Discussion
Yes, its another Volvo XC thread, but with this one being 1) Petrol, 2) an early V70 XC badged version, with potentially a bit more bork potential than the later ones, it might be interesting -or expensive!- to record, especially as its going to be our only car (for a while at least, whilst I save for and then locate a decent round-headlamp 244) from December.
We actually bought this in Jan ’21 so I’ll try and do a quick precis of life with it to date, and then take it from there. All work is currently having to be performed either at the side of the road outside my house, or on grass at my parents, so until my driveway gets sorted there are some jobs I will have to defer to a garage.
Needing a replacement for my wifes ’04 V40, we wanted to get back into something V70 sized, and this one popped up locally. 111,000 miles, 2 owners, full volvo service history, soft touch leather memory seats both sides, factory TV and Satnav (both useless in the 2020’s of course) proper volvo towbar etc...
After the usual “loads of people have rung me” I’ve heard many times from traders I booked to go and look at it that same morning. While we were sorting the deposit someone else rolled in and started poking around it so it might not have just been a sales technique
From what I can make out from the history, and what the trader said, chap bought it in 2003 from the volvo approved used scheme (trading in a 2.8 granada, he obviously liked a big engine), had absolutely everything (even bulbs) done at Taunton Motor Company from then until he died aged 92 sometime in 2020 and the trader bought it from his widow about 9 months later. With a full MOT, 4 nearly new Pirelli scorpions, I decided it was worth the £2k asking price and the deal was done.
So that weekend and envelope of cash was handed over, and we drove it home:
And parked it up.
It was soon pressed into service moving materials for our house renovation:
And we established that the AWD system was still fully functioning:
I was actually very impressed with how competent it was, just drove up with no fuss – an L200 ground to a halt on the way up there later on that morning.
The first year passed with nothing of any note happening – lockdowns and home working meant we only did about 5k. What we did find though was that despite the 2x fuel consumption, both of us were always taking it in preference to my Hyundai Ioniq company car.
Its first MOT with us was passed first time, couple of advisories – a corroded rear coil spring, a slightly worn inner track rod, and the rear pads getting a bit low. As I was still flat out with house renovations I paid for a full service included checking/topping up the angle drive and rear diff.
...
We actually bought this in Jan ’21 so I’ll try and do a quick precis of life with it to date, and then take it from there. All work is currently having to be performed either at the side of the road outside my house, or on grass at my parents, so until my driveway gets sorted there are some jobs I will have to defer to a garage.
Needing a replacement for my wifes ’04 V40, we wanted to get back into something V70 sized, and this one popped up locally. 111,000 miles, 2 owners, full volvo service history, soft touch leather memory seats both sides, factory TV and Satnav (both useless in the 2020’s of course) proper volvo towbar etc...
After the usual “loads of people have rung me” I’ve heard many times from traders I booked to go and look at it that same morning. While we were sorting the deposit someone else rolled in and started poking around it so it might not have just been a sales technique
From what I can make out from the history, and what the trader said, chap bought it in 2003 from the volvo approved used scheme (trading in a 2.8 granada, he obviously liked a big engine), had absolutely everything (even bulbs) done at Taunton Motor Company from then until he died aged 92 sometime in 2020 and the trader bought it from his widow about 9 months later. With a full MOT, 4 nearly new Pirelli scorpions, I decided it was worth the £2k asking price and the deal was done.
So that weekend and envelope of cash was handed over, and we drove it home:
And parked it up.
It was soon pressed into service moving materials for our house renovation:
And we established that the AWD system was still fully functioning:
I was actually very impressed with how competent it was, just drove up with no fuss – an L200 ground to a halt on the way up there later on that morning.
The first year passed with nothing of any note happening – lockdowns and home working meant we only did about 5k. What we did find though was that despite the 2x fuel consumption, both of us were always taking it in preference to my Hyundai Ioniq company car.
Its first MOT with us was passed first time, couple of advisories – a corroded rear coil spring, a slightly worn inner track rod, and the rear pads getting a bit low. As I was still flat out with house renovations I paid for a full service included checking/topping up the angle drive and rear diff.
...
Around Feb the gearbox decided to start kicking us in the back on 1-2 and 2-1 shifts (and I mean a proper slam that made me fear for the propshaft joints etc). I pumped 7 litres of fresh JWS3309 through it via the cooler line and that smoothed that out again. That turned into a comedy of errors as while I was refilling via the dipstick hole, a neighbour started talking to me and I didn’t notice my hose had come out, and I poured about 2 litres of fresh oil over the top of the gearbox and thus the subframe, undertray and the road. Then partly panicking about clearing it up quickly, I managed to snap the 21 year old plastic dipstick off. Thankfully there was a spare at my parents in scrap v70. So an hour or so to change the oil and about 3 hours to clear up afterwards…
July this year and I changed the rear discs, pads, shoes and retaining springs, all with genuine volvo parts. I also replaced the brake fluid, replaced the power steering fluid and finally replaced the o-rings on the heater matrix that had started weeping, flushed the cooling system and refilled with volvo coolant.
The rear discs and pads would have gone on a bit more:
Getting in the car to leave after finishing that I noticed that all the special goo was escaping from the auto-dimming rear view mirror. The scrap v70 parts car came to the rescue again, with a manual dimming unit. I had to swap the ‘brains’ over from inside as that controls the remote central locking and(I believe) the interior lights. I have decided having gone back to it that I much prefer the manual dimming ability – it works in daylight for a start.
In August it took the three of us and the dog on a holiday around mid wales – a good 900 miles in a week deliberately choosing bendy roads with lots of arrows on them on the map and it literally didn’t miss a beat. On the way back we went through the Elan Valley the devils bridge mountain road, down the coast a bit and then over the Abergwesyn pass and down the devils staircase:
Last month I was driving my father to a clay shoot and commented how the flush had sorted the gearbox. It must have been listening as on the very next 1-2 shift it just gave a little shunt which have since become more frequent. Nothing like before but still not ideal. So last weekend I did a sump drain and fill:
Pretty sure it shouldn’t have got that dirty that quickly (5k), but I’ll do it again next month. It’s smoothed out the shifts again for now. I'm happy to keep doing this every so often for a while until I end up doing something that makes no financial sense whatsoever.
While under there I discovered we have sprung an oil leak. I am 99% sure its from the turbo oil return to the block. I say 99% because someone has put a 4wd system in the way
. Managed to jam my wifes mobile up there on video and luckily it focussed on the right thing:
Reading online it is apparently possible to do it without dismantling the drivetrain – if you have a 2 post lift and four elbows. Given my next two weekends are booked up, its then November and I’d be working at the side of the road, in an exposed area (top of a hill near the sea) I’m going to have to give that one to the garage. Annoying, for £3 worth of o-ring.
