Volvo 850 Forum

Feature my ride Mark forum as read and return

My recently acquired 850 Tdi (130000 some service history) has developed a problem with cutting out whilst on the move. I have been after one of these for a while (and very much enjoy the drive) so am reluctant to let it go.

Has happened 3 times in 2 weeks. Simply put, the engine dies (the engine management lights flickers on at same time). Car turns over on the key, but will not catch for 5 maybe 10 minutes (obviously I am not trying to start continuously).

The engine then will start, car runs Ok with a bit of rough idle. Eventually, the engine management warning light turns off.

I have also noticed that the car will intermittently suffer from rough idle.

I have had the car under diagnostic with both Volvo main dealer and local Volvo specialist. Local dealer did diagnostic after I had car relayed and fault code showed 717. Took to main dealer a few days later and they could find nothing wrong.

I have as precautionary measure had the fuel filter changed - makes no difference.

Can anyone help with this issue/offer some practical steps to see what I can eliminate as being a cause before I consider more expensive solutions which are likely to be injectors, injector pump or ECU.

Your help and advice would be much appreciated

I have just bought this as a project. I was a diesel mechanic and feel confident ot do the jobs but my problem comes as to making sure what grease I should use on the CV joint.

So before I go any further is there anyone out there who might be able to help me?

Should say on Log Book it dtaes First Reg 01 06 1997 (DECL/D MANUF 1996)

Have anyone found a good manual for this - Haynes told me they do not do one as there was not enough of this model made!

Thanks

is this a well known mod? can this be done? this guy claims to have the kits to do this with your wipers. i think its cool, but truthfuly, what do you have to do to make that work really? and is it legal, like i really care. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v647v1qRYp0&feature=related

Ok, ive posted arrow issues too, with all the post i hope to finally get this right. On ebay i found this shop in taiwan. they have the little brass tabs that contact in the pnp switch. they sell for 20.00. 10.00 shipping. i now have them here, just arived today, 5 day turnaround.
Starter inhabitor Switch repair
This kit can be only applied to the P/N:9466012 (volvo 850/s70)
and P/N: 9466013 (volvo 960)
1. open the back covr of your pnp switch by using phillips head driver to remove 6 screws
2. find inside the 3 copper pieces in the shape of a ( U ) and take them out, wit a magnetic driver
3. put back the new tabs as the old ones was
4. screw the cover back on.

now due to all the steps taken to put on the whole other pnp switch that i bought used, dumb ****, i will need a minute to perform this and see the differnce.
To me, i might of saved money here. but its just like a new pnp. well the important part.

Here is the info for others to try this.
Longserng Auto Parts Volvo and Saab
No. 188, Sec. 3, Shinsheng Rd.,
Chungi City, 32056 Taoyuan County, Taiwan
Tel:886-3-453-1495 Fax: 886-3-453-2187
E-mail: sales@lsco.com.tw Http:/www.lsco.com.tw

Will post the finnished results.

Ok, time to solve a mystery cursed to my 850, its been doing it a lot less lately, Valve tap.... it comes and goes.
Example, after a drive if the outside temps are hot, didnt do this asmuch in the winter, a tick will fade in till it ticks harder, sounds like a washing machine, tick tick tick tick tick, try to turn off the car, it will still tick when you start again, drive a little while, it will fade away and then you only hear the normal sounds till it decides to tick again. Sometimes it goes a couple of trips without the tick, then at times it will tick longer.
Ive asked the dealer, they said it may be bad gas, low octain (quicktrip gas at midgrade octain, air fuel mix levels, low oil pressure or level (checked that and change oil every 3 months mobil 1), a faulty knock sensor, cam position sensor, one guy even said its a motor grimlin .
Valve jobs are needed when motors tick all the time right? i have no loss in power when this happens, no smoke or whisps out of the back, no excessive oil loss, or temps.
its time for a tune up again. everything is less than a year new like fuel filters and pump. this car sees less miles now, but seen many long crusin days and 1300mile runs to the coast and back.
This car is like a Hot older woman wearing young clothes and holding onto her youth
trying to keep my high stakes girl happy.
help!

please... i just registered on this site, and i just got this car and i love it... i dont know how many miles are on it the odomiter stoped at 216,600 but i want to turn it into a touring type car... and i cant seem to find any good web sites to find parts. i did find some lowering springs 1.5 front and rear for about $270 but thats all i could realy find. oh ya and a black grille insert that i love, deff gettin that. im lookin for a head kit and exhaust... ie. muffler, raceing converter mayber a turbo kit lata on. so can someone please help me? that would be great!

