I just had the dealer install the OEM CD Changer in the glove box compartment. (BTW, the CD Changer w/ bracket kit was $198 from the dealer).

The glove box door does not close and open like it used to. It is a little tight and has to be pushed in hard and pops out when opening it. The tech said that this is normal with the CD Changer installed. Is this true? The other thing is the panel underneath the glove box (knee bolster?) is slightly loose at the inner end. Where do I tighten this?

Much thanks.

There are many things you should never let anyone but a certified Volvo technician touch, and then there are things you should never let a certified Volvo technician touch.

If there is one thing you should never do, is let anyone but a professional car audio installer, install ANY piece of sound equipment.

I can't really help you with you problem as I own an 850 and I don't want to assume the body panels and interior are similar enough for me to give advice to, but I just want to let as many people know, car audio is for car audio experts.

I have an Alpine 6 disc in my glove box as well. It's been in my car for more then 2 years now, and the install was absolutely perfect. It sits flush against the driver side inner wall of the glove box to make acces from the driver seat easier, and to leave enough space on the passenger side inner wall for storage of small items like sunglasses, pen/pencil, notepad, lock nuts, cell phone, charger, etc. I personally keep a pair of sunglasses, a pen, two pencils, and a note pad with my changer in the glove box. I have no problems with the door not being able to be closed properly, or with loose panels.

I purchased the same player from the dealer, installed for around $500; I'd say you got a better deal! My glove box cover has the same problem but I didn't want to take a chance with the so called "audio professionals", I'd rather pay a little more, get OEM equipment & have a volvo dealer be liable. All in all, adding the CD changer was one of the best accesories I have added to this car!

(NOTE: if you have a CDRW drive in your computer, pickup a Rio Volt MP3 CD player from www.sonicblue.com for 10+ hrs of music on 1 CD!!)

Actually, the cd changer from Volvo is the cheaper model from the one I installed. It is essentially the same player, however, it does not have a digital output. Unless you purchase the dolby digital surround sound, audio system from Volvo, you can't get a digital sound system from Volvo.

Find an audio shop that participates in audio competitions and you won't have to worry with custom jobs.

That mp3 player idea sounds like a good one. But I'm so used to burning my regular wav format music onto CDR's and CDRW's. Since I make my own, I can cram up to the low 80 minute range.

Actually, talking about MP3's, my friend has a 240 with a Pentium III computer hooked up to the sound system of the car. He uses an external drive to go between the computer in the car and the computer at home.

Digital surround sound (add homer simpson drool)! I wish! But I can't complain, this one is doing the job well (it says Volvo but I think it's an Alpine 6 CD).

Anyway, regarding the MP3 Rio Volt, look it up on ZDnet.com and pay attention to the user reviews, this one wins hands down! I purchased a D-link model which was horrible, returned it and replaced it with the Rio Volt. Words can't say how much better this player is than the D-link!! Having a PIII computer in the car to play MP3 files gives unlimited play time but this handy little unit is much more portable and the battery life is EXCELLENT! (I record my own MP3's at 64kbps w/ music match jukebox & use this to study for my MCSE classes.. can you say computer geek?)

The Volvo issue 6-disc changer is made by Alpine. In fact many of the head units of the 850 are made by Alpine. Just open up the cassette deck door, and look inside. You should be able to see a golden chip that has Alpine printed upside down on it.

Alpine has this exact model badged as an Alpine 6-disc. They also have a high end model that has a digital output. The price difference is about $250.

"Having a PIII computer in the car to play MP3 files gives unlimited play time but this handy little unit is much more portable and the battery life is EXCELLENT!"

Battery life?! I thought you were talking about the mp3 in dash players that use memory cards. How do you wire the output from the mp3 player to the sound system?

64kbps?! THAT'S HORRIBLE SOUND QUALITY!!! I never use anything less then 128kbps. For those that don't know what kbps stands for, it is kilobytes per second. Basically the higher the kbps, the better the sound quality.

In my entire mp3 collection, the lowest kbps I will download is 128, the highest I have are usually in 160 or even 192.