At the return leg of a 200 mile round trip to Cornwall, the dreaded 'engine system service required' message popped up. As we crossed the Tamar bridge my mate commented "Don't worry, free recovery here" At which point I had to point out that that was just as well as I have no breakdown cover
Its been on a couple of other times since - there was no change in driveability and my £10 OBD reader didn't pick anything up so a quick trip to the garage and they picked up ECM9400-brake pedal position sensor. I did have suspicions about this part around May time as there was a period when I was sure the torque convertor would drop out of lockup and then in again at steady speeds, so that makes sense. The garage also stuck a some oil in a lemonade bottle for me to keep it topped up before that o-ring is fixed. A new sensor is on order from Volvo - its on back order due the end of November.
Annoyingly the spares car at my parents went to the great scrapyard in the sky last month, still they got £350 for it even with bits missing.
July this year and I changed the rear discs, pads, shoes and retaining springs, all with genuine volvo parts. I also replaced the brake fluid, replaced the power steering fluid and finally replaced the o-rings on the heater matrix that had started weeping, flushed the cooling system and refilled with volvo coolant.
The rear discs and pads would have gone on a bit more:
Getting in the car to leave after finishing that I noticed that all the special goo was escaping from the auto-dimming rear view mirror. The scrap v70 parts car came to the rescue again, with a manual dimming unit. I had to swap the ‘brains’ over from inside as that controls the remote central locking and(I believe) the interior lights. I have decided having gone back to it that I much prefer the manual dimming ability – it works in daylight for a start.
In August it took the three of us and the dog on a holiday around mid wales – a good 900 miles in a week deliberately choosing bendy roads with lots of arrows on them on the map and it literally didn’t miss a beat. On the way back we went through the Elan Valley the devils bridge mountain road, down the coast a bit and then over the Abergwesyn pass and down the devils staircase:
Last month I was driving my father to a clay shoot and commented how the flush had sorted the gearbox. It must have been listening as on the very next 1-2 shift it just gave a little shunt which have since become more frequent. Nothing like before but still not ideal. So last weekend I did a sump drain and fill:
Pretty sure it shouldn’t have got that dirty that quickly (5k), but I’ll do it again next month. It’s smoothed out the shifts again for now. I'm happy to keep doing this every so often for a while until I end up doing something that makes no financial sense whatsoever.
While under there I discovered we have sprung an oil leak. I am 99% sure its from the turbo oil return to the block. I say 99% because someone has put a 4wd system in the way
. Managed to jam my wifes mobile up there on video and luckily it focussed on the right thing:Reading online it is apparently possible to do it without dismantling the drivetrain – if you have a 2 post lift and four elbows. Given my next two weekends are booked up, its then November and I’d be working at the side of the road, in an exposed area (top of a hill near the sea) I’m going to have to give that one to the garage. Annoying, for £3 worth of o-ring.
At the return leg of a 200 mile round trip to Cornwall, the dreaded 'engine system service required' message popped up. As we crossed the Tamar bridge my mate commented "Don't worry, free recovery here" At which point I had to point out that that was just as well as I have no breakdown cover
Its been on a couple of other times since - there was no change in driveability and my £10 OBD reader didn't pick anything up so a quick trip to the garage and they picked up ECM9400-brake pedal position sensor. I did have suspicions about this part around May time as there was a period when I was sure the torque convertor would drop out of lockup and then in again at steady speeds, so that makes sense. The garage also stuck a some oil in a lemonade bottle for me to keep it topped up before that o-ring is fixed. A new sensor is on order from Volvo - its on back order due the end of November.
Annoyingly the spares car at my parents went to the great scrapyard in the sky last month, still they got £350 for it even with bits missing.
Edited by chris1roll on Wednesday 19th October 19:46
NateWM said:
Great cars. I've had a few P2 gen Volvos and absolutely adore them, currently running a 2007 S60 T5 with the rare manual gearbox nearly ready for near 500hp. I love it to bits!
Couple points about your harsh shifting....it's an issue your AW55-50SN is plagued with and infact still remains somewhat in the facelift with the TF-80SC transmission. The hard shifting is from a worn valve body. The flush is temporarily curing it because the fresh oil will be of a thicker viscosity, thus the oil pressure increases and all is well in the world again until the oil wears out slightly. The only real cure will be a new or rebuilt valve body, however I would reccommend doing this quickly as flushing the transmission will only speed up the wear, as the higher hydraulic pressure from the fresh oil will force the accumulator shafts to press against the bore of the valve body, thus taking away more material and making the problem worse. Eventually if left long enough, you'll burst open the clutch pack drum on either 1st or 2nd, which in most cases we've repaired here will result in not only the internals needing replacing but the transmission case itself being damaged too and needing replacement.
Unfortunately it's the Achilles heel of these otherwise fantastic cars, and has resulted in me at one point having around 30+ P2 automatic Volvos of various engines/models/specs, as the owners wouldn't authorise the work to be done due to the age of the car.
Personally, I would reccommend driving your one until it goes bang (which it will, so prepare yourself) and then replace the car altogether. For a valve body replacement, you'll be talking at least a bag of sand for it to be done and finding a reputable person to do the job with the right software to set adaptions etc is nearly impossible nowadays, and I won't even try and tell you how much a full rebuild will be. Depends on whether you think it is worth it or if you're better off buying another one.
P.S, the transmission oil going black is completely normal. Transmission oil has cleaning agents in them, so when you put in fresh oil, it extracts the dye from the rubber seals inside the transmission. It would of been that black about 50 miles after you flushed it. Nothing to worry about.
Yes I have said the same myself - fantastic cars blighted by the gearbox.Couple points about your harsh shifting....it's an issue your AW55-50SN is plagued with and infact still remains somewhat in the facelift with the TF-80SC transmission. The hard shifting is from a worn valve body. The flush is temporarily curing it because the fresh oil will be of a thicker viscosity, thus the oil pressure increases and all is well in the world again until the oil wears out slightly. The only real cure will be a new or rebuilt valve body, however I would reccommend doing this quickly as flushing the transmission will only speed up the wear, as the higher hydraulic pressure from the fresh oil will force the accumulator shafts to press against the bore of the valve body, thus taking away more material and making the problem worse. Eventually if left long enough, you'll burst open the clutch pack drum on either 1st or 2nd, which in most cases we've repaired here will result in not only the internals needing replacing but the transmission case itself being damaged too and needing replacement.
Unfortunately it's the Achilles heel of these otherwise fantastic cars, and has resulted in me at one point having around 30+ P2 automatic Volvos of various engines/models/specs, as the owners wouldn't authorise the work to be done due to the age of the car.
Personally, I would reccommend driving your one until it goes bang (which it will, so prepare yourself) and then replace the car altogether. For a valve body replacement, you'll be talking at least a bag of sand for it to be done and finding a reputable person to do the job with the right software to set adaptions etc is nearly impossible nowadays, and I won't even try and tell you how much a full rebuild will be. Depends on whether you think it is worth it or if you're better off buying another one.
