posted by
someone claiming to be White Brick
on
Mon Dec 26 18:48 CST 2022 [ RELATED]
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Costco will not put on a set of snow tires on my 1980 245 Wagon. They cannot find the load rating for the vehicle in any of there reference books. Is there any reference material that would give me a load rating figure for my brick. BTW - Load rating on the snow tires is 87.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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I think that a real tire store can get the rating for you.
I have dealt with Stansfield tire in Lowell, MA - they got me some extra strong steel wheels and proper snow tires load rated for my '96 855R.
One thing that I noticed on the wheels was that the wheel center had much more welding to the rim than the Volvo steel wheels.
I have a set of station wagon wheels for my 544 and they are noticeably heavier than the coupe wheels.
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Costco can be such idiots at times when it comes to tire sizing. If they are still unable to find it under either the standard "240" or "DL" model designations and looking within that for "5 door" or "wagon", then refer them to the 1980 Volvo 240 Owners Manual here at:
https://volvo.custhelp.com/app/manuals/OwnersManual/om_id/1742
Go down to the Wheels and Tires section on page 71 and it's all there in black and white. Your offical stock tire size is 185R14. It's a European specification with a standardized profile and load rating. If they don't know the North American SAE equivalent then make them call their regional or head office support people. (I'd tell you, but I'm not here to do Costco's job)
I no longer use Costco for tires as it often ends up wasting time in an argument like this. Anyone wanting a common plus-sized tire needs to bring in the rims only and have a year and model that matches the tire size you are trying to buy. Once I tried to buy the standard 195 width tires for my 940T, but they would only sell me the standard 185 tires for a 940 non-turbo because I was driving my wife's 940. I was starting to lose patience and said I would pick them up in the 940T if that would keep them happy -they reluctantly agreed. I've never gone back since.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now
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Wow they're such sticklers.
Do they know about and use Torx sticks when they mount your wheels?
Be sure to insist on that preferably in writing. Be a stickler too.
Probably they should just look up "240" wagon.
Here's the return from duckduckgo for your 240.
Bridgestone Blizzak WS90 : 185/65R15 88T
$135.00
Discount Tire Zone
Shop around.
I just got a pair of Bridgestone EVO Winter studded snows for my 940.
195/65/R15 $250.00 final total
mount and balance, valve stems and two junked tires at Walmart.
I wont mount them until the threat of snow, and so far we've missed it in Boston.
We lucked out here, on the warm side of that huge storm with maybe 3" of rain and high winds gusting to 70 MPH.
Happy new year, Bill
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Even torque sticks shouldn't be trusted, but at least they're better than hoping the psi they've got their air supply set at limits their air wrench. I always insist on hand torqued, but even then you can't trust the word to get to the tire tech or that the tire tech will have the time and inclination to do it by hand.
I've had a couple of occasions where a tire shop said they used a torque stick, but I suspected they didn't or at least it wasn't correct. Instead of the typically spec'd 65 ft-lbs for my 900s (front and rear, same for most 700s, but for your 240 is typically 85 ft-lbs front and 70-100 rear -check your year and wheel/rim type), which I noted for them both inside the wheel covers and which Volvo also has stamped on the front hubs (which are the most critical), I variously measured they'd torqued them from 85 to over 125 ft-lbs. I was not amused, and later told them so. Their excuse was that the torque sticks may not have been recently checked for calibration and replaced as needed (yeah, like some tech is going to spend his own money buying new tools he doesn't think he needs).
The way to accurately check what a shop has done is with a bar torque wrench. Carefully note the original wrench position when tensioned forward then back off the wheel nut a bit and re-tighten, noting the torque reading you reach at the precise original angle, while keeping the wrench in motion as you move just past that point. Repeat and average if you're a purist. As noted, I was mildly shocked how far off they were, well at least disappointed as I expected better of them. None were even close to correct. Worse still was the variability around the wheel.
Torque sticks usually come in 10 nm increments, normally starting at 90 nm (65 ft-lbs), which is the 700/900 spec and not an overly common torque compared to many other vehicles. If their kit doesn't have the smallest stick or if they're too lazy to look for it (or look it up in a chart) then they may use the next size up, or worse guessing. Also, if it's well used, it's quite likely out of calibration, which a good tech is supposed to occasionally check, but I suspect rarely happens.
Torque sticks also have to be used correctly. If the wheel nut is driven in at full speed and full air pressure all at once without pausing as you go, momentum and other factors will result in overtorquing, which may be significant as I and others have observed.
For our RWD rotors, being evenly torqued around the rotor is more important than the actual torque in terms of minimizing rotor warping as long as the nuts can't come loose. Wheel nuts likely won't come loose for anything above 50 ft-lbs, depending on whether they're steel or alloy rims and how clean the threads and sockets are. I'll also note here that a clean and dry thread is required for proper torquing. Having rusty rims, leaving grunge on the threads or hitting the threads with something like WD-40 to loosen grunge without wiping it off, can all result in significant overtorquing or uneven torquing.
Even a click torque wrench should occasionally be double checked against a bar or other torque wrench, also leaving the tension spring completely relaxed when stored. For bar torque wrenches, make sure the pointer is at zero when you start out. Bending the pointer to zero is an acceptable re-calibration if you don't have to bend it too much
Anyway, that's my full two-bits on the subject.
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Dave -still with 940's, prev 740/240/140/120 You'd think I'd have learned by now
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Do they know about and use Torx sticks when they mount your wheels?
Please explain what you mean.
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'79 242, '84 DL 2 door, '80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon, '15 XC70 T6 AWD
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Hi Bulletproof,
You're lucky to never have had the misfortune of some tire gorilla installing your wheels torqued somewhere north of 800 foot pounds?
Then your ordinary tire iron is useless to change a flat.
You'll need to call AAA, or use a big 1/2" breaker bar and impact socket, and maybe a piece of steel fence post to remove the nut or snap the stud off to get the wheel off.
Happy new year, Bill
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So, a torque limiting device. I was not familiar with the term torque stick. The use of the trademark, Torx, threw me.
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'79 242, '84 DL 2 door, '80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon, '15 XC70 T6 AWD
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I bring my own with the 19MM impact socket to the tire joints, just in case
they are clueless.
Here's the offering from HF:
https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-torque-limiting-extension-bar-set-10-piece-69870.html
Find it cheaper at one of their sales.
Cheers, Bill
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Why would they need a load rating?? Its not truck?
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