell, this is the original belt routing: Volvo 850 drive belt routing

And this is the revised routing (with longer belt): http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...ic.php?t=38853

Installing following these instructions here (using revised routing) http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...hp?f=1&t=60913

Not really upset, more frustrated that a simple task that I've done many times before with no troubles with many other vehicles is such a pain in the *** with this car, leaving it sit in the driveway at the worst possible timing. Murphy's law I suppose? Karma at its finest? I'll leave you to be the judge of that...

Still can't believe that brand new tensioner snapped. Called Rock Auto first thing this morning, they issued a return label and said that as soon as it gets scanned in at Fed Ex they'll issue a refund and I can reorder a new one...This time it should come from a closer warehouse, so I won't have to wait another 2 weeks to get it...

 

Bummer on the failed part. We've all had that happen (or worse you get sent the wrong part and you can't figure out why it doesn't fit...) Curious why you decided to replace the drive belt tensioner. Another option is to simply source the idler (assuming the tensioner spring is good). I just did the belts on my 95 - the IPD tool worked great - simply slip in, turn clockwise until the pin hole lines up - slip in the clip and then remove the belt starting with the idler next to the tensioner. What we need is a tool rental/loaner/swap sticky on the board for these special needs. Keep postin', great stuff here.