Maybe I didn't search thoroughly enough here but can someone tell me exactly where the location of the OBDI port is on my 1993 850 GLT?

Pics/links are always helpful too.

Thanks!

I have myself an 96 850 Turbo. When the summer comes and it is hot outside the motor wants to stall its not right away only when driving for a little while and the motor is up to temp. If I keep my foot on the gas it will stay running and the problem goes away for a little while. I only notice this problem when its idling and hot. The check engine light is on sometimes and goes away after a week or so and then decides to come on again later.

What do you think the problem is? I was thinking a cracked vacuum line or multiple lines. How would I check for this? Also I don't have a diagnostics tool to check this.

My wife is complaining about this because she is using it as her daily driver and is scared to take it out incase it wants to stall again. So I would like to fix this problem within the next week or so.



Here is a picture of a hose I found disconnected. Its near turbo. I was wondering if this could be the problem. Im going to clamp it back on and see if I still have the problem. What is this vacuum line for?

Kevin

Anyone know how I can take out my 850 steering wheel and if a s70 or 960 can fit?
Probably the only thing I don't like from the 850 is the huge "truck" wheel.
I will appreciate any info.
Thanks

Ok, called my local Volvo dealership today and found out the part I need for my 1995 Volvo 850 Wagon with the Yazaki cluster - talking about the trip computer that is.

The old part number is: 9148574
The new part number is: 9442047

I guess they are both interchangeable it's just that one was catalogued a while ago and the other was more recent. Apparently it's still "available" from Volvo but on backorder with no ETA. So that basically means that I could be waiting forever to get one and it''s just a matter of time until they discontinue it anyway - plus the entire kit (which is part #9166689) is $459.67 - so that's not really going to happen.

So I guess i'll have to keep my eye out for that part number.... which is probably going to be a PITA.

Anyone sellin'? Or know of a place that is likely to have one?

when i drive normal (not too much boost) everything sounds fine, nice little roar from turbo. the minute i give it some welly the turbo goes from a little roar to a loud rough something not quite right sound. boost gauge still ok, 7 eights of gauge.
no rattles or grinding.

any ideas

My ABS light is on in my '97 850 and I can't seem to find any documentation on reading the codes. Is there some tool I could borrow to read the codes?

What is the bolt pattern/ size for my "4" lug wheels on my ride? I want to consider buying a set of rims for my ride, but this is part of buying them are they 4x100?

When I went to look for it, I found this. I was looking at the bottom of my windshield where you can see the blower motor.

I read so much different info about oils... I hear good things about synthetics but does a benefit exist after the cost? I also wonder if there is any real difference in the different brands, is quaker state better than pennzoil better then wal-mart? really? i suppose i should have added a category for semi-synthetics but i cannot edit the list. oops.

Very occasionally (3 times in the last 2 weeks of daily driving), for about 1-2 seconds, the headlights will dim, the radio might turn off, the ABS dash light briefly comes on, and then everything goes back to normal. On one occasion, the car stalled. Sometimes I am travleing and sometimes I am stopped.

I have tried loading the electrical system (e.g., brakes depressed, turn signal on, wipers on, A/C on, radio on) and I cannot get the symptom to occur. Voltage across the battery (and battery terminals) with the car off read ~12V. Voltage with the car running reads ~13.5V.

Car has 140K miles with original alternator. Battery is 3.5yrs old. Battery/alternator dash light has not displayed during these episodes.

Per some previous posts (that hinted at the ignition), I have not touched the key during any of the episodes.