P.S, the transmission oil going black is completely normal. Transmission oil has cleaning agents in them, so when you put in fresh oil, it extracts the dye from the rubber seals inside the transmission. It would of been that black about 50 miles after you flushed it. Nothing to worry about.
I haven't known of one without issues!
We had a W plate 2.4 170, that would occasionally slip into neutral from 2nd instead of going into 3rd. It still had the stop neutral feature too. I did one sump dump and then got bored and just decided to drive it till it stopped. 40k later it was still going just the same when (despite 10k intervals) engine oil sludge and polarised sunglasses did for it at 150k.
My brother has a 53 plate S80 D5 that I bought with ~70k on it. In the history it had had a transmission oil change at 50k. It got the bumps a while after I passed it on to him when my company car arrived. He's been doing a sump dump every oil change and has nursed in on to 120k so far. He drives very sedately compared to the rest of us though.
My dad had a 56 plate XC70 D5 that started shunting at about 160k. in this case a fluid change did actually cure it and it was fine until a deer ran out in front of it at 187k.
A grand or so for the valve body wouldn't be an issue. My brother has vida and a dice clone so we can do the adptations etc afterwards. I found a place selling new valve bodies for about £500. I used to have a place I could do that level of work myself but not anymore sadly. If I tried it now you can guarantee I'd plan it all, wait until the forecast was sun for a fortnight and the moment the valve cover was off the wind would get up and blow a load of grit and crap in there
Also found somewhere that quoted £2750 for a recon box and new TC R&R. We wouldn't even dismiss that cost entirely out of hand as if I spent the same money on another one, it'd only have the exact same issue at some point.
If it was just down to me I'd get a manual one but my wife refuses point blank to drive one having had autos for 15+ years.
I am assuming it is the banging that will kill the clutch packs.
I've already got 20 litres (less what I have used) of JWS3309 for less than the cost of 3/4 of a tank of fuel so that cost is sunk now anyway.
I was hoping that the crap (metal from valve bore wear I assume) that occasionally gets stuck in the solenoids would come out with one of the sump dumps but that might be wishful thinking as it'd have to be in the sump and the moment of draining. I'm going to stick a samarium cobalt magnet on the inside of the drain plug next time, can't hurt and I might get lucky! There was quite a bit of stuff on the existing magnet, but that one is a bit weedy.
So I hope to keep it smooth for now and drive with some mechanical sympathy then look at a proper fix in the spring. If I can get my local farmer to sort my driveway I've been waiting for since April I could buy a tent to do it in...
Jimmy No Hands said:
I worked for a specialist for a period, this is a very common issue if I remember correctly - along with a lot of cars of this era being actual 2WD and people not realising or noticing! It seems you've done the test on that one, though. (I think an electronic control module goes bad, are they Haldex, I believe?) I've taken many of the little control boxes for repair!
This one, being an early model is a viscous coupling, which comes with the added expense of having to keep the tyres within 2mm all round if you want it to remain a coupling.. We actually make use of the AWD several times a year - the picture above is at our clay pigeon shooting club. When it rains all the 2WD cars have to get towed out.
I have heard about people not realising its broken - I can't figure how they don't know though, my wifes 2.4 170 would light up the front tyres easily when pulling out of a junction sharply, especially if damp. This one with another 30 horses it would be obvious.
That said these early ones don't have traction control so perhaps thats why.
Anyway, I knew I was in for some potential bills when we bought it - with all the options it has, it was circa £40k in 2001, and I added up all the invoices and found the previous owner spent on average £1000 a year at Taunton motor company. Of course now age and mileage is not on my side (or the cars!
)It's still cheaper than a lease or depreciation on something newer plus new cars really aren't interesting to me at the moment.
Onwards and upwards.
guitarcarfanatic said:
Chris - just spotted this thread, hope you are keeping well mate.
Glad to see you back in a Volvo… I quite fancy an older XC70 at some point (to compliment the P3 XC70 we have been running as a dog and kid carrier for the last couple of years) - perhaps if I take cash instead of company car when current CC goes back!
I bet you miss the old farm workshop
I just can't help myself mate! Just bought an old C70 cabrio too. Might do a thread, but that one is more of a maintenance to keep it safe and legal and have fun in it till something moderately expensive breaks, kind of car; as opposed to the XC which we are looking after as much as possible.Glad to see you back in a Volvo… I quite fancy an older XC70 at some point (to compliment the P3 XC70 we have been running as a dog and kid carrier for the last couple of years) - perhaps if I take cash instead of company car when current CC goes back!
I bet you miss the old farm workshop
My advice on getting a P2 is if you don't have to have an auto, get a manual
Update on the gearbox issues in a couple of weeks, but suffice to say the posters above were quite correct and throwing JWS3309 down its throat wasn't helping!
That workshop would be a godsend right now, my Dad's XC90 needs new brakes all round pretty soon, and their place is like a medieval village at the moment. (Stone track to access, no hard surfaces, just two rows of flags to drive on)
Apologies for the lengthy, and late update. Lost a bit of enthusiasm when things didn't got to plan...
We are learning a valuable lesson about running old, relatively complicated cars. Fully expecting to be called an idiot!
The slamming gearbox returned, and a further drain and fill made absolutely no difference at all. Not wanting to destroy the rest of the driveline we parked it up while we contemplated what to do, only taking it for a drive round the block once a week to keep the brake discs clean.
Looking for a replacement did not go well. Notable highlights included one with a hole rotted in the boot floor, one that didn’t go in a straight line, one that looked like someone had poured used diesel engine oil all over the (petrol) engine, one that had allegedly just had a full service, cambelt and water pump but the oil was only just over the minimum and there was murky, plain water in the header tank. And these weren’t cheap cars (well, maybe by PH company director standards they were, but I’ve had perfectly serviceable cars in the £500-1k range and the most we’ve ever paid for a car was the £2k for this one) these were priced at various points between £2.5k-£5k! What the hell is going on?
So, we resolved to look into a repair. Without making this post a wall of text about the options we considered, ultimately we ended up sending it to a local gearbox specialist to remove, fully rebuild and refit the box.
It turns out the slamming had started mangling the splines on the angle gear input shaft (not just the sacrificial sleeve) so that ended up being rebuilt too.
2 weeks and a reasonably hefty bill later, (but less than originally quoted) and we collected the car. Shifts were very smooth, but only a few miles later it started shuddering quite violently when the torque converter tried to lock up. It was repeatable every time when accelerating from 30 to 40 at 2k rpm. Much apologising from the garage and another two weeks and another full rebuild and half a tank of fuel with them test driving it and we had the car back again.
And... its 95% fixed…it still, very occasionally, and very slightly, shudders when the TC locks up in 4th. on a less than smooth surface (thats most of them here), you might not even notice it, I did 55 miles over just under 2 hours testing it on Saturday and it did it just the once.
Last night I took my daughter to football practice in it as my car was parked in and it was fine. If it was up for sale for what we have spent on it and it drove like that on the test drive I’d have been getting my wallet out.
