Hello,

I measure about 6'4" tall, and that's just about too much for the driver's seat of my V90. With the seat set as low as the motors will take me, I still touch the roof with my head (barely). Now I read in the FAQ that the 700 series had a way to adjust the seat cushion springs another 1.5 inches lower. Is this possible on the 90s? If so, does anyone know of a place where I can see pictures of the procedure?

Thanks,
Eric

Even though I am 4 inches smaller than you I had the same problem on a 740.

My local upholstery shop used an electrical knife to remove some of the foam from the seating surface and all was well. Done in a few minutes.

In a 960 you have the airbags to deal with but subject to taking proper precautions in that respect you should be able to do the same since the seats are very similar.

HTH,

R

Problem is the side airbags. If you lower the whole seat, the hard point in the door won't line up with the firing pin for the airbag charge. Make sure you follow the manual for disarming and capping the SRS system before investigating. My seat heater crapped out a couple of years ago and I haven't been brave enough to tinker in there, yet.

V90s have side airbags? If so, where do they pop out from? I was thinking about putting on some seat covers, but i don't want to accidentally cover the deployment surface. All my car's doors have "SIPS" markings, but I thought that was only a structural design. i didn't know they were already using side airbags.

Please excuse my inexperience with this car. I got it just a couple weeks ago.

As far as I'm aware all 960/S/V90s '96+ have side airbags in the front seats. You can probably feel the lump in the side of the seatback. You are correct about SIPS (side impact protection system), it did originally stand for a structural change that was introduced in the '92 700/900 models. In '95 Volvo introduced the side airbag in the 850 and from then on the SIPS system included side airbags. I'm not sure what structural changes Volvo made in '92 to the 700s and 900s as the only difference I've ever noticed was a SIPS label at the bottom of the B pillar and a different seatbelt setup. Maybe there is more structure under the seats or something.....I know when I discovered that the 96+ RWDs had side airbags in North America, I thought it was pretty cool! :)
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Chris. Halifax N.S. '91 745Ti, 292K km and '91 745 NA, 393K km.

Here's the lowdown on the SIPS. The SIPS system involved a few reinforcing bars as well as the side air bag built into the seat. Volvo beleives it is better (and I agree) to have it tin the seat as no matter where the seat is the bag is in the right place. One measure has been shown is the lengthening of the B pillar toward the front. This is to allow the bar built into the seat bottom to meet up with the B pillar if it is pushed in. Also there is another bar across the roof running just behind the sunroof. If you want to see what it looks like find an S70 or 850 without a sunroof and it is in the bump in the roof across the top of the B pillars. There are also two more reinforcing bars built into the floor of the car and if you really want to see those take out the seats and all the carpeting. You may not be able to see them because there is a double floor in that area as well. As well as all this there is still the steel bar in the door itself but that has been there since the 1976 240. I don't beleive they were there in the 1975 and earlier cars but I could be wrong.

Good to know. Did the wagons ever get curtain airbags? I read the S90s got them in 1998, but I saw nothing about the V90. I thought that sounded strange.

Hi hans,

I don't think any RWD Volvo ever came equipped with curtain airbags. They didn't come until at least '99 in the S80, maybe later.
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Chris. Halifax N.S. '91 745Ti, 292K km and '91 745 NA, 393K km.

Here's where I read about the S90's curtains, but it seems odd that they would introduce something that requires so much development cost at the end of the product's lifecycle. Maybe Volvo was just interested in beating everyone else to the market with standard curtains.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/airbags/airtech.htm

The B pillar on my wife's 95 944 was substantially wider at the base than the B pillar on my 87 745. The door beams and floor were reinforced and engineered to spread the force of a side impact as much as possible.

SIPS is the side air bag system. Try this site: http://www.terc.org/volvoairbags.html
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John Shatzer, '97 V90 @ 115K

Thanks for the link!

Do you have info on how to lower the seat cushion?

I think it's accomplished by the switch on the left side of the seat... ; >) (Sorry, but I can't help you there)
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John Shatzer, '97 V90 @ 115K

No problem. I was a little surprised at how little that switch does. When a Scottish co-worker of mine saw how my head rubs the ceiling, he proclaimed, "What the f**K?! It's not like the Swedes are a small people!"