Any ideas?

Hi I had an odd thing happen yesterday. I was on a small road trip, about 1 1/2 hours long. When I started out, the AC was blowing hard and cold. I used the "aut" setting. After a while, the temperature was OK and the air from the vents slowed down. The problem was that it would not come back on again, even when I switched over to manual mode. I can hear the fan blowing, but hardly any air comes out of the vents. After the car sat for several hours, we headed home and it did the same thing: worked fine for about 45 minutes, then wouldn't give me any airflow. I'm thinking that maybe a damper is sticking or something? Has anyone else experienced this?
Thanks!
Pat

i know this is a 740 i know, but how can i get this power in mine? what is this about? how can i get that power in mine, can anyone translate the words? God that volvo is insane! and if you look at the relating videos you will see a black 850 looking volvo doing a massive rwd burnout and drift........ comon guys wher are yall hiding the secret formulas? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbHEPbS9ZeU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBf9zalGYEo&feature=related

I just picked up a '94 turbo wagon that was originally a Canadian market car. It was converted all proper like, with the correct speedo, and I never would have really thought about it except that the lady I got it from said she did a carfax report and found out it was from Canada.

Someone in another thread mentioned that they put an innercooler from a Canadian car into their car because the Canadian car came with a slightly larger innercooler. Any other difference? I've noticed little bits of trim are slightly different, but I figured that could just be mid model year changes.

While on the subject, my local wrecking yard has a Canadian 850. If I swap the instrument cluster, how do the digital displays work? Are the US (mph) and the Canadian (kph) programmed differently as a seperate unit, or are they just reading a signal from somewhere? And is that signal coming from the speedo, or the tranny? I'd like to get the kph speedo, but still have my digital readout in good 'ole US miles. I would guess it's probably not as simple as just putting the US digital into the Canadian cluster, but one can hope....

Thanks

about a month ago my power locks just stopped working. i'm assuming it's the relay. i got a pdf that says how to troubleshoot the keyless entry/power lock system, but when it refers to the relay it just says it's in the passenger compartment relay center. i don't know where that is and i don't want to just start aimlessly opening up the dash. am i on the right track by going after this relay? if so, where the heck is it? any help would be appreciated.

thanks

Hi there,

I'm new here and have just become a Volvo owner for the first time. I'm from Cambridge, England.

I was just wondering if any fellow 850 owners have installed a 'wood effect' dash kit or even better have some pics uploaded that I could see?

My car is a late 96 850 SE Wagon - 2.5 20V.

Thanks
Chris

5/20/08 UPDATE: I now have pictures for most everything. I have smaller pictures for easy initial viewing, but are not so great for seeing specifics, but also included are large pictures with notes. Due to the number of pictures and size of some of them I have just made up a quick webpage explaining most everything along with the photos. The link is here:

Stereo Upgrade Info With Photos
if the link doesnt work, use this address:
http://www.blakbyrd.com/Car/index.html

Everything below is the same ole original post:

Over the past month or so I have been working on doing a complete stereo system upgrade, and have been doing some online research of what will fit where in an 850. As such I have come across alot of conflicting information, from what head units will fit, to what speaker sizes to use in place of the OEM speakers, etc. I have also come across quite a few site with posts from people asking these questions (some getting good responses, others bad, and some just plain confusing).

So, I figured I would add a little more comprehensive post here, regarding what I have found to work, as well a to give the specifics of what I used and what was necessary to make it all work.

Below are some specifics on what will fit where in an 850 wagon (mine is a 1995 turbo model). I have read that some of the wiring (for the head unit) is different on a 1993 model, so I am not going to initially mention actual wiring or wiring colors, etc, because this may cause some confusion and possible improper wiring (the diagram I did find for a 1995 was entirely backwards from what they said but all was correct color wise at least). I will mention some specifics on speaker and wiring specifications at the end, which you should keep in mine when replacing the OEM ones.

