'96 850 GLT Wagon: How to fix loose fuel tank heat shield

[s2zeller]

My daughter noticed that the wagon started to have a buzz/rattle at low idle.

One of the causes was the rear license plate being secured by only 3 bolts, leaving the 4th corner to resonate nicely against the hatch.

Since the problem didn't completely go away, I looked under the car and - sure enough - the rear bolt (?... whatever it was has pretty much rusted into a largely unidentifiable glob) attaching the heat shield to the tank had given out.

There is no gas leaking, just the loose heat shield with no obvious way to secure it (tho' I'm looking at it after a 17-hour day so I could have missed something).

Tank recall work was done in August, 2005. However, the dealer that did the work was later found to be wanting in their ability to follow directions, so I really wouldn't be surprised if they managed to do something wrong with this.

So, anyone have an easy fix for this?

[scot850]

I'm not sure where you are talking about. Can you post a picture of it and give us some reference to work with so they guys can give you a few suggestions.

Looking at Vida (parts system) the only heat-shields I could find near the fuel tank in a wagon they call protection plates and there are 2.

Neil.

[s2zeller]

As requested (taken from the rear of the car; driver's side of center):

850LowerRear.jpg (75.79 KiB) Viewed 1863 times

Close-up:

850LowerRearCloseUpOfDetachedHeatShield.jpg (49.74 KiB) Viewed 1863 times

[scot850]

Those are what Volvo call protection plates rather than heatshields, but now I know what you mean.

2 options:

1) Buy a new one (expensive). This has 2 part #'s depending on chassis # (so check) 3531411 ( up to chassis 37642) or 9470378 37643 on for wagons.

2) Try and remove the bolt/screw/whatever, and then sandwich the plate on both sides with a large flat washer. I have had to do this with many of the aluminum heatshield/protection plates under my cars as the rot around the mounting points. I actually use an epoxy to glue the washers in place once they are tightened down.

Volvo lists a 6 point socket screw part # 986061 x 4 off and washer part # 986498 x 4 off.

Neil.

[Teddy1975]

It's only attached to the fuel tank by that one bolt that is rusted.

To fix it the right way would probably involve a lot of work, like either removing the exhaust pipe or fuel tank to get enough room to work in and try to get the half of the bolt out of the fuel tank.

My suggestion would be to take out the heat shield, remove rust to bare metal on both heat shield and end of the bolt stuck in fuel tank. Epoxy the heat shield back onto the fuel tank with epoxy graded for high temps.

/Teddy

[s2zeller]

The gluing it down idea is what I was thinking, but I wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something easy.

Good thing I have a long weekend coming up!