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

i am the member who has the intercooler from a canadian model. well, i am the only one that i know of on this site. anyway, the R intercooler in canada and the rest of the world is of a larger capacity. the US models are smaller. also, the canadian R's could be had with a stick while here they are all autos, turbo's included. now other than that, i think they are the same. except for the trim, like you posted. not sure about the speedo, you can try calling a volvo specialist and asking, nicely. :grin: good luck.

It may be a better idea to take both the instruments display cluster AND the ECUs together. They have been working together all the while anyway, so to avoid any confusions...

As for the signals, the ECU takes signals from both the Vehicle Speed Sensor, located between the gearbox and the engine, and the Wheel Speed Sensors at the wheels.

The car in the yard is a non-turbo, and my car is a turbo, so the ECU wouldn't do me any good. If you're saying that the speedo and electronic cluster gets its signal from the ECU, wouldn't it be getting the same signal from either ECU (US or Canadian)? At what point in the process is the conversion made to either miles or kilometers? If it's in the ECU, I guess it's a no-go. However, since this car had to be converted to US spec, my guess is that they don't replace the ECU but rather the cluster, which brings me back to the original question: can I use the kph speedo, but get my digital in mph somehow?

Aw, screw it....I'll just get the speedo, mix & match parts, and see what happens.

more than likely you can get both. correct on the assumption about the ecu, i don't think that they would have two different versions for the cars since the markets are so close together. probably a european model to a US model, maybe, but i don't think there would be a difference between us and canada. easiest way to find out would be to ask a junker who specializes in volvos, they would probably know, unless you are friendly with a volvo tech at a dealership, they would def know for sure.

Ah, i missed this information upfront.
:)