Head Unit: My stock stereo wa a double din unit (4" tall), and had plenty of depth behind it to mount any standard double din unit into it with little problem. As such I purchased a Kenwood DDX-7019 double din 7" touch screen unit (DVD player, with navigation capabilities, TV tuner, Ipod, etc). It's mounting size and depth was nearly identical to the OEM stereo that was in mine. However, mounting a factory double din unit does require some slight modification to the head unit hole. The factory stereo used a set of rails in the hole to mount to. These rails did not allow the Kenwood mounting bracket to be inerted. The entire hole is comprised of plastic walls and rails, so removing the rails consisted of simply using a die grinder with a small cutoff wheel to cut the rails out (took less than 2-3 minutes to do). After doing so, the Kenwood mounting cage slid in perfectly, but there was no real location of fastening the cage in place.Due to how the cage for the Kenwood was designed I was able to use 2 self taping screws in the bottom of the cage by drilling two small holes in the cage and useing the two screws in the bottom of the cage, through the plastic beneath it (the screws stick through the bottom but do not get in the way of ash tray, so they are completely hidden). To keep thetop of the cage from moving I cut two small notches in the upper part of the hole to use with the folind tabs of the mounting cage (have to be careful here a the upper part of the stereo hol is actually the bottom of the climate control box). From there it was just a matter of wiring and sliding the head unit in place. The mall platic bezel that came with the head unit fit perfectly and looks good to finish off the head unit install (no modifications were necesary to bezel).
Note: For those who have an OEM amplifier, it is usually mounted behind the head unit, which can limit your space behind the radio.Many nice double din units have alot of wires coming out the back (as mine did) and this may make it more difficult to stuff all those wires behind the head unit easily. ANother note, Crutchfield lists that an 850 Volvo cannot fit a double din unit, this is false if you remove the plastic rails, once removed a double din fits perfectly.

Dash Speakers: The dash speakers are small. My OEM speakers were made into a special plastic bracket for mounting in the dash, and were held in place by those annoying plastic puch lock style holders. Removing them wa an easy task. A small flat screw driver will pop them out and then the speakers lift right out. I replaced mine with a pair of Infinity Reference 3022cf 3-1/2" 2 way speakers. These are far better than the crappy one way paper cone speakers that Volvo used (mine were beginning to deteriorate and just touching them caused them to crack). The Infinity 3-1/2" speakers fit perfectly fine without any modifications. However the mounting holes did not line up with the new speakers. Because Volvo used the platic push lock style fasteners, they mounted in the vinyl/plastic part of the dah and there is no metal mounting solution. The Infinities came with mounting screws and the metal clips to put over the hole to mount with, which turned out to work just fine, although I could only mount them with one screw (because of the small speakers, only one screw was needed and they are held in place just fine, and have given no ound of coming loose or rattling). Mounting depth is not all hat important as there is plenty of room below the dash for speakers in this location. The height of the speaker is more important. Anything much higher than tweeter on a pair of 3022cf speakers may come in contact with the factory grills. However they did not interfere with mine and my factory grills are back in place.

Front Door Speakers: My OEM front door speakers were cruddy one way paper cone speakers. Again they were showing signs of deteriorating. Although they are a metric size, they are nearly identical to a 5-1/4" speaker. So I replaced mine with a pair of Infinity Kappa 52.7i 2 way 5-1/4" speakers, which have adjustable tweeters to better aim the sound from them. The Infinities dropped right into the original loaction without any modifications needed. Of course not all the mounting holes lined up, but any two opposing mounting holes did, so I mounted mine with only 2 screws (using the original screws that Volvo used), choosing two 180 degrees from each other. This held the peaker firmly in place and the other 2 were not necesary. The Infinities I used also came with a small plastic box that house the crossover. I found no need to try to mount this as I was able to simply stuff it down below the speaker hole and it lodged in place easily, out of the way, and does not show any signs of being loose or rattling. Mounting depth was of no issue, but again, using any speakers that may have a height taller than the52.7i's might come in contact with the OEm speaker grill (mine fit fine and the original grill is back in place).
Note: Crutchfield says that only 4" speakers will fit in the front doors. This is false. 5-1/4" speakers fit almost perfectly without modification. trying to use 4" speakers will require modification and or purchasing extra mounting hardware to get them to mount in the larger hole. Using 4" speakers will require more work and probably cost more for extra parts, not to mention you have a much smaller set of choices in 4" speakers than you will with 5-1/4".

