what is the self leveling system?

[Brett Dikeman]

At 6:37 PM -0400 9/16/00, 
<isham-research.freeserve.co.uk at pop.pol.net.uk> wrote:
>  > does my 89 200 tqa have it and what exactly is?  can it go bad and when it
>>  does what are the signs?  thanx.
>
>Locate the hydraulic oil reservoir on the engine bay bulkhead.
>
>If it's cylindrical, you don't have self-leveling suspension.
>
>If it's box-shaped, you do.

This was only on non-US cars; no US car came equipped as such.  As I 
discovered once, there are actually items in the Bently that pertain 
to the system, however...I think there's a spot for a relay, stuff 
like that.

It is basically a glorified air spring; car gets loaded, it pumps up 
a support that basically supplements the rear springs.  Someone once 
told me(in fact, I think it might have been you, Phil) that some euro 
versions of the Bomb have an extra connection for the system.

My parents' Volvo 960 Wagon, among other things, was supposed to come 
equipped with Nivomat, which is not the same thing.  The salesman 
even told us about how the system would work:

"If you hear clicking or groaning after loading up the car with a lot 
of stuff and starting the engine, that's normal, it'll do that for up 
to 5 minutes or so; it's the load adjuster levelling the car."

(which is incorrect.)

I investigated the matter.  What did I find?  Nothing but very large 
bump stops for the rear axle, but that doesn't say anything.  The 
shocks are the only component of Nivomat...the shock absorber is 
completely self-powered; it works off the up+down motion of the 
wheel, adjusts itself.  Clever, but faulty little invention from the 
good folks at Boge.

Cost to replace the Nivomat shocks?

$1000ish

Ouchie.  Makes those racing shocks look downright bargain basement. 
Oh, and according to iPD's website, you -cannot- convert a car with 
an independent rear suspension and Nivomat to traditional 
shocks/springs.

They're wrong, because a number of owners on the brickboard have 
converted their cars.  Converted meaning "buy new springs and shocks 
all around."

Not to mention, a few Sweedish equivalents of our beloved Blau, TPC, 
etc are more than happy to sell replacement shocks and springs to 760 
owners, advertising that the cost of shocks+springs for the entire 
car is less than ONE nivomat shock many times over.

Several of the pages returned by a search using Google were on 
Sachs-owned websites.  I wonder if Boge sold the technology?  Can't 
blame them, given the number of Volvo owners who curse the system.

Brett
-- 
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Brett Dikeman				Systems Engineer
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