1993 Volvo 945 NA Automatic

[Jake]

Those seats are an insane improvement.

Right?!

My Acura-nerd buddy Chris met me at the Jessup junkyard and we didn't find anything worthwhile, just a 740 with torn-up leather and a 960 with saggy awful velour cloth But then he stopped at another yard that's about 10 minutes from his house, north of Baltimore, and found these in a S90. The internet claims they will fit so he pulled them and is meeting up with Matthew to hand 'em off. Should be a nice upgrade!

[*insertusernamehere*]

[*insertusernamehere*]

I've found it. I have found a car that likes cold weather. This thing drives as good as, if not better, below 20 degrees as it does at 70. It's fantastic. No creaks, no cranks, no whines, no laziness, no weird idle, it just gets up and goes. It takes more boot than the e36 did to get around but oh boy when it does it's pure smiles. Reminds me why I love rwd in this weather, sideways for days.



I love snow.

The more I drive this, the more prime I'm getting for a fun, small, manual, rwd car. This car is interesting and absolutely worth keeping but mostly boring.

[Senor_Taylor]

The more I drive this, the more prime I'm getting for a fun, small, manual, rwd car.

Might I add the answer?

[*insertusernamehere*]

The more I drive this, the more prime I'm getting for a fun, small, manual, rwd car.

Might I add the answer?

That makes too much sense I can't do that.

[SlimKlim]

sideways for days.

[*insertusernamehere*]

WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

I spent the entire evening swapping in the seats Jake and his friend chris found for me. I picked them up last week from Baltimore, right in the harbor near the stadium. It was a fun drive, for whatever reason the GPS took me through DC this time. I left at 8:00 and made it there by 10:15. Awesome.

It was a pretty simple process installing the seats. There are 4 bolts that hold the seat in place, the seatbelt and 2 more bolts that just act as anchors so even if all 4 bolts fail the seat won't go flying.

In order to get to the bolts on the inner side of the seat I went ahead and just pulled out the center console. It's 2 bolts at the bottom of the storage box and 2 under the ebrake then you just pull back gently on the entire thing from the back seat. That'll free up a ton of room.

After that you rock the seat back and disconnect the plugs. I only removed things on the seat side. All the other relays, plugs and modules stayed in the car. Chris, who pulled them from the junkyard was awesome and pulled everything from the donor car so I actually have double and triple of some of the electrical and hardware stuff. Yay spares.



You have to be sure to unplug the seatbelt sensor from under the carpet by the front of the seat. After that the seat is free.

Next was my absolute favorite part, cleaning! Damn near everything you can think of fell into no-man's-land. It's all good though, it's vacuumed out and wiped down some of the grime. I'm just now remembering as I'm typing this that I wanted to grease the rails while I had this kind of access but completely forgot. Oh well. I got to clean up alot of harder to reach parts of the center console too so hell yeah!

Time to throw the seats in!


As I was lowering in the driver seat I realized the plugs for the heated seat on the S90 seats were different than the 940 plug. The S90 also carried an extra plug.
S90 plug on top, 940 plug below.


Both harnesses used 1 black and 1 red wire and carried the same white plug. So I cut off the S90 connector + white plug, yanked out the old 940 connector + white plug from the old seat and soldered it to the S90 seat. Magic! It worked! Props to Joey for messaging me precisely at the moment I was staring at it trying to figure out what to do and talking it through with me to be sure I wasn't gonna set the car on fire lol. Thanks for the soldering iron as well, Justin. We're not going to worry about the quality of my solder, but it's done and it works lol.

The seats feel fan-freaking-tastic there's so much more cushion that I sit a smidgen higher and the bolstering is so good and I can actually feel them on the back of my arms. And they're soo cooommmfffyyyy, I could sit there all day. The power seats work and the bootywarmer works. Happy day. Pics to come in the morning.

Oh other things I've learned recently! I had the Carfax run on this car the other day. It's been in three accidents, one in '09 where it was considered a total loss for a front impact. I can see the remnants for it on the hood. So that answered that question. Another after that, in the same year lol, where it had a rear driver side impact. I suspected something was also done there. You can see the difference in the paint and a spot of overspray. I can't remember the other accident right now.

It's actually been serviced at Volvo dealers or reputable shops it's whole life it seems. It's initially a new jersey car and came to VA in 99 and hasn't left since. I am the ninth owner lol. I think I know what my first set of vanity plates are gonna be now "SEASOND"

[Gordonovski]

All the progress pics but no finished product, you cock tease


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[*insertusernamehere*]

[SlimKlim]

Damn dude that is an insane improvement.

[JPolen01]

Wow that looks good

[Beej]

Having seen them in person...not just an improvement, but they're damn close to mint and goddamn comfortable. Quite possibly the best $54 ever spent. I just noticed those front pockets, those should be legally mandated.

Also, there is pleeeeennnty of room under that enormous hood for a V8.

[EclipseTurbno93]

Wow. Wow wow. Those look so comfortable. This Volvo has to be the best deal I've seen in a while.

[Jake]

Now we need to find a back seat to match!

[*insertusernamehere*]

Heh. I cut it a little too close today



And before someone comments on the price, its not like I had many options for a gas station to choose from, considering how much gas I had left.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Also I'm getting a pretty solid combined mileage of 22-24 so I guess I can't complain. My paper math put me at ~510 and I got 542 out of it. (This is from a combination of tanks). Tracking your mileage is interesting stuff.

[ViPER1313]

Why are you putting premium in a 24 year old Volvo

[davej]

Why are you putting premium in a 24 year old Volvo

in case a 24 year old saab rolls up and wants to run.

[JPolen01]

Why are you putting premium in a 24 year old Volvo

in case a 24 year old saab rolls up and wants to run.

I lol'd

But seriously wtf Matthew

[*insertusernamehere*]

I'm not sure. I feel weird putting anything less in it. It "requires" it. The lowest I've gone is mid-grade. I was probably on autopilot, premium at Costco is the cost of regular everywhere else. I question whether its worth it or not at every fill up lol.