Feels like all we can do is keep driving it now until it gets more frequent, which I assume it will, so we can then take it back again and have... a discussion. At the moment I can’t see how far I’ll get with a second warranty claim on such a transient issue that I quite possibly won’t be able to demonstrate.
Moving on to the general maintenance:
Weekend before last it started playing up a bit – coming up to traffic lights and it would almost stall, then surge up to about 1100 rpm before settling down. Suspicious of what is still the original, white labelled Magnetti Marelli throttle body but wanting to avoid that expense for the moment I plugged in torque pro on my phone (quicker than getting vida started) and found the long term fuel trim sitting at +20% at idle and part load.
Suspecting a quite hefty air leak I tried spraying brake cleaner everywhere with no effect.
Unconvinced, I set about making a smoke machine from a mayonnaise jar, a soldering iron, and some baby oil
Once I had managed to wrestle the MAF off of the ridiculous hard plastic intake pipe I stretched a glove over the intake, stuffed the tubing int through a cut off finger and fired up my contraption.
Smoke poured out of the joint between the PTC pipe and the intake just in front of the turbo.
Once I had removed the intake pipe it was apparent that the ptc had just been sitting on top of the pipe rather than fitted into it:
Here’s the massive hole:
(and of course it was starting to rain!)
And the ptc that should be fitted securely into it.
Good news, the PTC was perfectly clear, along with that and passing the glove test the PCV system seems to be in decent condition.
It did NOT want to go back in. A bit of silicone rubber lube and some persuasion with a wide bladed screwdriver and it finally popped home. There is no way in hell it would be possible with it on the car.
All cleaned up and popped in:
Checking it doesn’t leak:
All refitted and the LTFT was down to +10 by the time I had got my phone connected. Still quite a bit higher than I would like, but as the eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted, the vacuum lines are now suffering from old age with the outsides of them crumbling away so that’s my next job, then see if we can get it down to something sensible.
It is driving nicely again now anyway.
MOT was passed first time last week – a couple advisories, 2 I knew about and 2 new ones.
Rear ARB bush slight play – as those come as part of the complete ARB, I will be looking for a non-oe solution!
Rearmost exhaust hanger broken – this will be the nth car in our family to have the aftermarket bracket clamped on to fix this. The rest of the original exhaust is in good shape.
Slight play in OSF steering inner track rod. I’ll probably fix this when I deal with…
OSF inner CV boot leaking – it isn’t split, so we can only assume that being removed and refitted twice has broken the seal. Annoying.
In the words of the tester – “That car is worth persevering with, its great condition inside and out, it has quite obviously been looked after, and there is no corrosion on it at all”
There we go then…..If only it had 3 pedals!
We are learning a valuable lesson about running old, relatively complicated cars. Fully expecting to be called an idiot!
The slamming gearbox returned, and a further drain and fill made absolutely no difference at all. Not wanting to destroy the rest of the driveline we parked it up while we contemplated what to do, only taking it for a drive round the block once a week to keep the brake discs clean.
Looking for a replacement did not go well. Notable highlights included one with a hole rotted in the boot floor, one that didn’t go in a straight line, one that looked like someone had poured used diesel engine oil all over the (petrol) engine, one that had allegedly just had a full service, cambelt and water pump but the oil was only just over the minimum and there was murky, plain water in the header tank. And these weren’t cheap cars (well, maybe by PH company director standards they were, but I’ve had perfectly serviceable cars in the £500-1k range and the most we’ve ever paid for a car was the £2k for this one) these were priced at various points between £2.5k-£5k! What the hell is going on?
So, we resolved to look into a repair. Without making this post a wall of text about the options we considered, ultimately we ended up sending it to a local gearbox specialist to remove, fully rebuild and refit the box.
It turns out the slamming had started mangling the splines on the angle gear input shaft (not just the sacrificial sleeve) so that ended up being rebuilt too.
2 weeks and a reasonably hefty bill later, (but less than originally quoted) and we collected the car. Shifts were very smooth, but only a few miles later it started shuddering quite violently when the torque converter tried to lock up. It was repeatable every time when accelerating from 30 to 40 at 2k rpm. Much apologising from the garage and another two weeks and another full rebuild and half a tank of fuel with them test driving it and we had the car back again.
And... its 95% fixed…it still, very occasionally, and very slightly, shudders when the TC locks up in 4th. on a less than smooth surface (thats most of them here), you might not even notice it, I did 55 miles over just under 2 hours testing it on Saturday and it did it just the once.
Last night I took my daughter to football practice in it as my car was parked in and it was fine. If it was up for sale for what we have spent on it and it drove like that on the test drive I’d have been getting my wallet out.
Feels like all we can do is keep driving it now until it gets more frequent, which I assume it will, so we can then take it back again and have... a discussion. At the moment I can’t see how far I’ll get with a second warranty claim on such a transient issue that I quite possibly won’t be able to demonstrate.
Moving on to the general maintenance:
Weekend before last it started playing up a bit – coming up to traffic lights and it would almost stall, then surge up to about 1100 rpm before settling down. Suspicious of what is still the original, white labelled Magnetti Marelli throttle body but wanting to avoid that expense for the moment I plugged in torque pro on my phone (quicker than getting vida started) and found the long term fuel trim sitting at +20% at idle and part load.
Suspecting a quite hefty air leak I tried spraying brake cleaner everywhere with no effect.
Unconvinced, I set about making a smoke machine from a mayonnaise jar, a soldering iron, and some baby oil
Once I had managed to wrestle the MAF off of the ridiculous hard plastic intake pipe I stretched a glove over the intake, stuffed the tubing int through a cut off finger and fired up my contraption.
Smoke poured out of the joint between the PTC pipe and the intake just in front of the turbo.
Once I had removed the intake pipe it was apparent that the ptc had just been sitting on top of the pipe rather than fitted into it:
Here’s the massive hole:
(and of course it was starting to rain!)
And the ptc that should be fitted securely into it.
Good news, the PTC was perfectly clear, along with that and passing the glove test the PCV system seems to be in decent condition.
It did NOT want to go back in. A bit of silicone rubber lube and some persuasion with a wide bladed screwdriver and it finally popped home. There is no way in hell it would be possible with it on the car.
All cleaned up and popped in:
Checking it doesn’t leak:
All refitted and the LTFT was down to +10 by the time I had got my phone connected. Still quite a bit higher than I would like, but as the eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted, the vacuum lines are now suffering from old age with the outsides of them crumbling away so that’s my next job, then see if we can get it down to something sensible.
It is driving nicely again now anyway.
MOT was passed first time last week – a couple advisories, 2 I knew about and 2 new ones.
Rear ARB bush slight play – as those come as part of the complete ARB, I will be looking for a non-oe solution!
Rearmost exhaust hanger broken – this will be the nth car in our family to have the aftermarket bracket clamped on to fix this. The rest of the original exhaust is in good shape.
