Hey guys,

Recently(ish) scrapped the power steering pump and converted to a volvo electric power steering pump. i know a number of guys have done this but i didnt see a write up on the forum, so i decided id contribute the info for anyone looking to do this.

Im going to preface this buy saying sorry, i didnt take a ton of pictures. HOWEVER, i did make a video for this installation which can be found . For those who like reading, continue below. Also as my car is still very much a project, i havent done a road test. however as said, there are many other guys (and gals) who have also done this.

getting started, things you need.

• Volvo Electric power steering pump. These can be found in 2004-2013 volvo C30, C40, C70, S40 and V50's. Theyre mounted behind the bumper on the passenger side. make sure when you grab them you also take as much of the wiring harness as you can, this will make wiring it up in your car easier. also make sure you grab the rubber mounting bushings for the pump.
• M16 x 1.5 adapter - BRG-925121
• PTFE braided stainless steel line - SUM-220985
• -6 AN to M16 x 1.5 adapter - HSE-8163-06-16-2 you need 2 of these
• 90* -6 AN - FRA-689006-BL quantity depends on location of cooler
• 45* -6 AN female thread - VPE-28406 same as above, depends on location of cooler
• 3/8 PS fluid rated rubber hose
• 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" angle iron
• 1 1/2" flat stock
• *OPTIONAL* Reform Motorsports electric power steering pump controller
• *OPTIONAL* Mishimoto oil cooler - MIO-MMO-10-6BK

things to note;

• i did this one a 2 port power steering rack. IIRC for a three port, it would be the same install, you will just be plugging the second high pressure port on the rack *please correct me if im wrong*
• all AN lines need to be PTFE rated, the power steering system high pressure lines are well, high pressure. regular AN lines run the risk of blowing off the fittings or blowing holes.
• i deleted the factory steel power steering pump cooling lines and opted to run a small oil cooler. the factory lines could still be utilized in this system.
• the volvo pump has two connectors on it, first is the big one which is main power and ground. second one is a small 3 pin connector. one wire is 12v trigger, the other two are high and low speeds. this is where the reform controller comes into play. with adjustments of the **** on the controller, you can adjust the pump speed. from factory, volvos would have had a speed adjustment unit programmed for this.
• i kept the factory banjo bolt on the power steering rack and then adapted from there to AN lines

Removal of factory PS system
As my car is in the midst of being built, my engine bay is very accessible and the PS pump and bracket were already removed. Im sure if you're willing to embark on this swap/ conversion you will be able to figure out how to remove the existing system. depending on a few things will determine what remains. if youre keep/ have AC, then the PS/AC bracket will have to remain. If you want to clean up appearance, you could cut the top PS portion off of it. factory metal cooling lines - again, these cam stay or go, this is up to you.

Installation

• Mounting of Volvo pump - this is for you to decide. ive seen many locations from where the spare tire is (was), passenger firewall, behind passenger headlight, or in the rad support (this is the option i choose to keep the length of AN lines to a minimum.) for the mounting of the pump, i built a few brackets. for the brackets i used a combination of 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" angle iron and 1" flat stock to mount the pump on the driver side of the rad support. My intentions for mounting it was to keep the filler neck on the pump just above where a cooling tray would go for easy top up (if ever needed) and as tight as possible to the site to prevent blocking of air flow. you can see in the pictures below how my mounts turned out. i used M6 rivnuts to mount these brackets.
• Oil Cooler - once the pump is mounted, youre onto the fun stuff! now this is where i hummed and hawed for quite some time on the mounting location for the oil cooler. i ultimately decided to mount it center behind the hood latch assembly. now in order to do this, i did relocate the relays to below the oil cooler. for the oil cooler mounts, again i just used the 1" flat stock and M6 rivnuts to mount to the support bracket as shown below.
• Power steering Lines - this will again change depending on where you decide to mount your pump. but the basics are this.
  • return port on power steering rack - -6 AN Male to M16x1.5 oring
  • High pressure port on power steering rack - factory banjo bolt from rack adapted to the M16x1.5 power steering adapter
  • high pressure port on volvo pump - -6AN Male to M16x1.5 oring
  • low pressure port on volvo pump - 3/8 rubber hose (this runs to my cooler which has a 90* -6 Female to 3/8 hose barb)
  • from there is connect the lines. the installation of your AN lines and routing/ length will be determined by where you mount your pump.
• Wiring
  • large 2 plug - Main power and ground. power i ran to a resettable breaker i had already installed in the car. ground to chassis or battery.
  • small 3 plug - this is where the reform controller comes into play. if using it, wire as per the wiring diagram below. I mounted the controller in the center console or quick adjustments. if not, the farthest pin of the 3 in the connector needs 12v KEYED power to signal the pump to turn on.
• PS Fluid
  • Good 'ol ATF. just note that the volvo ps system uses CHF 11S. I decided to run ATF through it as its easier for me to replace the pump then replace the seals in the rack.