Rear Door Speakers: Volvo uses a pair of 2-way paper cone speakers in the rear doors, which are just a tad bit larger than the ones in the front door. I replaced these with another set of Infinity 52.7i 2-way speakers.These did not fit as well as the front door replacements did, and there is an added complication to the back doors (easy to work with though).Volvo glues these speakers inside a plastic housing, which most likely helps them to produce better bass. Because the OEM speakers are slightly larger, 5-1/4" speakers do not directly fit with the existing mounting holes as the front speakers did. Some modifications were necessary here. You have to pry the speaker out of the platic houing (be careful not to break the housing trying to do this (use of thi platic housing is not necessary, but it will help to produce better bass with your speakers if you use them). The modifications I had to do are as follows:
- I had to drill two 1/2" holes inot the housing, where Volvo originally just had two small slits to hook up the OEM speakers, in order for me to feed the wires to my new Infinities (you may only need one hole if your speaker choice only has one set of wires to them).
- I had to locate and drill 4 holes in the plastic housing to mount the new 5-1/4" speakers. It is easy to drill since it is just plastic.
- I fed the speaker wires into the plastic housing and then mounted the plastic hoising back into the door with the 4 original volvo screws. I then drilled 4 holes, through the 4 I drilled above in the housing, so that I could then mount my new speakers.You will be drilling through plastic here again, so it is easy to do. I then hooked up the speaker wires and mounted the speaker with the screws that came with the speaker (these are self tapping machine screws, so they go into the plastic with ease, just make ure you drill the holes smaller than the screws).
Again, the mounting depth was of no issue, but the height almot came in contact with the speaker grill, but the original speaker grills are in place and look proper. What I didnt mention was the small crossover box. Before I mounted the plastic hoising in place, I pushed the crossover box inside the door towards the hinge and they lodged in place perfectly without any need to mount them.
NOTE: Crutchfield again say that 4" speakers is all that will fit in this location, and this is entirely false. 4" speakers will require special mountingand possible modifications or extra hardware.5-1/4" speakers fit well here. I have seen where some people have also been able to mount 6-1/2" speakers, but this requires a little more work and the original speaker grills will not fit over them.

Rear Pillar Speakers (note on sedans also): In a wagon, there are speakers in the rear pillars by the lift gate. These are spall speakers similar to what is in the dash, but are in special plastic mountin brackets. You can fit 3-1/2" speakers here, but it will require making special mounts for them (I have not replaced these yet, instead I simply disconnected them...see the wiring info further down for the reason for this). In a sedan, you have what resembles a metric version of a 6x9 speaker, although a 6x9 is reported not to fit without modification, intead a 5x7 is suggested for the easiest replacement, or making a special bracket to house 5-1/4" speakers.

Extra additions: Beyond normal speaker replacement, I also added a self powered Infinity Basslink 10" subwoofer. For what I want, this this is perfect. It sounds great, has plenty of bass and take up very little room. I mounted mine on the left side of the rear cargo area, which fits perfectly between the rear wheel well and the pillar, and still allow me full use of the folding 3rd how seat in the back. Wiring it was simple, with a 10 gauge fused wire from the battery to the subwoofer. I fed the wire through the fise box to get through the firewall, then fed it along the left edge of the car under the carpet to reach the back. Only other wiring is the RCA cables from the head unit, which i fed through the center console and then under the carpet, and the rmeote power lead from the head unit which I fed along with the main power wire (I try never to feed power wires with RCA cables to help keep any electrical interference from getting injected into the rca cables). What remained was the ground wire, which was simple as there is abolt right below this location (under the board the subwoofer sits on, which pops up and usually houses your CD changer if you have one). This subwoofer also has a remote control for the bass level, which I routed the wire to my center console. I had a blank cover in my center console which wa not used (same size as your heated seat switch or power window switch), which allowedme to mount the control knob in this blank cover by drilling a 9/32" hole in it, so it looks stock and is unobtrusive.

