What did you do to your Volvo today? Topic is solved

[bmdubya1198]

Is there any way to know if your car originally came with an underbelly cover? From what I see online it seems that it's uncommon.

Also is there supposed to be a cover between the bumper and subframe?

What I did today was use the car to bring stuff to a storage unit and I've discovered that my key doesn't work on the tailgate and passenger side locks. I'm not sure it's a changed barrel because the tailgate turns when the car is unlocked. Are there common jamming issues here or a way it can be reassembled wrong?

Do you mean a full under tray? These P80s never came with one, only the one that covers the radiator, between the bumper and subframe as you mentioned. https://www.partsgeek.com/mjh55hg-volvo ... DwQAvD_BwE

If you scroll down on that page there is another splash shield advertised for 850s by Pro Parts Sweden, but I've never actually seen one on a car. They're out of stock too.

[P80GLT]

Under trays were only fitted to diesel engine cars in Europe, as far as I'm aware there were never fitted to petrol cars. I fitted a used one from a diesel car to my 850 a few years ago, at the time they were still available from Volvo part number 1397236

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[scot850]

The underside of your car is truly amazing! With the crap they spray on the roads here and the poor guys on the eastern side of Canada/US we have little hope of achieving that level of preservation.

I am jealous of the engine undertray. I think they left it off here for better cooling in hot areas so we all got the same no-tray car supply. I recall my 760 and 240's having the undertray and it kept the engine bays so clean. Of course other than 240 diesels from the early 80's we never saw Volvo diesels over here. Mercedes/BMW/VW yes, but not Volvo.

Neil.

[P80GLT]

I really don't buy the 'omitted to keep the car cool' story, all new cars have them fitted and none of them seem to suffer unduly from over heating. The air dam at the front bumper should be more than adequate at keeping the flow of cool air going through the radiator therefore keeping everything within temperature specifications, a little draft on the bottom of the sump isn't going to make much difference at all. More likely it was on diesel cars to cut down on noise, not forgetting in the early 90s when these cars were new very few cars would be fitted with an under tray.

As for the crap that goes on the roads, the west coast of Scotland is notorious for the copious amount of salt they spread every year. My car wasn't always that clean, I spent a lot of time with rags and soapy water to clean it all up.

This is a before and after picture, luckily there was no rust, just a lot of dirt that had built up over 23 years of use on UK roads

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[RedBrickCollector]

Thanks for the info. As far as I'm aware the diesels were never released here. My car is also missing the panel between the bumper and subframe, likely to do with it having a fiberglass copy of an R bumper. Does it install on the same level as the splash shield or is it higher up in the bumper?

Might have something made up instead.

[P80GLT]

The air dam sits about the same height as the under tray. It can be seen in this video afrom2 mins 16 seconds on

[P80GLT]

Nice write up here for the air guide

https://volvo850wagon.wordpress.com/201 ... placement/

[Sveedy]

Installed the new throttle cable today. After watching a couple of YouTube videos, I was expecting this to be an involved hassle, due to the firewall connection. But no exaggeration; I had the whole thing switched out in 10 min. ( It did take another 10 min. to adjust it ).
So what I found that works, is after the easy parts are disconnected from the throttle body / pedal / plug, just manhandle and break the cable free from the firewall connection. Then use a small flat bar to push and pry the rest of the unit out of the firewall. Mine came out without even breaking the white plastic collar. No damage anywhere.

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[scot850]

Well today was the day I finished and put the last storage bin back on the racks sorted and parts identified! So much for my 3-4 days planned for this. Now at well over 4 weeks into the process. Now I have many, many hand-written sheets to transfer into my stock-list spread sheet. This will take a long time with 2 finger typing and dyslexia!

This has turned out to be a much bigger task than I ever thought it would be. Once everything is typed is it then done? Of course not!

I still have parts like some speakers, a LH axle and a few other parts that have not been catalogued as they are not cleaned or if needing done, tested. Problem is my sheets are now so messy it is almost impossible to find stuff on. Getting this into a spreadsheet and my lightweight laptop down to the garage will allow quick number searches to identify where a part need to be put in storage.

It has been driving me nuts I have to say, but also scary how many parts I could identify and place on a (mostly) P80, even less common items.

Tomorrow I will start the typing.................!

Neil.

[RedBrickCollector]

While poking around under the car figuring out the air guide and my plan for a custom undertray, I noticed I have two "ears", thin metal but big holes on the subframe, both of which are hammered up against the subframe. What are these originally for? Doesn't seem to be an issue but part of me is curious while part of me wants to see if it can be bent back I feel it will do more harm than good to the metal and paint if it's not needed.