Slight play in OSF steering inner track rod. I’ll probably fix this when I deal with…
OSF inner CV boot leaking – it isn’t split, so we can only assume that being removed and refitted twice has broken the seal. Annoying.
In the words of the tester – “That car is worth persevering with, its great condition inside and out, it has quite obviously been looked after, and there is no corrosion on it at all”
There we go then…..If only it had 3 pedals!
Oh 
me...
Went round a roundabout moderately quickly, and as I came off it I just noticed the mpg readout flash off for a split second.
Just thought it was the windscreen washer fluid getting low.
A couple miles later and it flashed again for a split second. Far too quick to see.
Not much further and the relevant message came on just long enough for me to actually read it - "low oil pressure stop safely"
Oh no no no no no!
Of course by this point I was on a section of fast narrow a-road with no where to stop.
It kept flashing on and off for the next 1/4 mile or so and thankfully I got to the village just as it came on more or less constantly and I travelled maybe 200 yards like that and shut it off.
Got out and popped the bonnet and there is oil _everywhere_ smoke from the turbo/exhaust area, but also oil as far forward as around the injectors? A reasonable oil slick was forming underneath it and not wanting to draw any attention to that I shut it up and walked home.
Managed to find someone to recover it with all four wheels off the ground to my parents place where it now sits in its own filth.
They also cleaned the road up somehow!
I've got to do the rear brakes on the cabrio tomorrow afternoon so it'll have to be Sunday I can get out there to investigate what the hell has happened.
Turbo oil feed perhaps?
I just hope it has withstood it. It wasnt making any bad noises before I stopped.
I'll probably drain what's left of the oil and inspect it and the sump plug carefully first of all.
me...Went round a roundabout moderately quickly, and as I came off it I just noticed the mpg readout flash off for a split second.
Just thought it was the windscreen washer fluid getting low.
A couple miles later and it flashed again for a split second. Far too quick to see.
Not much further and the relevant message came on just long enough for me to actually read it - "low oil pressure stop safely"
Oh no no no no no!
Of course by this point I was on a section of fast narrow a-road with no where to stop.
It kept flashing on and off for the next 1/4 mile or so and thankfully I got to the village just as it came on more or less constantly and I travelled maybe 200 yards like that and shut it off.
Got out and popped the bonnet and there is oil _everywhere_ smoke from the turbo/exhaust area, but also oil as far forward as around the injectors? A reasonable oil slick was forming underneath it and not wanting to draw any attention to that I shut it up and walked home.
Managed to find someone to recover it with all four wheels off the ground to my parents place where it now sits in its own filth.
They also cleaned the road up somehow!
I've got to do the rear brakes on the cabrio tomorrow afternoon so it'll have to be Sunday I can get out there to investigate what the hell has happened.
Turbo oil feed perhaps?
I just hope it has withstood it. It wasnt making any bad noises before I stopped.
I'll probably drain what's left of the oil and inspect it and the sump plug carefully first of all.
What are you doing out here you stupid seal?
Car definitely won't be going rusty:
Couldn't see anything untoward in the oil, then I had the bright idea of attaching one of my samarium cobalt magnets to a screwdriver and sweeping inside the sump with it to make sure. It's an alloy sump, that will work fine, right?
Clink!
Oh. Magnet decided it liked the steel baffle more than it liked the screwdriver.
After some tmie poking a fatter, more attractive, screwdriver in there and still not catching it I studied the photos from the last whiteblock oil pressure related disaster and concluded that as it is no-where near the pickup, or any oil flow/return pipes etc, thats where it lives now. Its not like its going anywhere.
I've just increased the value of the car by £5.
I poked the seal back in place temporarily, threw enough oil in it to reach the dipstick and fired it up. It sounds absolutley fine.
Just messaged a volvo dealer for a price on the seal.
Also need a new timing belt since that one is oil contaminated.
I don't see any reason to replace the tensioner and idler, they have only done 11k, I'll remove and clean them up.
I'll need the camshaft locking tool to remove the pulley, and a 30mm socket.
And lots of blue towel and degreaser.
Hopefully I'll get this sorted for around £100 including the locking tool.
Glad its not the exhaust cam, at first I was thinking about doing that seal too while I am in there, but by all accounts once removed, the o-ring in the vvt hub would most likely leak (at high pressure) and need replacing, volvo don't sell them separately from the VVT and I haven't been able to find the o-ring for sale in the UK, or a definitive dimension for it.
Think its best left well alone.
As for why that seal has come out - who knows?
No doubt people will say poor PCV - but as I noted only a week ago, the car passed the glove test fine. To be sure I did it again on Sunday, it sucks inwards at idle and also at 2k rpm.
Once we have it functional I'll do the 'driving glove test' - pipe from dipstick into car with glove on it - and test under full boost. If it passes that then it'll just have to go down as one of those things.
Odd.
Car definitely won't be going rusty:
Couldn't see anything untoward in the oil, then I had the bright idea of attaching one of my samarium cobalt magnets to a screwdriver and sweeping inside the sump with it to make sure. It's an alloy sump, that will work fine, right?
Clink!
Oh. Magnet decided it liked the steel baffle more than it liked the screwdriver.
After some tmie poking a fatter, more attractive, screwdriver in there and still not catching it I studied the photos from the last whiteblock oil pressure related disaster and concluded that as it is no-where near the pickup, or any oil flow/return pipes etc, thats where it lives now. Its not like its going anywhere.
I've just increased the value of the car by £5.
I poked the seal back in place temporarily, threw enough oil in it to reach the dipstick and fired it up. It sounds absolutley fine.
Just messaged a volvo dealer for a price on the seal.
Also need a new timing belt since that one is oil contaminated.
I don't see any reason to replace the tensioner and idler, they have only done 11k, I'll remove and clean them up.
I'll need the camshaft locking tool to remove the pulley, and a 30mm socket.
And lots of blue towel and degreaser.
Hopefully I'll get this sorted for around £100 including the locking tool.
Glad its not the exhaust cam, at first I was thinking about doing that seal too while I am in there, but by all accounts once removed, the o-ring in the vvt hub would most likely leak (at high pressure) and need replacing, volvo don't sell them separately from the VVT and I haven't been able to find the o-ring for sale in the UK, or a definitive dimension for it.
Think its best left well alone.
As for why that seal has come out - who knows?
No doubt people will say poor PCV - but as I noted only a week ago, the car passed the glove test fine. To be sure I did it again on Sunday, it sucks inwards at idle and also at 2k rpm.
Once we have it functional I'll do the 'driving glove test' - pipe from dipstick into car with glove on it - and test under full boost. If it passes that then it'll just have to go down as one of those things.
Odd.
So a few bits have arrived:
The chinese e-bay locking kit seems well made and feels substantial. There was a 'laser' branded one that was £15 cheaper, burt the welding between the brace and the prongs for the cams looked suspect on the pictures.
I don't actually know what the 2 spinny press like things are for, I assume for fitting cams to the head or something?
Still waiting on the cap for the other end of the intake cam, but that's not essential.
