I have an 855 AWD with 105 K kms. The check engine light recently came on and after diagnosis it was determined by the dealer that the airpump and associated valve needs replacing and 'updating'. They are quoting C$1000+ for supply and installation. How difficult is it to install the airpump and the check valve? The Hayne's manual indicates that "at the time of writing no information was available regarding the secondary air system". Grateful for any advice. regards

Yhe air pump is relatively easy to replace. As is the check valve. Remove the battery and battery tray. Attached to the frame rail under the batt tray is the air pump bracket. Follow the large hose down from the air filter housing, you cant miss it. Remove the 2 12mm bolts mounting the bracket to the frame rail. Pry off or cot the hose clamps to the two hoses at the pump,1 large and 1 a bit smaller. Remove the screw attaching the negative battery cable to the body. This is also the air pump motor ground point. Lift the bracket and work the pump up and out. There are two cable ties that attach the wiring to the bracket. These will have to be removed ir cut. Once out, unplug the car wiring from the relay. Unbolt the bracket from the pump and unplug the relay. remove the bracket, Unscrew the three rubber mounting lugs and transfer to the new pump. Reinstall the bracket. At this point, inspect the relay terminals. If they are badly corroded, I would replace it. Plug the relay back in, and reconect the car wiring to the relay. Resecure the wiring to the bracket with tie straps and work the pump back into the car. There is a small hook on the bracket that slips into a hole in the frame rail to help locate the pump. Bolt the bracket in place and reinstall the hoses with standard hose clamps, reattach the pump/batt ground cable, batt tray and battery. The check valve sits on top of a pipe above the exaust manifold. Two 10mm bolts from the underside, and two hoses. 1 aboyt 1" diameter, and 1 vacuum tube. Remove the hoses/bolts, replace the valve/gasket, reconect the hoses. I recomend replacing the vacuum hose too. It's purple, and the other end conects to a solenoid at the radiator fan shroud. I've seen these hoses have debris inside that contaminates the solenoid. Hope this helps. P/S. I do these in about 20 minutes, but I've done quite a few. Expect 2-3 hours and a 6 pack.

$1000!

That's a tad high IMHO, like at least double for the airpump, check valve, clamps and gasket ( and about 2 hours labor) unless there's more to the story?

The quote from my dealer for the same job/same car in Tennessee is $534:

pump $279

valve $89

gasket $2

relay $42

2 hours labor (rate not quoted, apparently $61/hr.)

Yahoo says the US/Canadian exchange rate is .6596 Canadian dollars / US dollar, so that would be $660 (US). Not a huge difference. I'm planning to replace just the valve myself and see how it goes. I have nothing to lose, if the pump dies I'll replace it later. My CEL has only complained about this thing twice - once in July and again last month.

I'm no mechanic but it doesn't look like a hard job and there are many references on the board to Volvo parts sources that are cheaper than list.

As far as I know, that's the whole story (pump plus updated valve, which I understand from previous posts will prevent the moisture accumulation problem from re-occuring). The Can$ not being rock solid generally means relatively expensive parts compared to US costs. The nature of the estimate suggests that several hours of work may be involved (and you seem to agree) and though I can do many things with cars, I'm not a mechanic and don't have any specialized tools. If its not a difficult job and does not require specialized tools (i.e. beyond socket wrenches, pliers and a simple torque wrench), your suggested price estimate for parts makes doing it myself a very attractive alternative. It looks like it would also be worth investing in a Volvo shop manual as the Haynes version is a bit thin in places. Thanks very much for the comments and any more that you might like to pass on regarding degree of difficulty of the job.

Best wishes for the season.

You can do everything yourself as it's really not that hard (no special tools) EXCEPT resetting the fault codes because on '96 to '98 cars you need a scan tool to read and reset the codes (unlike the '95 and earlier cars).

You'll also need the radio code because you need to first remove the battery and tray to gain access to the pump. You then cut the crimp style clamps off and it's best if you get new ones and crimp them with a side-cutters but you can use regular hose clamps too except for the one vacuum hose clamp (can be re-used if carefull). Actually, it's possible to re-use the original clamps by prying a screwdriver into the crimped area but it's more of a hassle than just replacing them.