now with all of this, if you followed my questionable instructions, you should now have electric power steering with a volvo pump!

thanks for reading. Any additional insight/ comments/ information is always appreciated.





​​​​​​​

 

that's right where I have mine mounted as well.

This controller is what I'm using, and a bit cheaper.

 

Nice work. These look similar to the ones most often used in Australia, which are from a Holden Astra (as it was branded in Australia) or Vauxhall Astra (as it was sold in the UK). I don't think this car was ever sold in North America.

However, the design of the pump itself looks very similar and they may have come from the same OEM. The pump itself is not variable pressure, it seems to adjust rate depending on changes in system pressure when you turn the steering wheel (?). This makes it very simple to wire and no controller is necessary, but you also can't tune the level of steering assistance.

The Volvo might be a better option in that regard with a range of aftermarket controller, but it does look significantly taller and bulkier than the Astra version.

Is there any ability to remote mount the reservoir somehow so that the packaging is more compact?

 

the pump from a mazda3 has a remote reservoir, but not sure if there are any good aftermarket controllers for it.

 

Thanks! I managed to find a controller for the Mazda 3, see https://hangtight.io/products/dodge-...ing-controller

This converts duty cycle to a DC input. While you could use a potentiometer, you could use a PWM output from an ECU and map the pump duty accordingly.

The people at Link have also published some CAN data settings for the Volvo pumps to create maps to tune pump assistance based on whatever other parameters you want: https://forums.linkecu.com/topic/207...a-link-g4x-pp/ The advantage of this is it be controlled directly via CANbus.

ECU control whether by PWM or CANbus opens up a lot of opportunities. The most obvious use case would be mapping steering assistance against vehicle road speed, but it could be used to create different maps for street vs track for example, or provide gear inputs, so that maximum steering effort is in 1st gear or reverse.

For the Volvo, there is a simpler version: this aftermarket controller which reduce steering assistance according to speed based on a GPS antenna, see: https://www.servtronic.com/collectio...controller-kit

 

awesome writeup. going to the yard to get one of these as soon as it stops raining. Do you think the oil cooler is necessary for grassroots style drifting? Will be running knuckles and some caster.

 

im certain the oil cooler i installed is overkill, you could just leave the factory metal cooling lines on the front support and route the low pressure return feed through it to keep some cooling system on it

 

maybe, maybe not. it's hard to really tell without monitoring the temps of the fluid. the pump sounds pretty angry and it runs all the time so it depends on the duty cycle of the pump. though likely accurate and way overkill, the pumps electric motor will add heat to mimic the engine mounted pump sapping heat through the engine mounted brackets and proximity, most systems get by with a hose loop for an oil cooler.

i did enjoy the write up, it embodies both simplification of the car while adding to it at the same time while curing issues we all run into with them. i have a manual rack in my car but i sometimes wish i had power steering.