940 Exhaust backbox hanging strap
 

Hi

I've got a 1992 Volvo 940 2.3 Automatic, whom I love dearly.

It chews through rear backbox exhaust straps like its going out of fashion. The only ones that fit are the 9 quid ones available on Euro Car Parts via eBay, and the welds go on them, then I have to replace the whole strap. In the past year I've gone through five straps. 9 quid isn't a lot, but **** me, it is a pain in the arse fitting it.

Does anyone know where I can get a proper decent exhaust strap?

I've tried classic swede, parts for volvo, even IPD etc. but nothings come up.

I'm getting rather irritated by it.

cheers

Try the parts department at your local Volvo dealer-they will be able to get you a fitting kit for around £37 from their Classic Warehouse. There are two varieties of back box hanging strap, one with the straight lugs and one with offset.

I've just fitted a full Volvo cat-back exhaust kit to my 940 and the fit and quality of the OEM parts is significantly better than the pattern bits available elsewhere. I've never found it so easy to fit an exhaust-total job (removing the old one and fitting the new) was 45mins. Slotted together like butter with zero bodging required!

You could also try Trust Car Parts - 020 8985 2255 - in North London; they used to be Braydon and Steve the Parts Man supplied me with a good price on what turned out to be an OE exhaust. At the time they were made in either Germany or France. Steve has deep and extensive knowledge of the 700/900 series and can recall part numbers from memory.

Once you get a decent quality exhaust strap, look at the alignment of your whole exhaust system, it sounds as if there's a deeper rooted problem here than just a misaligned strap that is breaking frequently.

Also check the other straps and mounting rubbers elsewhere on the system, they may provide a clue as to what's going on.

For the record, i fitted a complete system from ECP to my old 740 including their silncer straps and never had a problem because i made sure everything was lining up as it should before tighteneing the strap bolts and the joins, whether they were "U" clamps or flanges.

They were all done up finger tight cold then i started the engine and let it warm up and once the back end started getting warm, worked my way from back to front tightening the join then the silncer strap on each section.

Had no problems with any of the straps.

Thanks, appreciate it

The strap itself is alright, it's not too bad to fit using a jack, the main problem is the crap welds on the strap to the mounts keep snapping off. Usually one of the rubber mounts bounces out when going over the 30 or 40 speed humps experienced during a typical week, and then the other one just snaps its weld. ECP cheap ****.

I've asked the main dealer to see what they can do

Failing that I'm just gonna take the backbox off. The whole system was replaced 2 years ago under my ownership.

cheers

As Dave said.....
 

i had same problem til i realised it was the centre ribbers which had snapped therefore putting extra pressure on rear strap. Volvo still do all rubbers and straps iirc

Thanks for all of your helpful advices.

I spoke to Volvo who said the in-line strap variety was available but not the offset one. I haven't checked the other straps along the exhaust, but for now as it's bloody freezing out I did the right thing and just removed the rear backbox all together.

Will refit later, probably about 0 seconds before the MOT, although don't know if it would actually fail without it because it doesn't exceed any noise constraints

Seemed cheapest option

There's something in the MoT regs about the exhaust system being complete and if it isn't, it's a fail.

You'll also find in the meantime, fuel economy suffers and so will performance.

I had the strap on the rear box of one of my 940s snap recently and determined that the problem was due to the garage having fitted the offset variant when it needed the straight version. Don’t assume that what was there originally is correct.

I found that this is a common problem and the solution was easy in that I took the strap off and welded the hangers all round the plate edge to it. That has sorted it and it's now the strongest part of the whole exhaust!! Bob :)