what did you do to your car today?
there is a thread like this on the volvo forum i have been on for a couple of years now. it seems so many of us tinker in some fashion on a day to day basis. Without starting a completely new thread, its a great place to share with other members your experience of what job you may have tackled that particular day , thus generating many different discussions. anyhow, i hope it catches on...;ol;
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No stranger to winter tyres but I'd wondered how the virtually brand new summer rubber might cope on the 9-5. We had a very light snow flurry last night followed by below zero temperatures. No2 son has a broken ankle at the moment so I'm having to run him to school every day. First hill we came to. Nope. Reverse of shame 
Changed the bulbs of the SID and ACC displays to green LEDs...and got some new grey hair in that process. I had already changed the bulbs for the ACC buttons and must have had done everything right by mistake since all buttons were lit, but when I took them out again for corrections some lights were out.
After a day of freezing my butt off I do know now that it does matter to insert these LED with the correct polarization.
After a day of freezing my butt off I do know now that it does matter to insert these LED with the correct polarization.
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Brakelight bulbs replaced. They looked fine, but the display said bad tail light, without saying which one. The right one goes out quite often, but it looked fine. I installed L & R and display cleared
Tried to restore the lighting of the seat heater controls. Learned that a) I hate those bulb sockets and b) one of the controls won't see any light again, so I hope that another used one will be able to illuminate me.
It's very unusual to find a seat heat or cooling switch with both bulbs working.
A flat screwdriver of the right blade size can typically remove the bulb on its tip.
You need the proper flat screwdriver blade. The bulbs wedge on the tip of the blade. Then you insert and lock the bulbs.
They also appear fairly delicate in my experience, so applying force isn't a good thing.
To follow this up, during the trip I added 54.88 litres, and at the end topped off with 25.20 litres. So 80.08 litres total.
80.08/11.30 = 7.0867 litres/100km
7.0867/7.0 = 1.0123
SID is approximately 1.23% optimistic, assuming the reading before rounding was 7.00 litres/100km.
That's acceptable accuracy in my book.
I presume that the old sockets were dried out (they were quite brittle) and had shrunken a little bit while the new ones were not fitting 100% (made in China?) and the plastic was rather soft. That's why I had to use a certain amount of force to push them in until they seated correct.
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Today I changed the HVAC blower motor. The old one was seized. It took an hour just to get my wiper arms off their posts, and required a new smaller balljoint press, but it was a very satisfying "pop" when each one finally let go. The rest of the job went very quickly, and I was done an hour later. So nice to have a functional HVAC system again.
One mistake was that I forgot to plug the wiper motor back in before putting the plastic cowl cover back in place. I realized my mistake after I had started driving to the gas station when I went to wash my windshield and the wipers didn't sweep the pischer fluid off the windshield. Duh! I turned around and had it plugged in about three minutes after getting home.
Scott
One mistake was that I forgot to plug the wiper motor back in before putting the plastic cowl cover back in place. I realized my mistake after I had started driving to the gas station when I went to wash my windshield and the wipers didn't sweep the pischer fluid off the windshield. Duh! I turned around and had it plugged in about three minutes after getting home.
Scott
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798 Posts
Guess where I was today?
![Wheel Tire Automotive tire Hood Tread]()
What an absolute cow of a job that is. Done it before on a previous 9-5 and I've been putting this one off since I bought the car.
Certainly needed doing though as the old filter was filthy. And the last person who changed it obviously had fun too going on the state of the foam seal. A rotten foam concertina at one end.
What an absolute cow of a job that is. Done it before on a previous 9-5 and I've been putting this one off since I bought the car.
Certainly needed doing though as the old filter was filthy. And the last person who changed it obviously had fun too going on the state of the foam seal. A rotten foam concertina at one end.
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I hate that job on the 9-5. I can do it in about an hour but I’m always cursing the engineer who designed it this way. Every other car I’ve had, the cabin air filter is a literal 5 minute job.
The forum guys who claim they can do it in 15 minutes are clearly lying. I don’t think a NASCAR pit crew could do it in 15 minutes.
Hating that on the Zafira A and going to dread it when I'm going for the filter in spring. Guess that one engineer at GM had also sought his fun at kicking the neighbours dog and stealing the change from his kids piggy bank.
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I've run a few Lexus in the past and I don't think they're even 5 minutes. Open the glovebox and there's a little door at the back. Voila.
My back's feeling it today. I'd say you're about right with the hour. Took me longer with all the procrastinating, tea drinking and having to stand up when I get cramp in my leg
Added fun was having to do it in a fairly narrow garage and because mine's an auto the bloody gearbox ECU (?) is in the way. At least I learned from the mistakes I made on my previous 9-5 and didn't stick the foam to the top of the filter and then try and slide it in.
I feel ya, bro...in the Zafira, there was a damn metal strut in the way which took off a good deal of skin in the process of changing the filter. Lying on the floor contorting myself in a manner I never thought I was capable of didn't lifted my spirit either.I've run a few Lexus in the past and I don't think they're even 5 minutes. Open the glovebox and there's a little door at the back. Voila.
My back's feeling it today. I'd say you're about right with the hour. Took me longer with all the procrastinating, tea drinking and having to stand up when I get cramp in my leg
On the V70...open the hood, unscrew a few bolts to lift the cover of the drainage box, change the filter. Voila too.
Thanks for the warning in advance.
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Trick is to remove the old filter, foam and debris then fit the foam in place with the cut outs around the pipes. Then slide the filter in using something to hold on to/lift the foam so it doesn't snag on the filter and fall off or get pushed to the bottom end.Thanks for the warning in advance.
All that will make sense when you do it
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Cool, what mechanical mods have you done to your car?
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