Volvo Performance Repairs And Modifications

Published on January 31, 2011 by Mr. Winkey

Now pry out the plastic covers on the end of the rubber tubes and you will find 2 bolts/slides holding the caliper to the bracket remove both of your 7mm allen(socket) caliper slide bolts. Just like the front brakes. With the slides now removed lift the caliper off the rotor. If you have a rust ridge on the rotor (you should check the rotor with a micrometer for proper spec and make sure it's not undersize. Min. spec is 8.5mm) I use a flatblade screwdriver and slide it between the outer pad and the rotor pulling outward on the screwdriver inturn compressing the caliper piston a bit as shown below.

205/55/16's on an 850

Published on January 31, 2011 by Volvospeed

This is typical of what you might expect if you opt to run 205/55/16's on your 850 Volvo. These pictures were taken after only a few thousand miles. The car is fitted with the Volvos Sport R suspension. No other suspension modifications were present on the car. Below are a few other pictures.

Published on January 31, 2011 by Volvospeed

The tire shown above is a 205/45/ZR17 88w. 205 is the width of the tire in millimeters. The next number is the aspect ratio. In this case 45 represents that the side of the tire is equal 45 % of the width. 205mm x .45 = 92.25mm, or about 3.63 inches. A popular misconception is that sports cars have lower profile tires than what is used by Volvo. In many cases this is not true. Take a Corvette for example. The common tire size is 275/40/ZR17. The aspect ratio is lower but the tire is also much wider. 275mm x .40 = 110mm or about 4.33 inches. This is a full 7/10's more sidewall. The next number on a tire sidewall is proceeded by two letters. The first of the letters will be the speed rating, explained later. The second, usually R, represents that the tire is radial. The following number is the rims diameter. The final number is the load rating. In this case 88w.

FWD Bearing Hub

Published on January 30, 2011 by Bay13

The front wheel bearings on the FWD Volvo are refered to as a bearing hub. To replace a bad unit you can't do just the wheel bearing, the replacement part comes with the hub and the sealed bearing. Some clues that you might have a bad front wheel bearing include, a noise that increases with speed and is related to tire/vechicle speed. Usually when the bearing starts to go bad, the noise starts at 35-40 MPH, however you could hear it at slower speeds. It is often hard to tell which side the noise is from. You help to narrow down which side by loading the bearing, to do this turn the steering wheel left or right while the noise is heard, it doesn't have to be a hard right or left. Say you turn or lightly jerk the wheel to the right and the noise gets weaker, but when turning left the noise gets louder, then the right side bearing would be the source of the noise. By turning left you put more load on the right front wheel. When replacing the bearing hub you will need a bearing hub "Kit".