When I went to pick the cambelt up from Halfords (They were cheaper than Euro's despite that being where it all comes from, plus I get a 7% discount through work on top of that), the one that had been delivered was 38 teeth too short.
So thats had to be re-ordered. I get the feeling its going to turn up wrong again, but we'll see.
I'll probably go out there this weekend anyway and get it all stripped down, clean up all the mess, press the seal in and put the sprocket back on so when I finally have a cambelt that's not sized for a noddy car all I have to do is fit it.
The chinese e-bay locking kit seems well made and feels substantial. There was a 'laser' branded one that was £15 cheaper, burt the welding between the brace and the prongs for the cams looked suspect on the pictures.
I don't actually know what the 2 spinny press like things are for,
I assume for fitting cams to the head or something?Still waiting on the cap for the other end of the intake cam, but that's not essential.
When I went to pick the cambelt up from Halfords (They were cheaper than Euro's despite that being where it all comes from, plus I get a 7% discount through work on top of that), the one that had been delivered was 38 teeth too short.
So thats had to be re-ordered. I get the feeling its going to turn up wrong again, but we'll see.
I'll probably go out there this weekend anyway and get it all stripped down, clean up all the mess, press the seal in and put the sprocket back on so when I finally have a cambelt that's not sized for a noddy car all I have to do is fit it.
In the end, this weekend has been fairly constructive.
Halfords rang me while I was still in bed to say that the cambelt had arrived - and this time it was the right one, so I decided to brave the rain and the wind and make a start.
First off, Dad and I dragged their landlords knackered rotten trailer out of the barn and put some plywood down so I could get the front end under cover. That dealt with the rain, but I don't mind admitting I was bloody freezing it was 5 degrees and the coastal wind whipping through (barn totally open on both sides) did not make for a pleasant experience.
I needed to gain access to the rear ends of the cams for the locking tool, which meant first removing the engine cross stay, then the upper engine mount and lifting eye.
For some reason one of the engine mount bolts is hidden by the spark plug cover, so that has to come off.
But the charge air pipe covers two of the screws that holds the spark plug cover on, so that had to be removed also. I stretched a glove over the open turbo and intercooler pipes to prevent any unfortunate missing screws.
I also had to remove the intake pipe again to get clearance.
eventually, everything was removed:
Then the exhast cam position sensor had to come off. In this picture I had already removed the wheel that the sensor reads:
I now had access to the rear of the cams.
It was at this point that I discovered the exhaust cam (VVT) was slightly out of time. The VVT hub is spring loaded and when fitting a cambelt you put the belt round the intake sprocket first, then rotate the VVT hub against spring pressure and then put the belt over it. If the rear of the cam is not locked, rotating the hub can rotate the cam, which is what I assume happened at a previous cambelt change. I'm surprised it didn't set a code, but there must be some tolerance.
Certainly shows the benefit of doing belt changes by the book and locking the cams rather than shortcutting it.
In order to fix this, I had to remove the belt prior to locking the cams so I could rotate the exhaust cam back into time and fit the locking tool.
The crank timing marks aren't especially user friendly - you can't actually see them fully with the belt and tensioner in place. two of the teeth on the sprocket have marks on them, and these teeth must sit either side of a casting on the block that has a confusing 45 degree bed in it. This was the best picture I could get. It is dead on here, although perspective means it looks a touch off.
With the cams locked I can take the sprocket off. Note the holes are elongated.
To get access to the belt etc, the coolant tank and power steering reservoir had to movee. A cheap scredriver handle fitted the coolant return line to stop the new head of water wasting all that volvo coolant.
Despite going in with almost no resistance when I pushed it back into place last week, the old seal needed the screw trick to remove.
The next couple of hours was spent trying to clean an area that had about 5.5 litres of hot oil pumped through it a week prior.
Eventually I was in a position where I would feel comfortable fitting the new belt. The tensioner and ider (both INA parts with about 11-12k on them were removed for cleaning.
At that point the light was failing and I was shivering so I called it a day.
This morning was much nicer - I put the roof down on the C70 for the drive out there.
Volvo have a special tool for driving in the cam seals. As with so many things, it seems they are readily available in the states, not so much here. After studying some pictures I established that the volvo tool will drive the seal in until it is just past the chamfer in the opening, Using the old seal I gently tapped the new one in with a pin hammer.
Once the old one started to be held by the opening, I knew I was just past the chamfer.
Cleaned up sprocket bolted back up and in time.
I found the tensioner a bit awkward to set - you need to lightly bolt it in place and fit the belt, then using an allen key, rotate it so that the pointer moves all the way to the right, then rotate it back so the pointer is in a certain position according to the ambient air temp. it was about 15 degrees so I set it ever slightly left of the 20 degree point. You then need to hold the allen key and tighten the tensioner fully. when you start tightening the nut, the tensioner will start to tighten again towards the right. in order to counteract this, you need to turn the allen key in the opposite direction to whihch you were just holding it which is a tad awkward and requires you to time your change of direction just right.
I took a couple of goes at it before I was happy, pretty sure I could do it much quicker next time.
Tightened with a torque wrench to (iirc) 20 ft-lbs (its not very much, anyway).
Then rotate the engine through two revolutions and check it is still where it should be.
And that everything is still in time.
After that, refitting is the reverse of removal!
I then had the upper cover off again to check for leaks once the car was running. seems good so far.
I repeated the oil filler glove test. Fine at idle and 2krpm.
Then I set it up for a driving glove test.
The hose wouldn't reach into the cabin, so I had to have it in front of the windscreen.
The glove inflates under boost So I gingerly drove it back and parked it up and took the C70 home again.
A bit of research later, it turns out that the early cars do pressurise the crankcase under boost; so given the idle and 2krpm tests, and the perfectly clear ptc nipple, I still think my PCV is operating as intended. It can be improved, however.
Apparently originally ( I guess on the P80 cars) the banjo bolt on the underside of the manifold had a non-retun valve in it that had a tendency to disintegrate and get sucked into the engine. The early P2 cars then had an open banjo bolt with no non-rturn valve, just a narrowed orifice in an attempt to limit the amount of pressure enting the crankcase to, anecdotally, about 2psi.
That might have been acceptable at the time, but now all the seals are 22 years old, maybe not so much...
Since 2014 there has been a further revision with a new design of non-return valve, which will again stop the crankcase being filled with boost pressure.
Volvopartstrade on e-bay had one for sale for £15 delivered so I have ordered it.
Hopefully that will prevent the crankcase getting pressured and the rest of the seals will stay where I would like them.
It is a bit of a pain to replace though, by all accounts. We'll see.
Halfords rang me while I was still in bed to say that the cambelt had arrived - and this time it was the right one, so I decided to brave the rain and the wind and make a start.
First off, Dad and I dragged their landlords knackered rotten trailer out of the barn and put some plywood down so I could get the front end under cover. That dealt with the rain, but I don't mind admitting I was bloody freezing it was 5 degrees and the coastal wind whipping through (barn totally open on both sides) did not make for a pleasant experience.
