BLUE - 2017 Volvo V40 T2 R-Design Progress Thread

[GrahamBrown1]

Andy in Stockton parts dept is spot on. If your spending a few quid there is always some discount but they also do the Volvo owners club discount of 10% if your a member just for the small stuff as well.

[Petey80]

A friend at work also has a V40 and after seeing my painted calipers, he asked if I could do his as well.

I managed to get his drivers side ones painted one day last week, but due to our shift patterns it took a few days until we were both off at the same time.

That day was today.

So I got to his just after 9:00AM and got cracked on.

Took a few pictures along the way. Can't remember how many coats this was, maybe 2.





His car was in desperate need of a good clean. I did end up giving his wheels a quick clean so they all tied in after doing these 2 calipers.

Took longer than I thought it would. About 3.5 hours I think.



He's had the rear silver/grey part of the bumper painted black, debadged it and the VOLVO painted black and also stuck a little "R" badge on.



After I packed everything away, he said he was going to wash it anyway and saw me doing all the wheels. I advised him not to get the freshly painted calipers wet as it might affect the finish. The paint does harden/dry quite quickly, but hitting it with a pressure washer might mess them up.



He had the wheels refurbed a while ago as well. He went for diamond cut and gloss black rather than matte black.

They aren't too bad to be fair.



And one final shot with Blue in



Him and me were happy with the results. The yellow really does go well with his black car.

The only issue with yellow calipers is the brake dust and dirt that accumulates on them...... They don't stay clean very long.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Petey80

Autodoc is reasonable when it comes to prices. As long as you're okay to wait 6 days or more for the part, it's well worth using them.
One thing I have noticed with them however, is that their prices on certain items are always changing. Maybe only by a couple of quid, but each day items I have in my wish list are a different price to the day before.
That's kind of what spurred me on buying the rear B6's, luckily they were at a fairly low price the day I was looking at them.

I really rate Meyle HD parts. The ball joints are really strong and looking at drop links for example, like the ones I used, they were nearly twice the size of the OE ones. I put Meyle HD TRE's on my V50 and they were loads beefier than the OE ones as well.
I've also got some rear anti roll bar drop links to go on, again Meyle HD items. I only got them as they were like £10 each. One is silver and the other is black though...... So might have to paint them.

I have, haven't I..... You don't realise when you're just clicking away and ordering things via PayPal.. When somethings a good price and you know you can afford it one way or another, I just go crazy.

The PayPal "Pay in 3" is a godsend though, I wouldn't have gotten half the things I have if it wasn't for that. Plus the 39 hours of overtime I did the other week.

I remembered I also haven't added the £276 for the refurb and the £75 I'll be paying for having the alloys ceramic coated..... So that's over £1,300!!!????

No, I took my V50 to Mill in Stockton/Preston Farm for an air con "service" and it was terrible. They said there was a minor leak, but regassed it anyway, which I thought was against the law???
They did a health check and found all 4 tyres wearing on the inner edge, no offer of a wheel alignment check, just 4 new tyres.
When I complained about the service, I didn't get very far with them and they weren't really interested.
I think the parts department is still okay though, but time will tell when I pop there at the end of the month.

Yes, I'm hoping all the shock absorber bolts come out nice and easy. The top mount ones should do as they are only torqued to 30nm, just the bottom one might be tight at 170nm.
I'll be doing it on the drive and luckily I now have a little impact gun. Hoping I can crack the nut then buzz it straight off with the gun. There isn't much room to get any kind of breaker bar on it as you have to contend with the wheel arch or the floor.

A full write up will be forthcoming though.

That's an old trick that these online stores use. If you leave something in your basket/wish list, normally (not always), that item will be cheaper when you go back to look again. Like you say though, its the wait for the parts that can be a bit of a faff. I guess its fine if you plan the bigger jobs ahead of schedule, but no good if you decide just to tackle something straight away (like I often do ).

I guess it all depends on how much you're saving and what you're ordering. For example, say a transmission service... I know fluid is probably cheaper online, but by the time it arrives, I'd have it done easily and the car is back on the road. So, there's not much point ordering the fluid online in that scenario because when you weigh it up, the savings are minimal. On bigger items though like shocks, it can be a large amount and is worth the wait for the parts to arrive!

That sucks about air con on your last car. What they did was illegal... They shouldn't regas a car that has a leak, but they don't care... They got paid anyway. With regards to the tyres, did they refuse to let the car out of the workshop without you buying new tyres? Or did they just advise you buy new tyres?

[Petey80]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

That sucks about air con on your last car. What they did was illegal... They shouldn't regas a car that has a leak, but they don't care... They got paid anyway. With regards to the tyres, did they refuse to let the car out of the workshop without you buying new tyres? Or did they just advise you buy new tyres?

