Customer Feature - Michael Schmidt
We purchased this car in the year 2000, after my wife was rear ended in our 1994 740 wagon, that was totaled. Luckily she was okay because of the safety of the Volvo thus we decided to get another. We found the t5 at Volvo dealer in Los Angeles area. Fast forward our kids are grown, and my wife has a 2001 xc70(love it!) My 16 year old son drove the t5 for 2 1/2 years. He did not take care of it and decided to get a newer car instead. I decided to sell my 2005 Chevy pick up and keep t5 and turn it into project car. I have always wanted to do this on the t5! With the help of ipd,swedespeed and my local Volvo friend Sergio of Exclusively Volvo my project has been coming along fine. I started with a stage zero. Getting oil cooler lines replaced,tranny flush,oil change, turbo seals and no more drips under car! How nice. I had numerous trips to the salvage yard getting parts and I was very lucky! Front bumper,door seals,glove box door,steering wheel even found 4 brand new Polk audio speakers! Also front seats and steering wheel from a 850r sedan. After getting interior back to normal including new head liner(son used staple gun to keep old head liner up...Lol) it was was time to give car new look.
My stage 1 was getting car detailed to see if paint would look good.I had roof painted ,front bumper and Volvo spoiler I purchased ipd. My friend Sergio put his R wheels on my wagon, I had to get some after that! So back on line to purchase.The wheels, spoiler and freshly painted roof and front bumper gave car a completely different look. Also had new Kenwood stereo, amp and 10 inch subwoofer installed. Got to have good sounds. My son was getting jealous car was looking good and he missed the power!
My stage 2 was installing short ram intake, msd coil, hd turbo control valve and blue silicon lines with skid plate all from ipd. Amazing the difference the way the car performs! Any one who has 850 I recommend these changes. I have a hard time not gassing around town. I am 52 years old! I even got a little better gas mileage to boot.
My stage 3 was working on getting suspension fesh again. Back to ipd. Eibach lowering sport springs with 1.3 drop. I go skiing a lot and didn’t want drop car to low. Also ipd heavy duty sway bars, HD end links, truss strut braces, sachs shocks, A arms and tie rod ends. My friend Sergio at Exclusively Volvo installed all the suspension for reasonable price. What a blast to drive. No roll, no old mushy feeling and steering like new again. Also had side marker lights installed with suspension. All the products I have purchased from ipd have been top notch. Brandon was very nice to deal with in sales. I will get the reverse intercooler piping kit in the future. People look at me like I am crazy for investing all the money into 97 wagon with a 190,000 miles but the car has always been a favorite of mine. And with ipd around I should be able to keep it running good for quite awhile longer. Thanks ipd.
