It was Time for new Tires

One of the most important part of owning any car is the tires you put on it. In the journey of tuning and bettering my Princess, I recently bought new wheels for the Princess. The part that came along with this was buying new tires for it. when deciding on what tires to put on the Princess I chose to go with Kuhmo because it is the brand my family has been trusting on all of our cars. I decided to go with the Kumho Escata ASX because of the ratings on the tires and compared to other tires out there. One of the better parts of the tires is that it has a 30k mile warranty, which I'm hoping to be able to get that kinda milage out of them. The best difference I have noticed in my car was that my handling improved a bit. With that I noticed a great difference in traction on the road, even when the ground is wet. And like most tires in this category that are Z rated. One thing I do like about the tires unlike most of the other tires they are not unidirectional, which in my opinion is a plus since it means you can rotate them more often. I have to recommend these tires to any body out there that is looking for tires in this class, most of the Escatas will fit most other Volvos. When you decided to get new tires, give any of the Kumhos a try.

iPd Garage Sale

One of the largest events for Volvo enthusiast within the United States is the iPd Annual Garage Sale. This year it is May 21^st in the hometown of iPd in Portland Oregon. One of the biggest parts of the Garage Sale is the Car Show, this is where enthusiast from around the country bring their Volvos and show them off to other enthusiast. This is one of my goals with the Princess in the next few years is to bring her with me the first time I am able to attend. 

http://www.ipdusa.com/28th-Annual-ipd-Garage-Sale-2011/blog-147

Next Modification Project

One of my next large modifications that I am going to do to the Princess is to reverse the intercooler. Volvo actually figured out how to do this modification on there own and started applying it to their newer models in the past few years. On the other hand for my car it wasn't there, but iPd actually figured out how to do it on there own and created an entire kit to do this to older models such as mine. Yes, there are other kits out there but the only aftermarket brand I trust the most is iPd since they have been in business the longest and actually test each product that they offer. By installing the kit I will be able to provide to the Princess an extra three pounds of boost. It also will give her increased throttle response and less turbo lag, which can sometimes be a little embarrassing on the road when you go to over take someone. 

http://www.ipdusa.com/Volvo-850/Performance/Reverse-Intercooler-Piping-Kit/p-72-143-1849/

PCV System

For this blog I want to talk about a common problems with the 850 S/V/C/XC/70 is the PCV System but is more commonly know as the Flame Trap System. The reason I want to mention this problem because it is can lead to catastrophic engine failure. Before we replaced the system I was not to the point where it would damage my engine, but it was starting to effect my turbo. One of the better things about PCV is that there are tell tale signs of when it is starting to get clogged and starting to fail. The main symptoms that I noticed was back pressure on the dipstick and a bit of darker smoke coming out of the exhaust. When I had to replace the PCV I chose iPd to get the parts since they offer the entire kit (http://www.ipdusa.com/Volvo-850/Engine/PCV-System/PCV-Turbo-Flame-Trap/p-72-153-849-3936/). Actually replacing the system is a little challenging but in the end your Volvo will run much better.

This will probably be my only rant.

I don't want to sound negative but I am going to go off and a rant today. This has to do with my car, where it involves parking and parking lots. My first question is, why is it so hard to park between the lines. Is it really that difficult? I can only let the excuse of faded lines to the only reason too. It doesn't matter which car I am driving I can managed to do this, and usually within a week I managed to drive four different cars. These cars include a Toyota Highlander, a Nissan Xterra, Jaguar XK8 Convertible and of course my Volvo 850. My biggest pet peeve for parking is parking angled in a space. I am going to say it again, its not that difficult. Is it because people are just lazy or just don't care how they parked and aren't concerned that they might actually be taking more than one spot. Most of the dints and dings in my car are from parking lots. Its not that hard to look around you and try not the hit the car next to you. I think the worst thing someone could do is a “Hit and Run”. The last one that happened to my car was Labor Day weekend at my job. They even went to the extent to get out of there car and look and see if they actually hit me. I could tell because they wiped the dirt off my back bumper. Through my previous experience in parking lots, I think that we need to all try and be a bit more courteous and park between the lines and perpendicular to the lines.

Where did the Wagons go?

What I am writing about today is some what of a tragedy. The other day while I was at the Dallas Auto Show with my father and uncle, we noticed a shockingly low number of wagons that are available on the US market. I was able to count the number on my hands it is that small of a number. The largest shock is that the one company that is known around the world for making wagons, now only offers one version of one model. Since the Volvo V50 was launched back in 2004.5, it has had a good response because it was a small sport wagon that could compete with the VW Jetta wagon. Last year was the last year Volvo offered their larger estate wagon in the states. The V70 was a well built car and had great styling as well, the only reason the third generation sold so few numbers was the lack of options when it came to engine and drivetrain, it was only available in the 3.2L inline 6 cylinder and front wheel drive while in the rest of the world you could get the turbo 6 cylinder and a choice of FWD or AWD.

When Volvo launched the V60 back in October 2010, there was a lot of shock of what volvo created. Enthusiast in the US were really hoping that this new wagon would come to the states since the V70 isn't coming anymore. Due to speculations Volvo said that it would be coming sometime in 2012. While I was at the Auto Show, Volvo informed me that it will not be coming to the US. I think that people in the Volvo enthusiast community need to show Volvo that there is a need for the V60. I think that if there is enough people who want to purchase the V60, we might be able to change the mind of Volvo.

Headlight Review

For this blog I am going to review one of the latest modifications that I have done to my Princess. The mod is the Angel Eye Headlight Conversion Kit (http://www.ipdusa.com/Volvo-850/Lighting-&-Lenses/850-Angel-Eye-Headlamp-Conversion-kits/p-72-106-4799/). Since they have been installed in my Volvo, I have noticed several things. The first thing I want to mention about these lights is that it completely changed the look of my car. The only down side to the looks is the yellow turn signal bulbs, but that is an easy fix. For $30 you can get different bulbs that are clear turn signal bulbs which give the front end of the car a cleaner and more aggressive look. One of the best features that I noticed at night was the range the lights gave compared to the original ones from Volvo. The Volvo ones weren't terrible but not the greatest, one thing I do like about the originals over the news ones is the lenses were glass versus being plexi.

Installing the lights was a little bit harder than I thought. They did install just like original headlights, but wiring the halos was the challenge. We decided to wire them into the daytime running lights and the parking lights. Since I bought my headlights off eBay rather than iPd is that they kit did not include enough wire for to do the lighting the way I did. I have to say for getting both headlights for a little under $300 they were a really good deal and I have gotten several compliments for the way my car looks with them.

The Latest "Issues" with my Princess

Today I am going to discuss the last few problems that my car has been experiencing for the past month. The most major issue that I found and the culprit of most of my problems was that my Crankshaft Impulse Sensor was faulty.

My other major problem is the Boost Control Solenoid (BCS) or more commonly known as the Turbo Control Valve (TCV). One of the best sources I found for information on this problem was on iPd's website. It is also the site where I will be purchasing my new TCV because it is also designed for Volvo 850s that are being tuned like mine. IPD has a video for the TCV to show you how it works and how to install the part (http://www.ipdusa.com/Volvo-850/Performance/Ipd-HD-TCV/p-72-143-6497/).

I also want to mention the next modification that I am planning on doing to my vehicle will be doing an ECU swap. The company I am planning on using will be Rica Engineering. The reason I chose to go with the Rica ECU was because of the statistics. The best information I found about the ECU was through EuroSportTuning. Also they have the best price I was able to find (http://www.eurosporttuning.ca/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=EST02&Product_Code=RICA-TUNE&Category_Code=VL-850-en).