I needed to gain access to the rear ends of the cams for the locking tool, which meant first removing the engine cross stay, then the upper engine mount and lifting eye.
For some reason one of the engine mount bolts is hidden by the spark plug cover, so that has to come off.
But the charge air pipe covers two of the screws that holds the spark plug cover on, so that had to be removed also. I stretched a glove over the open turbo and intercooler pipes to prevent any unfortunate missing screws.
I also had to remove the intake pipe again to get clearance.
eventually, everything was removed:
Then the exhast cam position sensor had to come off. In this picture I had already removed the wheel that the sensor reads:
I now had access to the rear of the cams.
It was at this point that I discovered the exhaust cam (VVT) was slightly out of time. The VVT hub is spring loaded and when fitting a cambelt you put the belt round the intake sprocket first, then rotate the VVT hub against spring pressure and then put the belt over it. If the rear of the cam is not locked, rotating the hub can rotate the cam, which is what I assume happened at a previous cambelt change. I'm surprised it didn't set a code, but there must be some tolerance.
Certainly shows the benefit of doing belt changes by the book and locking the cams rather than shortcutting it.
In order to fix this, I had to remove the belt prior to locking the cams so I could rotate the exhaust cam back into time and fit the locking tool.
The crank timing marks aren't especially user friendly - you can't actually see them fully with the belt and tensioner in place. two of the teeth on the sprocket have marks on them, and these teeth must sit either side of a casting on the block that has a confusing 45 degree bed in it. This was the best picture I could get. It is dead on here, although perspective means it looks a touch off.
With the cams locked I can take the sprocket off. Note the holes are elongated.
To get access to the belt etc, the coolant tank and power steering reservoir had to movee. A cheap scredriver handle fitted the coolant return line to stop the new head of water wasting all that volvo coolant.
Despite going in with almost no resistance when I pushed it back into place last week, the old seal needed the screw trick to remove.
The next couple of hours was spent trying to clean an area that had about 5.5 litres of hot oil pumped through it a week prior.
Eventually I was in a position where I would feel comfortable fitting the new belt. The tensioner and ider (both INA parts with about 11-12k on them were removed for cleaning.
At that point the light was failing and I was shivering so I called it a day.
This morning was much nicer - I put the roof down on the C70 for the drive out there.
Volvo have a special tool for driving in the cam seals. As with so many things, it seems they are readily available in the states, not so much here. After studying some pictures I established that the volvo tool will drive the seal in until it is just past the chamfer in the opening, Using the old seal I gently tapped the new one in with a pin hammer.
Once the old one started to be held by the opening, I knew I was just past the chamfer.
Cleaned up sprocket bolted back up and in time.
I found the tensioner a bit awkward to set - you need to lightly bolt it in place and fit the belt, then using an allen key, rotate it so that the pointer moves all the way to the right, then rotate it back so the pointer is in a certain position according to the ambient air temp. it was about 15 degrees so I set it ever slightly left of the 20 degree point. You then need to hold the allen key and tighten the tensioner fully. when you start tightening the nut, the tensioner will start to tighten again towards the right. in order to counteract this, you need to turn the allen key in the opposite direction to whihch you were just holding it which is a tad awkward and requires you to time your change of direction just right.
I took a couple of goes at it before I was happy, pretty sure I could do it much quicker next time.
Tightened with a torque wrench to (iirc) 20 ft-lbs (its not very much, anyway).
Then rotate the engine through two revolutions and check it is still where it should be.
And that everything is still in time.
After that, refitting is the reverse of removal!
I then had the upper cover off again to check for leaks once the car was running. seems good so far.
I repeated the oil filler glove test. Fine at idle and 2krpm.
Then I set it up for a driving glove test.
The hose wouldn't reach into the cabin, so I had to have it in front of the windscreen.
The glove inflates under boost
So I gingerly drove it back and parked it up and took the C70 home again.A bit of research later, it turns out that the early cars do pressurise the crankcase under boost; so given the idle and 2krpm tests, and the perfectly clear ptc nipple, I still think my PCV is operating as intended. It can be improved, however.
Apparently originally ( I guess on the P80 cars) the banjo bolt on the underside of the manifold had a non-retun valve in it that had a tendency to disintegrate and get sucked into the engine. The early P2 cars then had an open banjo bolt with no non-rturn valve, just a narrowed orifice in an attempt to limit the amount of pressure enting the crankcase to, anecdotally, about 2psi.
That might have been acceptable at the time, but now all the seals are 22 years old, maybe not so much...
Since 2014 there has been a further revision with a new design of non-return valve, which will again stop the crankcase being filled with boost pressure.
Volvopartstrade on e-bay had one for sale for £15 delivered so I have ordered it.
Hopefully that will prevent the crankcase getting pressured and the rest of the seals will stay where I would like them.
It is a bit of a pain to replace though, by all accounts. We'll see.
More Parts:
I decided to do the whole PCV system, much like nuking the entire site from orbit, it's the only was to be sure
And the special banjo bolt with a non-return valve in it, that for some reason costs £15!
First the manofold has to come off.
Noteable that you will require an extra long 1/4" extension to feed through a tiny gap to reach the bottom left bolt. Luckily my Halfords set allows you to use the screwdriver part as an extension in addition to the nomal extension
You can just about reach in fromthe right hand side to get the other lower ones.
Made a 'special tool' out of the metallic part of a wine bottle top in order to depress all four catches to disconnect the fuel line quick release.
Taking off the throttle body - hmmm, this looks oddly shiny...
Result!!
For those that don't know, that is a genuine Volvo remanufactured throttle body with contactless sensors. Manufacture date on it of Feb 2018. I had assumed when I peered in at it previously that as it had a white label, it was the original Magnetti Marelli rubbish.
The last year of history from when the old man had it was missing (hence why I had the cambelt done when we bought it, then found another sticker under the bonnet saying it had been done not long before. The replacement of the throttle body must also have been done around the same time.
Thats a potential bill we won't need to worry about any more.
To get the manifold all the way off and remove the banjo bolt on the underneath of it the alternator has to come off as there is literally mm's of clearance.
I also had to remove the fuel rail to get the manifold off as the hard line that comes through the manifold simply would not clear otherwise. Even then, the manifold had to be rotated 90 degrees to maneuver it off.
I notice that my '04 C70 doesn't have the 90deg bend in the hard line, so the manifold would lift striaght off with the fuel rail in place.
In taking the rail off, one of the pintle caps broke and fell onto one of the (thankfully closed) intake valves
Managed to suck it out with the vacuum cleaner.
All stripped off:
For some reason I don't have any pictures of the PCV box and hoses going back on, think I was on a bit of a mission.
When I did the cam seal I noted that the aux belt tensioner had quite a bit of wobble to it. The new INA tensioner has a slightly different design in that to release the tension you use a big torx bit on the body, rather than a 14mm spanner on the pulley. The new design is actually easier.
