Typing kind of slow. Had arthroscopic surgery on my left wrist due to a work related injury (no longer employed because of it). Thought I had kienbock's disease (avascular necrosis of the lunate), but turned out to be something else. Still severely damaged. But, I digress...

My first question is this. Both my ball joints are worn out on my 95 850 turbo wagon. I'm going to order a set this week, and was going to have my mechanic install them. I was wondering, though, how difficult it would be to install them myself. I've done quite a bit of work on her myself, and thought I might tackle it. Has anybody out there installed control arms themselves? If so, how was it? What tools will I need?

My second question relates to the turbo. I'm trying to learn all I can about the turbo aspect of my car. Goldy has a high-pressure turbo. What's the difference between the high-pressure and low-pressure turbo, and why would somebody want one as opposed to the other? How do I find out how much horsepower it's putting out? Does the fact that I have a high-pressure turbo mean that I have a "T-5" or an "R" even though I don't have any emblems to suggest it?

Last question deals with tires and wheels. I'm ordering a new set of tires and wheels, and am wondering about the wheel width. My stock wheels say "6.5" on them which I assume means they are 6.5 inches wide. The problem is that I can't find any aftermarket wheels that are 6.5 inches wide. They all seem to be either 7, 7.5, or 8 inches wide. Is this going to be a problem when I mount them? Also, how do I make sure a tire will fit any of these? Obviously I know nothing about tires and wheels so any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the time and, hopefully, answers.

kevin

The low pressure turbo has a smaller bore and spools up faster, and is particularly useful for around-town driving. It has significantly less lag and is very responsive when hauling kids (or a cumbersome AWD system). The trade-off is at the top end: there's a limit to the boost it provides and above 45 mph, the turbo magic starts to wear off.

The high pressure turbo spools up slower (lag), but once the power comes on, it delivers a terrific high end kick. Very useful for passing power and short on-ramps. Though the power comes on more slowly, the HPT-equipped Volvo arrives at 60mph well ahead of the LPT. This is better suited to open-road conditions.

Audi/VW uses a very low pressure, constant velocity turbo in their 1.8T engines. Zero lag time, and instant response from 0 mph. But above 40mph, this package is wheezing.....
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David
1998 S70 T5SE // misc mods (mostly lighting) // red calipers
1992 940 GLE // Hella Micro DE foglights and 170K

I just bought the two A frames as they contain the ball joint from Europarts in CT $64.90 each free shipping .Volvo wants $167 each 1-800-467-9769. Three bolts to change each after you jack up front end and remove wheels

Great! That's about half the lowest price I've found so far. Do these guys have a website or phone number that I could have? I'll order from them if I can.

Thanks

kevin

www.eEuroparts.com 18004679769

Thanks! I've already ordered and the parts are on the way. Great prices!

kevin

HPT is normally a T5, if you had a R you would know by the difference in the Body styling and a R badge on the rear fender most T5's have a T5 badge also but not all.

there should be a sticker with engine code on the timing belt cover

you should have a B5234T engine: B (gasoline) 5 (five cyl) 23 (2.3 liter) 4 (4 valve/cyl) T well Turbo

some HPT's had a 2.4 liter also, but all LPT's are 2.5 cyl and were not available untill 1997 so if you have a pre 97 it is a HPT

I have a 97 GLT LPT difference is a 2.5 liter engine with 6 psi of boost 197 HP
HPT is a 2.3 liter with like 11 psi boost 240 HP?(stronger cyl walls=smaller bore)

The R has a system that give short bursts of higher boost when floored giving like 250 HP but it is for like 20-30 seconds i think, they used to call it Turbo+ on 244T's

LPT develops full tourqe sooner (about 1000 rpm)than the HPT, LPT has a smaller turbo that spools up alot faster.

all have the same transmission, HPT's have a different ECU program that will not work on LPT or vise versa.

Dan

Wow, that's a lot of good info. Thanks, I appreciate it.

Does anybody have any answers for the rest of my original post?
If so, please post.

Many thanks,

kevin

for a complete selection of Volvo Rims go to www.volvoworld.com

no problem!

as far as the ball joints go i have never had this problem with my car, as for rims try www.tirerack.com

my rims are 15x6 volvo does have 6.5 rims, that is about all i know as far as teh rims go.

tirerack does have a cool feature, it will give a graphic of a 850 with the rims you selected installed!

There are also spacers available for our car to put on bigger rims, BSR has them i believe so does SAM Steffanson automotive.

Dan