I am very pleased with the sound quallity of this setup and it is far better than the stock Volvo system, and allows me many future upgrades.

Important Speaker/Wiring Information:
Here is the bare bone specifics on the OEM speakers to keep in mind when looking to replace them.

Dash: small 1-way 8 ohm peaker
Front door: mid 1 way 6 ohm speaker
Rear door: mid 2-way 8 ohm speaker
Rear pillar (wagon) or Rear shelf (sedan): 8 ohm speaker

The ohm rating is important to note hear. Most car speakers will be 4ohm speakers with some being 2 ohm. Volvo wires their speakers a little strange. The dash and front door speakers are wired separately. However the rear door and rear pillar (or rear shelf) speakers are wired in parallel, which mean your rear speaks are all wired to a single right and left channel, which makes those 2 sets of 8 ohm speakers a set of 4 ohm speakers. Most car amplifiers and amplifiers inside the head units are 4 ohm rated. So if you leave the OEM speakers in the car and just replace the head unit (and use the head unit's amplifier) then your front speakers may seem to be quieter than normal, this is because of the OEM speakers being a higher ohm rating. So if your head unit says it produces 50 watt per channel at 4 ohms, then driving an 8 ohm speaker with that amplifier would basically mean you are only giving them 25watts of power, while the set of parallel wired 8 ohm speakers in the back will be louder since they are working as 4 ohm speakers and would be getting the full 50 watts of power.

The Infinity speakers I chose are 2 ohm speakers, driven by the amplifier in my head unit, which is rated at 4 ohms. However, the head unit is a 4 channel unit, and I am driving 6 speakers. So I wired my dash and front door speakers in series on the front channel. Wiring them in series produces a set of 4 ohm speakers, which matches the rating of the head unit, which produces its full rated power. My rear door speakers are also 2 ohm, but at the moment I have not put in the extra set of speakers in the rear pillars, so they are being driven at 2 ohms by the head unit, which effectively doubles the wattage output the head unit produces. (it isnt exact but baically if you half the ohm rating of the output rating of the amplifier, you double the power, so a 50 watt aplifier at 4 ohms would be producing 100 watts at 2 ohms). Once I add the last set of speakers the rear speakers will also be wired in series to produce 4 ohms.

It is very important to keep in mind the ohm ratings and usage, to avoid potential damage to your speakers or amplifier. Most amplifiers (and head unit amplifiers) are stable when running at 2 ohms, although most are rated at 4 ohms. If you go below 2 ohms you risk damaging your speakers or amplifier. Some high end amplifiers are stable at 1 or even 1/2 ohm but these are expensive...do not do this unless your amplifier specifically say it is stable that way. Practically all head unit amplifiers are not stable below 2 ohms.

Wiring my speakers as I have mentioned was easy to this point. Volvo already had all the necessary wires pulled to the dash. To hook my dash and front door speakers in series, you would not hook them up directly, wire to wire between the wire harness and the head unit (doing so would just wire each speaker individually to the head unit). To wire them in series (to make two 2 ohm speakers act as 4 ohms) you would do the following:
- Hook up the left positive speaker wire to the positive connection speaker #1 (dash).
- Hook up speaker #1's negative connection directly to speaker #2's (front door) positive connection.
- Hook up the left negative speaker wire to the negative connection on speaker #2.

Since all these wires are already pulled to the dash by volvo, you do not need to run any extra wires, instead, simpley connect together speaker +1's negative wire to speaker #2's positive wire in the dash by the head unit. This produces the same effect.