I thought it was.

No, they just advised new tyres. That's what I was miffed at, didn't offer alignment, just wanted about £400 for 4 new tyres.

[Petey80]

Was only at work for half a day yesterday and the weather was pretty good.

That only meant one thing.............. Install the B6's on the back.

Got on with the passenger side first of all.

Jacked her up and placed on an axle stand with all the necessary gear close to hand



Started off with the easy bit first, the bolts for the top mounts



Used a wratchet bar with a little extension and a 10mm socket on the end

Got them both out and compared them to the new ones I ordered and received from TMS/VolvoPartsShop



A little bit different in length......

Then it was onto the lower shock bolt........... Wow, that was tight and took some getting out as I was doing it on the floor.
A mixture of a ratchet bar and my useless Parkside rattle gun was used and it was out and compared to the new one I got



Exactly the same, which I was happy with.

15mm socket was needed for that bolt. I mainly used the ratchet bar as the Parkside gun wasn't strong enough until it was pretty much half way out.

OE shock absorber removed



I hadn't yet built up the B6 shock as I wanted to make sure the Febi/Bilstein top mount was like the OE top mount.
So I stuck it on top to see







Exactly the same, fitment wise, but clearly a different moulding.

I therefore built the B6 shock up with new top mount, dust cover and bump stop



With regards to re-fitting, I used this that I took from Vida



And the passenger side was in and done



Excuse the unpainted area of the caliper..... You don't usually see that bit.....



With regards to the bottom bolt for the shock, as the Vida screen stated it needed 175nm of torque, I really struggled to get it there.
I have a torque bar, but because I was doing it on the floor, the bar would only go back 2 clicks and not move a great deal when turned "righty-tighty".
I was on it for quite a while and the torque bar never clicked to say it had reached the required spec, but my god it was tight still.

Due to this I'm going to my friends garage tomorrow to get it up the ramp so I can get some proper leverage on it and make sure it's torqued up correctly.

After doing the passenger side I was knackered as that bottom bolt really took it out of me. I decided to have a little rest and build up the other shock.



Same thing for the other side and the shock was out.

I pulled the bump stop and dust cover down just to have a look at it really



Totally different style to what I've just put on.

Not sure if this was grease or corrosion, but didn't look very good



Old and new



Drivers side done and dusted



Just for my records;

Installed on - 8th July 2024
Installed at;



I compared the compression of the OE shocks and the B6 shocks and the OE shocks were a bit stiffer than the B6's, which I was surprised at.
The OE shocks didn't rebound as quick as the B6's though.

As is life when working on cars, I was awarded with a lovely injury to my right hand



This was the result of trying to get the bottom shock bolt out, the wratchet bar slipped and me pretty much punching the concrete floor......... It hurt and there was a lot of choice words that came from me.
My thumb and a number of other knuckles are scuffed and sore. My middle finger took some of the impact and is a little swollen.

I think I'm going to have to pick my jobs when it comes to working on the car on the floor. I'm getting too old and my knees and back can't take it anymore.

Drove to work and back today and I can tell a difference with the B6's in. It's not as crashy over little bumps and pot holes.
The main area I noticed it was exiting the work car park. There's a little bit that is raised where the car did bang/crash a little when driving over it. That wasn't there tonight when I left.

Overall dead happy with the B6's and the work I did. I do love doing this type of thing. It's not hard, really, as long as you have the right tools. I think a new rattle gun will be on the cards???
Plus, doing things like this yourself, you save an absolute fortune on garage labour charges.

So, pop to my friends tomorrow to make sure the bottom bolts are actually tight enough and that'll be job done.

This will no doubt be the last post until the end of the month when it's refurbished Jaguar wheels time!!!

[Kev0607]

Nice work and thanks for sharing.

Hopefully the cut/swelling heals soon. I always find that a simple job never ends up being simple. Its rewarding knowing that you've done it yourself and saved some money in the process though. Doing jobs like that from jacks and jack stands is much harder. A ramp is worth its weight in gold, but most DIY'ers (myself included) don't have the luxury of a ramp!

If you're looking at a new impact, I recommend Milwaukee. They aren't cheap, but they're a fantastic piece of kit.

[Simmy]

plus one on a decent impact wrench i have an 18 volt dewalt one bought as a bare unit as i already had several 18v dewalt tools and battery's use 3 in one oil spray on any exposed threads before trying t run out bolts with power tools .get some decent mechanic gloves to minimise injury . great write up on your shock replacement. ps shocks will settle down and improve with use as they tend to store them on there sides iv recently done the same job on a c70 with bilsteins. im 67years young and still do all my own jobs like this.