960 sedan 1995 twobar/driving lights

[Kappy5003]

Hi
I'm about to purchase a 1995 960 with about 180,000 KM on the clock.Is there any known issues that I may need to know about. This car belongs to a friend that picked it cheap as the engine was U/S apparently when someone changed the timing belt they didn't change the idler pulley, well it seized and then let go. as you can imaging bent valves and a hole in the piston. Well my my friend is pretty resourceful and repair it. I know he did a good job as I was his labourer.
Couldn't believe the condition of th bores at that mileage. Now I have the opportunity of buying it he's now got a S90.

I need to also fit a tow bar, can anyone are these a bolt on affair to pre drilled mounts or is it a matter of driving hole to allow the fitment.

As I also do a bit of night driving I plan to fit some spot/driving lights, is there anything special about hooking up extra lights to the high beam.?

Also has anyone had any experience or success with fitting Bi Xenon lights to their volvo, are the lenses compatible with this type of lighting?

Thanks in advance, sorry for being a bit long winded.

[billofdurham]

The only major issue with the earlier 960s was a small percentage of them suffered from a porous block. This was on the B6304F engine fitted from '92 to '95 model year. From late '95, '96 model year, the engine was changed to the B6304F2 which didn't have the problem. Check the VIN plate 6th & 7th digits. 95 is the B6304F and 96 is the B6304F2.

A towbar will fit into pre-drilled holes. This has been an industry standard for many years. Some of the holes could have rubber plugs in them to keep out water.

The 960 is fitted with driving lights built into the headlight unit. It also has fog lights in the same unit. If you want to fit more driving lamps they need to be wired through a relay. You may also need to consider a bigger battery and higher output alternator as you will be running 6 lights when on main beam.

You can't just fit bi-xenon bulbs to an existing light unit for the reasons given in this:

Bi-Xenon Headlights refers to HID (High Intensity Discharge) Xenon headlights that offer both low (dipped) and high (main) beam lighting from a dual headlight system (as opposed to a quad headlight system).

A bi-xenon system eliminates the need for a separate halogen high beam bulb/lens by either moving the xenon bulb within the lens or by moving a shield up or down in front of the bulb (depending on the reflector design) to allow light to escape from the lens in a different pattern.

A bi-xenon system typically features dynamic headlight leveling and on some vehicles direction adjustability.

The four lamp Bi - Xenon systems on some cars (BMW for example) use beam deflection on one pair of HID Xenon lamps for main and high beams. The second pair of lamps contain standard halogen bulbs for the headlamp flash function, they are not used in normal running. HID lamps take a few seconds to reach full output and their service life is seriously reduced by flashing on and off, for these reasons they are not currently used for any flash function.

Bill.

[Kappy5003]

Thanks fo all that info.

I guess at 180,000km if the block was purous it may shown by now??

With the additional lights under WA law they have to be wired to the high beam and be capable of being isloated, I was wondering can I hook into the high beem cable or is there anything special I need to do.

I had a Australian made car that when I added additional lights I had to go via the fuse box. Which is diffrent to normal.

Cheers
Wayne

[billofdurham]

The porous block was a problem that Volvo tried to sweep under the carpet. It appeared at different mileages so a high one is not a guarantee that it won't happen. At first it was supposed to be about 10,000 worldwide and was only on the '92 model. This information was later changed to include all years up to '95. The main area to be checking is under the exhaust manifold. It usually materializes as a line of pin holes. Anything other than Volvo Blue, Type C coolant could begin to attack the block alloy with time. This reaction is accelerated as the coolant degrades. Some owners tried various methods of repair and most were unsuccessful. Have a good look in that area for signs of coolant leaks or repairs.

My '91 ('92 model year) 960 did not suffer from this problem and I sold it with 130,000 miles on the clock. A Volvo tech I know never saw one but did know of the problem.

This link shows how to wire the driving lights in accordance with WA and, indeed, UK regulations. When I was into adding extra lights I used this method, leaving the switch on all the time but it was there if I ever needed to switch the driving lights off.

Bill.