The problem comes later for me to hook up the rear speakers in series, since they were originally hooked up in parallel. Since I cannot easily trace how the wired these speakers, I will have to pull a new wire from the rear door to the rear pillar to hook those speakers up in series, in order to guarantee not causing potential damage to my head unit. This will not be a simple wire to pull, which is why I havent bothered with it yet. Because I am using a pair of 2 ohm speakers it is imperative that they be hooked up properly. Accidentally hooking up a pair of 2 ohm speakers in parallel will produce a 1 ohm load which can very easily damage the amplifier in my head unit, as well a possibly damaging my speakers. So, it is possible that I could use the wires volvo already ha in place, but I would rather not risk it.

As for hooking up a separate amplifier to power your speakers, it is a relatively easy thing to do, but keep in mind a few things, if you decide to also add 1 or more separate amplifiers.

- Basically, you would hook up an amplifier the same way as I did the powered subwoofer above, except you will also need to run wires to the speakers it is going to power.
- Keep track of the ohm ratings capable of the amplifier and the ohm ratings of the speakers you are using. If you are going to wire speakers in parallel or series, it is best to stick with speakers of the same rating for simplicity. Example: Two 4 ohm speakers in parallel would produce a 2 ohm rating. Two 4 ohm speakers in series would produce an 8 ohm rating. ( i mentioned how to hook up speakers in series, to hook up in parallel you simply hook the positive speaker wire from the head unit to the positive connection on both speakers and the negative from the head unit to the negative connection on both speakers).
- Do not overpower your car without proper planning. As a rule, I never put more than 500 watts of power (regardless of the ohm rating, whatever the ohm rating I am using, I never exceed 500 watts) without taking other meaure to insure proper power handling. Over 500 watts, I will them begin to provide the vehicle with better power handling abilities (ie: adding a second battery, upgrding the alternator, etc). Exceeding 500 watts can begin to cause power drains on your car, and with many modern cars with alot of electronics and computers, causing uch power drains can cause problems, not to mention dead batteries and dead alternators.

Now my 500 watt rule (this is just my rule anyways, not some standard set in stone), is based on using separate amplifiers, and I usually do not include the amplifier rating in a head unit. Good amplifiers are much more efficient than cheapo amplifiers you may find at flea marketaudio places, wal-mart, etc. Cheapo amplifiers are quite often very inefficient, have poor sound qualityand are rarely capable of the wattage they advertise. In my opinion I would suggest staying away from such cheapo amplifiers. It is common for many amplifiers to advertie a wattage capability that they really never achieve, so plan accordingly.

Also, when buying speakers, do not be fooled by their advertised peak power capacity. You do not want to supply this amount of power to your speakers. Go by the RMS power capacity of the speaker when choosing an amplifier, as well, go by the RMS capacity of the amplifier. The peak power rating is the maximum the speaker can handle (or amplifier can produce) before damage is going to occur, and even then the peak number is only to be achieved in short bursts, never full time use. As an example, my 3-1/2" Infinities, have an RMS of 25 watts, but a peak of 75 watts. If I powered them with 75 watts for any extended period of use, I would most likely blow the speakers or melt their coils (not to mention the would sound like crud and be filled with disortion).

As with any full system upgrade it is best to do your research ahead of time, buy everything you need before starting the project. If you can get all components before doing the job, so you dont have to come back later and tear everything apart again to add something later. Some later additions are simple, some may require removing your head unit again, just keep this in mind. A full system upgrade can take awhile to complete, and purchasing an inexpensive wiring harness for an aftermarket head unit can be a life saver and possibly save you from damaging your investment if you are not familiar with having to hardwire the system yourself.

I hope this info is helpful to some. Feel free to add anything else or if you find someone inaccurate, please post to correct me.

Good luck

I'm curious what kind of mileage people are getting. I know what the EPA ratings are(fueleconomy dot gov), but sometimes that varies. I'm thinking about a '94 or '95 turbo wagon with a 5 speed, so if anybody has one of them I'm especially curious.

For me: '94 wagon, non-turbo, automatic, 27 mpg highway, generally loaded to about 60% of capacity, generally about 70 mph.

Since 90% of my driving is highway so I have no idea what my mpg is in the city.

Ive bought some wicked black looking headlights
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...em=120224253790
Im guessing they are not too much of a challenge to change headlights over ..but it always seems to be an issue nothings easy