Rica or BSR???

Hi all I have a 855R and was thinking of rechipping the old gal!

She is standard at the moment with 120k on her.

The two I am considerring are The Rica and the BSR.

I do not want to make any internal engine modifications, but will consider any external mods.

Also dose anyone do the "police" big brake mods in a kit form.

Who' best, who's cheepest and who's where?

Thanks for all comments.

[SaffronC70]

Hi there

SW Autos in Kent does the Police Brake kit, he also does BSR; www.swautos.co.uk

Hope this helps.

Chris

[sholtby]

I dont think BSR does a remap for your car so you are probably best going with Rica. Volvotuning sell Rica and BSR, give Adam a ring and he will tell you if BSR do a remap. They sell the 302mm brake kit which comprises Brembo disks and Ferodo DS2500 pads and brackets to relocate the callipers.

Simon

[don kalmar union]

As you are in Kent you will be very best advised to deal with Stewart Williams at SW Autos in Biddenden.

He will be able to supply the brakes that are best for you locally and fit if you do not want to do it yourself.

He has some kits being made up with Porsche callipers that I understand will be very well priced.

I can offer you MTE Swedish written software for your car at £351 including VAT. I install it by removing the ECU from the car and effecting the change without opening the ECU and removing and resoldering the chip.

I have a spare ECU suitable for your car with the MTE software installed which you are very wellcome to try. I will be dropping some kit off at Stewart's in the next few days and making another couple of calls in Kent and south London if you want to give it a go, otherwise there is a get together in a pub in Essex in a week or two and the regular VOC meet near Slough at the end of the month. At these you will be able to try not only my kit but that of some of my competitors already mentioned.

Regards, Don.Norchi.

www.kalmar-union.com

UK distributor of MTE Engineered Software.

[bobcat]

Regards the ecu upgrade, bsr did do upgrades for the non obd2 cars but im not sure if the bsr resellers can do them to the older cars, most of them sell the boxes thats plug into the cars obd2 port and update the software that way which wont work on the 850's.

your other options for the 850 are MTE\TME or Rica.

both will yield pretty much the same performance going on dyno charts i have seen and both cost about the same. and both will put a smile on your face, note i have a rica ecu and im very happy with the driving experience.

But the main (as i see it) difference between the 2 is the method of installation, the rica software is installed removing the ecu from the car, bending the tabs back, removing the lever which often breaks part of it, removing the case, de-soldering the eeprom (computer chip), plugging it into a writer and downloading the new rica code onto it, then it is resoldered back onto the circuit board and the ecu case put back on.

so as you can see the rica upgrade is an invasive\irreversible upgrade, in the sense that your ecu will from then on allways show signs of opening\tampering\modifying or repair.

below is a pic of the eprom that has had rica software on it:



as you can see the resoldering of the chip is visable. which could lead to problems if the car is later returned to std as the ecu will still show signs of tampering\opening etc.

the other option MTE/TME is done by removing the ecu from the car (same as rica) and plugging the ecu unopened into a computer (using the ecu main connectors) which then downloads the software through the ecu's circuit board onto the eprom. so as you can see this method is physically invisable in regards to the ecu.

you should also notify your insurance company if you have an upgrade done, as they can be detected, more so with products like the rica as evidence of them can be seen by the naked eye, whereas with mte\tme you have no physical sign of it. but ofcourse both can be detected by reading the code, so if anyone tells you they are invisable, they are not.

so for those people that choose not to tell their insurance companies about ecu upgrades then tme\mte is the better option in my view.

But as long as you notify your insurance company you should not have a problem with either upgrade if installed correctly.

regards the police brakes,

to do this upgrade you will need the following:

- 302 mm front discs
- larger caliper brackets for 302's
- longer brake hoses

note: you can still use your existing pads and caliper.

but if you want to go all the way you can also buy the police pads which as im aware swautos sell and offcourse you volvo dealer.

the picture below shows the caliper bracket, to fit the 302's you just get a bigger one that moves the caliper further out.



the rest of the post can be seen here, which will show you how to change the discs and pads:

http://www.volvo-tech.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=109

i run the 302's (police brakes) and they are much better than the std 280mm discs.

here is a pic of the 302's on my car:

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/attach...1&d=1134913235

hope that helps.

[MissDMeanor]

Hi Nick790

As you're in Kent I can strongly recommend S W Autos who is a specialist with modified Volvos. I've had the bigger brake kit (amongst other things) fitted by this garage.

Good luck!

[BigJC]

I got a RICA 280 so I can use 95Ron juice if needs be, fitted at VT in Bromsgrove & I'm chuffed with it!

I got my 302mm discs, carriers and police spec pads from Mark at Salvo, all new OEM parts for a very good price!

Hi all, I went down to SW Autos today, thay were very helpfull.
I will let you know how it all pans out.
Keep your opinions coming........

[bobcat]

Originally Posted by nick790

Hi all, I went down to SW Autos today, thay were very helpfull.
I will let you know how it all pans out.
Keep your opinions coming........

next time your down there, ask to be taken out in the "orange 850 t5" as that will give you an idea what can be had out of your t5. That orange 850 will happily ride the tail of his 360bhp impreza.

[Simon Linton]

This thread yet again raises the spectre of people not telling their insurers about an upgrade or change, invisible or not.

Once more I have to say that if you don't get agreement from your insurer about a change - however trivial it is - you are NOT insured.

Which means that you will be personally liable for any third party damage or worse, injury/death and you'll also be charged with driving without insurance, a criminal offence that can mean prison especially if you've just had one of the above accidents.

Why do people think saving a hundred pounds or less is worth wrecking their lives, especially as they're paying a lot of money for what is now a worthless piece of paper?

Every time I change anything from standard I inform my insurers and most times it means no change in the premium.