850 T5 Door stay

[Roo]

Having owned my T5 for a couple of weeks now, (and very happy I am too) it has given me the chance to find the things that aren't quite right that you miss on a test drive. Firstly, on my drivers door, the stay that holds the door from opening right out isnt working. I believe it should open about half way and hold itself then fully open and hold itself. Is this an easy on to fix? Also, my drivers seat no longer adjusts height wise. The lever moves as it should but nothing happens to the seat. Thirdly, my electric aerial has portions of it seized. Can the unit be removed easily to be cleaned/soaked? (I believe its just crusted up with gunk) Many thanks in advance, a bit of a long winded question but these things are really annoying me!
Andy

[pault5]

hello andy,
the door stay broke on the drivers side on my 850 t5 about a year ago. it is a common fault. get a new one from volvo it is not expensive. you will need to remove the door trim. i found the job quite fiddly! the hardest part is getting the stay the correct way round. in saying that it only took me just over an hour.
hope that helps.
paul.

[Wentworth Man]

As to the electric aerial (antenna), assuming it isnt bent, try the WD40 trick ie spray onto a rag and lots of wiping up and down and powering the radio on and off/ switch if you have one and you will be amazed at the gunk. Repeat on a weekly basis and you will find full extension and retraction are improved.

Tony

[markas]

Hiya Andy,

first as mentioned about the door stay, use need to remove the door panelling. This is done by removing the torx screws at the bottom of the panel, then the small black screw insert near bottom facing the fron tof the car. remove the grab haddle and remove the inseryted trim by pulling down and torwards you. three are 3 plastic plugs that normally need replacing. They have changed the design to a black pinch but its no better.Pop of the speaker panel and remove the speak and its cabling. Now the cover will come off by pushing up carefully. takes min 5 mins The stay is protected behind a cover remove this.

For your seat are we talking mechanical one here? You will need to extrsct the sear out of the car to work on it properally. Remove the four bolts and be careful with the cabling the t-stat for the electric seat are fagile!

Last the aerial can be a pain. The easist thing firstly to do is undo the 14mm nut(i think it is) and then switch on the audio. Quickly catch if it does come out on its own the arial. Make sure you take note of the direction of the cogged teeth. If it is rellay bad a replacment mast can be purchased from the dealer at about 20 quid or europarts. To clean you old one use chrome cleaner a few times until is sparkles and then manual see if if will restract and extent easily. You can also check to see if it is bent in anyway way too.

To put the ariel back in feed it in with the teeth in the dirdction they came out, YOU DID WATCH? until it hits the hole in the base. Now you need to switch the head unit off and feed the ariel back in. Tighten the nut and withc the head unit back on. twith the mast full extended now wd40 and wipe it.

thats it

[Roo]

Wow! Excellent replies and so in depth too. Many thanks, im now going to go christmas shopping so I think a trip to Volvo is in order for a door stay! By the way, the seat is a manual one but has the pre-tensoner and side airbag. I presume this is a case of removing the battery and letting the car sit for a while before attempting to remove the seat? once again, thank you for the replies, I just need to find the time to do them now!
Andy

[BilboBagginss]

I've just done my door stay, took no more than about 25mins all up(including refitting trim).

Only one slight minor pain in the backside: my broken check strap was bolted to the side of the door(i.e nuts fixed inside the door), whereas the new one had the bolts fixed to the strap plate thus I had too find a couple of nuts to fix the plate in place. I don't if they changed the design, but it might be worth making sure you have a couple of suitable sized nuts just in case!

Apart from that, it's a doddle to do.

Car is an early '96 T5.

B.

[Mike Smith]

Glad alls well, interestingly I posted similar comments a year ago! however I've just done another one for a mate of mine and the strap was the same as the one I took off!! seems volvo stock both types?

Regards
Mike Smith
----------
96 850 GLT

[BilboBagginss]

I knew that box of odd nuts and bolts would come in useful lol.

[cootuk]

The side air bags will need to be physically disarmed...I believe there is a lever you turn to do this? I can't remember the exact details, but it should be in your owner manual.

[Roo]

Well I managed to find some time to work on the car today, had the wheels re-balanced as they had the clip on weights on and I prefer the 'sticky' type. Also got the tracking laser aligned just to make sure everythings in check. After inspection, I decided the electric aerial was past its best so I bought a new mast along with a new check strap from Volvo. Mast took about 5 minutes to do and the check strap took about half an hour to do and all with no spanner rash lol. My check strap was the type that required two nuts but I had some at the ready!

Andy