This MP3 player looks like a standard, portable CD player but plays data CDR's and CDRW's. Right now I use a cassette tape adapter to get the sound into the car's stereo but I wish there was a better way. My old indash sony CD player from years ago had an input jack for a portable cassette player, wish this player had the same feature (the bearings on the cassette adapter by sony make an annoying vibration after they heat up).

I use 64 kbps because it's like books on tape, it's not music so I really don't need the 128 or higher bit rates. I read the material as I study and using Musicmatch Jukebox I encode at 64kbps. I've put about 18 hours of audio on these cd's (one CD per course) and still have plenty of space!

You may know this already but for music encoding there are 2 types of MP3 files, CBR and VBR. Most likely you use CBR, constant bit rate of 128 & up, takes 128kbits per second so you can calculate the file size based on time: 128Kbps * 1bit/8Bytes * 1min * 60sec/min = 960KB on disk.

But VBR (variable bit rate) adjusts it's bit rate based on the complexity of the music..WAY COOL! but VBR isn't too widely used. The RIO volt player supports VBR from the most recent version of Musicmatch. So, if there's a quiet part in the song, the bit rate goes down to save space. If the music gets really complex the bit rate will jump up so you don't miss any quality.

Since all of the songs on Napster are pretty much encoded using CBR, you have no choice. But if you rip your own songs off CD, try VBR and see if you like the quality better, then compare file sizes & sound quality!

By the way, I didn't like Andrew's original post about drag racing but I sure enjoyed reading your response! Damn you know your stuff!! Under the stories section, did you read that post about the Sunday drive in a volvo where the guy had a corvette engine mod in his 760 wagon?!

Thanks for the info and the compliment.

I'll go see if I can find that thread with the 760 wagon and the 760 wagon.

That should've read 760 and the Corvette engine.

I pulled the CD Changer out just to have a look see. The work seems to be neatly done. I finally discovered that the washers provided with the screws to hold the lower part of the glove box in place was slightly interfering with the glove box door due to the fact that the head of the screws were now protruding. I took 2 of the 4 washers out and the door is closing smoother now. (It seems that not all OEM is a tight fit?)

My only complaint now is the panel underneath the dash. It is tight up front but when I reach underneath and push it up there is some play. I checked out our other S70 and it is tight. How can I tighten this?

I'm not sure what you mean by play in the panel. I'm going to assume you're talking about forward part of the knee panel (the part that sits farthest forward and is bare plastic rather than vinyl coated). This part of the panel slides into a groove on both sides. It is very easy when trying to put this back in place to miss one of them and not the other. This would cause the panel to stay in place but have some degree of freedom to it. The only way to fix it is to pull the panel down and line everything up again to put it back. This can be a pain though so if you don't have a bunch of free time available I would suggest putting it off. Basically what you have to do is remove the glove box insert (screws are easily seen once you open the door) There are six screws i believe. The insert will be tough to pull out but it will come out if all screws are removed and it wont break i promise. once you have that out you will see the top edge of the knee panel along with the two screws holding it in. pull those out and the panel should fall right into your hands. Then pull forward to remove it from the grooves. You may or may not be able to see where it's supposed to slide into depending on how flexible you are but you should be able to reach down and feel it. Get the front of the panel near where it should be then slide BOTH SIDES in at the SAME TIME. If you try to do one then rotate the other in you won't get anywhere. Thats where it gets tough. Once in lift the back of the panel back up and rebolt. Put the gloveboc back together and your done. As for Sins comment. I agree to a point. Stereo installers are there for a reason and should be utilized rather than a mechanic. Just as you wouldn't ask a carpenter to build you a rock wall. However, experienced DIY'ers can accomplish a great deal with a bit of time and effort (eg. last night it took me four hours but I successfully managed to replace the trim piece surrounding the radio and heater controls). If you doubt your skill dont try it but if your fairly confident and have some experience, the money saved and the satisfaction of doing a difficult job yourself is well worth the extra time. My $0.02

I'll try it out. -Cheers, Brian