being new to the 850,s or any volvo with FWD, one thing I had noticed was the oil pan is so exposed. Living on a gravel road (1 mile) I wondered about the pan. Yesterday I got IPDs newest 850 catalog and on page 49 they show an engine gaurd, talk about oil pans being $700 and have a picture of an ugly one. Is this really a concern ? IF so, and I love IPD products, is there a more affordable one out there ?

Also while were at it, how about rubber floor mats fitted to the 850's,IPD does not have, it is still a wet muddy winter here in Oregon.

thanks

The skid plate is definitely a good idea. I have already scratched most of the paint off of my Volvo-supplied skid plate. For about $130.00 and about 15 minutes of your time, if it saves you once, it's already paid for.

Regards,

Mike Harris in Sandy Eggo

Josh,

I installed the Volvo engine protector, after returning the IPD skid plate. The IPD mounting system particularly the front bolting system breaks down after several removals of the plate. This was confirmed by several contributors to the aftermarket forum and my own assessment of the front mounting hardware in a mock installation. I purchased mine from Topping Volvo (volvoparts.com) for about $137.00. And with the amount of debris on the roads I feel the oil pan is now protected as Uncle Olaf has already testifed to.

Vic

S70 SE 2000

I have never had a problem but I know people who have. Due to the fact my car is lowered I opted for SPG9s skip plate. Its steel as apose to aluminum. If your interested contact SPG9 and mention Volvospeed. Cost is like 98 dollars as I recall.

Yup. I was shocked when I first looked under there, the first soiid part of the car is the oilpan, and it's at about the height of those concrete parking stops. All my prior Saabs came with skidplates as standard equipment.

I bought the Volvo skidplate, not the IPD one. The Volvo one looks like a bunch of metal bars. It's not solid like the IPD one.

And I did recently manage to hit something, doing $$$$ damage to the underside of my car, but the skidplate did it's job, and I drove home, with the oil still in the sump where it's supposed to be. The car spent the next month in the shop, but that's another story.

I think it's awful that Volvo makes you pay extra for the device which should be standard equipmant.

-Uncle Olaf

Just received my floor mats from ipd- they were on backorder. They fit perfectly and have a fairly tall lip around the perimeter to keep water, etc. off the floor. They are on sale now for $23.95- I got them for the front only. I also have Rubberqueen or Rubbermaid or something that I got from Wal-Mart a few years ago. They don't have the tall lip but still work well. Unbelievably, they also fit pretty well given that they are made to fit a variety of vehicles.

I bought a set of original Volvo mats (trays) at some mail order place (do not remember which one, but it was $20 less than at my local dealership. I think I paid $80 or so for the set of 4. They match my beige interior nicely, made of heavy rubber and do the job. The only problem is that they tend to slide forward, slowly but surely. Anybody knows a non-invasive way to secure them in place?

If you got the OEM Volvo mats for the 850, they should have two little hole cut outs so that you can use the thumb screw locks to hold them in place. Remove the mat and/or carpet and you should see the two thumb screw locks on the floor. Then look at the carpet and the mat, they should each have cut outs in them that should match up to the thumb screw locks.

This is what I thought when I first saw the mats. But the holes in them are way too small to pass the floor locks through, and the mat is too thick as well. I even tried to unlock and remove the original, carpet mats to try to lock the rubber tray and that did notr work either. Maybe S70 has a different design?

Are your floor mats hard or soft?

In the summer time, sometimes, I use only the carpet, and the thumbs screw locks work just fine with them alone. The majority of the time, I run the Volvo mats which are kinda stiff, and have a carpet insert on the driver side mat presumably for better heal traction. And these work fine as well. You cannot have both at the same time.

You can always take the oil pan out and have it repair with welding this will be a cheaper way to go.. it will fix the leak and save few dollard..

many shop can solder allumim for cheap....

why spend $700 for something underneat the car that you can not see any way...

good luck

Shahnawaz

At Volvoparts.com they have one. There was a recent contributor that purchased a Volvo original part from Don at Volvoparts.com for $150 or so. I think the Volvo model looks better, is more sturdy, and mounts more securely.

Plus, many dealerships will not unmount an oil pan protector (for oil changes, ect..) if it is not Volvo original.

Best of luck

Andrew T. Watson