Front wheel/rear wheel drive - I am confused!!!

Hello,

I have been spending a lot of time lately looking into buying a volvo (probably a 440 or 460)and am really looking forward to buying one as soon as possible . There is one thing that is baffling me!

What is the difference between a front wheel drive and a rear wheel drive? And what do the 400 series come with?

I'd love to know if anyone could shine some light on this for me please.

Kind Regards

Grace

[classicswede]

I'm sorry to say the 400 series are front wheel drive. Front wheel drive cars tend to suffer from under steer and when pulling away quickly the front wheels tend to scrabble. Rear has over steer where the rear end will slide out this can usualy be corrected be using opposit lock. usualy putting wide tyres on the back will stop this from happening. Hope this helps.
Dai

maybe the other reply isnt actually clear as to what it actually *means*

on most modern cars the engine is in the front (althoguh some sports cars still have it in the middle or rear of the car). the engine can provide power to either the front wheels, or the rear wheels of the car, or all 4 (4 wheel drive). most modern cars have front wheel drive, because it is cheaper, more fuel efficient, quieter and provides more interior room than rear wheel drive, however volvo was quite late compared to other manufacturers to change to this, as a result the 400 series was the first series of volvo cars to have front wheel drive (then followed by the 800 series, and later all the 's' and 'v' cars except the '90' series). so the volvo 400 has front wheel drive. you will not notice any difference normally, unless you drive the car very hard (as in accellerate quickly, or go round corners too quick).

hth

Hugh

[srtames]

the other important point is that a new clutch on a frontdrive 440/460 means taking out the engine which is expensive(unlike the reardrive 340,740 and 940 where the clutch is accessible without removing the engine. So ask if the clutch has been done when haggling.

good luck, Steve

true - most 400s die at 150k because of this.. its just not worth the work - costs around £600

there is *apparently* a way of doing it without takeing the engine out entirely, but i dont know the ins and outs of it.

Thank you all for helping to clarify things. That's helpful indeed. It sounds like there wouldn't be a major difference for me, since I wouldn't consider my driving hard in the least.

Is replacing the clutch just difficult in the 400 series volvos, or other front wheel volvos too?

Grace

good question - its probably 'more' expensive than on a rwd car, but it may be that because all other fwd volvos are worth >£1000, owners are willing to spend more to keep them going - 400s are generally worth about £500 tops now, so paying £750 to get the clutch done is just silly. I may be entirely wrong though - its possible that it only costs £300 or so for a 800

[ebdl]

Is it really that expensive to get a clutch done (c.£700)? And does the engine actually have to be removed? I had to have the clutch replaced on a Citroen Xantia a few years ago and I'm sure it wasn't an especially expensive job (c.£250-£300). I'm pretty sure it was done by dropping the gearbox down rather than extracting the whole engine. Are Volvos just (and I don't like to use this phrase in relation to Volvos) badly designed in this respect? If so, I'll be treating my clutch with more respect than the wildest expectations of Aretha Franklin.

Ed

at most places, yes. there is *some way* of doing it without taking the engine out entirely, but i dont know what it is, and neither do most garages..

[Daniel M]

Hello.

Def. a pig of a job...I had my clutch done 2003 (at only 70k, and it wasn't the original either...hmmm), and it cost me £200 all in. I took it to the garage, they got it up on the lift and worked on it from underneath.

They took something off from the top and lifted the engine (not out). This made the clutch more accessible from underneath. Not making it sound easy as the mechanic told me never to come back (he was joking). But i'd seriously look around if someone quotes you any more than £250.

Just my two pence worth!