All nestled away in its new home.
I discovered that one of the non-return valves on the EVAP system wasn't working properly - at one point I could blow through it in both directions, and the next in neither!
I couldn't find them on any diagrams in VIDA, nor any correct part mubers online. They are 10mm in the inlet side, and 6mm on the outlet side so its hard to fit them incorrectly, but I couldn't find anything the same.
The solution:
EvEn MoRe Parts!
Some non-return valves with 10mm ports, and some separate 10mm-6mm reducers. Also some new injector seals and pintle caps, a new disptick seal and the repair bracket for the rearmost point of the exhaust that I have yet to fit.
To fit the pintle caps I chose the smallest socket that would still fit over the injector tips, clamped it in the vice, positioned the cap on it then gently pressed the injector into it.
All five fitted along with new seals:
The vacuum lines had seen better days, they had turned into sponges and one split when I touched it.
Every single vacuum line and hose clamp replaced, and the new non-return valves and reducers etc fitted.
There was also a join in the hard plastic line just back from the engine bay under the car. The line runs back to the fuel pressure regulator next to the filter.
One of the ends of the pipe was cut at a 45 degree angle, I'm not entirely convinced this is a factory joint, although the rubber pipe that was on it was in a similar state to everything else so it has been like it for a long time.
Yes, it is oily down there!
All the plastic covering over the wiring to the injectors and the coil packs had disintegrated with age, along with the covering of the wiring to the tubo contol solenoid. The sheathing on the wiring itself was fine, however.
I spent some time recovering the wiring with some new high-temperature sleeving.
I notice that the coil packs are marked 1 through 5 with tippex, but aren't on their corresponding cylinders. Perhaps someone was chasing a misfire at some point in the past?
The connector on number 5 is broken so I have added a cable tie to make sure it doesn't come loose.
After that it was just a case of putting it back together. I have noticed that the very short rubber pipe between the turbo and the over engine boost pipe is a bit overly soft. Its not urgent, but I will replace that at some point.
And....It lives!!
Despite the PCV hoses and oil trap that I removed being clear, a glove over the filler neck is sucked in much more than before.
Fuel trims down to +5/6. I was hoping for a bit lower now that every vacuum hose is new, but given that a month or so ago they were >+20 its not an awful result.
I still think the MAF is reading a touch low at 9-10kg/hr at idle when VIDA says it should be 12-14; but I'd quite like to properly diagnose if it is failing rather than just loading the parts cannon.
The other possibility is fuel pressure. I did notice when I depressurised the rail - I had already disconnected so much at the point I remembered I would need to do this that I couldn't start it with the fuel pump fuse removed, so I just turned my face away and prodded the schraeder valve with a screwdriver - that there was 'some' pressure in it, but not as much as I was expecting. it didn't come flying out. This after having been run for about 3 minutes about 1 1/2 hours previously. Since that assessment is not exactly highly scientific I might see if I can borrow a fuel pressure tester to rule it out as a problem.
Regardless, about 45 miles successfully travelled in it this evening, and all the oil is still where it should be.
It has to earn its keep now...
I decided to do the whole PCV system, much like nuking the entire site from orbit, it's the only was to be sure
And the special banjo bolt with a non-return valve in it, that for some reason costs £15!
First the manofold has to come off.
Noteable that you will require an extra long 1/4" extension to feed through a tiny gap to reach the bottom left bolt. Luckily my Halfords set allows you to use the screwdriver part as an extension in addition to the nomal extension
You can just about reach in fromthe right hand side to get the other lower ones.
Made a 'special tool' out of the metallic part of a wine bottle top in order to depress all four catches to disconnect the fuel line quick release.
Taking off the throttle body - hmmm, this looks oddly shiny...
Result!!
For those that don't know, that is a genuine Volvo remanufactured throttle body with contactless sensors. Manufacture date on it of Feb 2018. I had assumed when I peered in at it previously that as it had a white label, it was the original Magnetti Marelli rubbish.
The last year of history from when the old man had it was missing (hence why I had the cambelt done when we bought it, then found another sticker under the bonnet saying it had been done not long before. The replacement of the throttle body must also have been done around the same time.
Thats a potential bill we won't need to worry about any more.
To get the manifold all the way off and remove the banjo bolt on the underneath of it the alternator has to come off as there is literally mm's of clearance.
I also had to remove the fuel rail to get the manifold off as the hard line that comes through the manifold simply would not clear otherwise. Even then, the manifold had to be rotated 90 degrees to maneuver it off.
I notice that my '04 C70 doesn't have the 90deg bend in the hard line, so the manifold would lift striaght off with the fuel rail in place.
In taking the rail off, one of the pintle caps broke and fell onto one of the (thankfully closed) intake valves
Managed to suck it out with the vacuum cleaner.All stripped off:
For some reason I don't have any pictures of the PCV box and hoses going back on, think I was on a bit of a mission.
When I did the cam seal I noted that the aux belt tensioner had quite a bit of wobble to it. The new INA tensioner has a slightly different design in that to release the tension you use a big torx bit on the body, rather than a 14mm spanner on the pulley. The new design is actually easier.
All nestled away in its new home.
I discovered that one of the non-return valves on the EVAP system wasn't working properly - at one point I could blow through it in both directions, and the next in neither!
I couldn't find them on any diagrams in VIDA, nor any correct part mubers online. They are 10mm in the inlet side, and 6mm on the outlet side so its hard to fit them incorrectly, but I couldn't find anything the same.
The solution:
EvEn MoRe Parts!
Some non-return valves with 10mm ports, and some separate 10mm-6mm reducers. Also some new injector seals and pintle caps, a new disptick seal and the repair bracket for the rearmost point of the exhaust that I have yet to fit.
To fit the pintle caps I chose the smallest socket that would still fit over the injector tips, clamped it in the vice, positioned the cap on it then gently pressed the injector into it.
All five fitted along with new seals:
The vacuum lines had seen better days, they had turned into sponges and one split when I touched it.
Every single vacuum line and hose clamp replaced, and the new non-return valves and reducers etc fitted.
There was also a join in the hard plastic line just back from the engine bay under the car. The line runs back to the fuel pressure regulator next to the filter.
One of the ends of the pipe was cut at a 45 degree angle, I'm not entirely convinced this is a factory joint, although the rubber pipe that was on it was in a similar state to everything else so it has been like it for a long time.
Yes, it is oily down there!
All the plastic covering over the wiring to the injectors and the coil packs had disintegrated with age, along with the covering of the wiring to the tubo contol solenoid. The sheathing on the wiring itself was fine, however.
I spent some time recovering the wiring with some new high-temperature sleeving.
I notice that the coil packs are marked 1 through 5 with tippex, but aren't on their corresponding cylinders. Perhaps someone was chasing a misfire at some point in the past?
The connector on number 5 is broken so I have added a cable tie to make sure it doesn't come loose.
After that it was just a case of putting it back together. I have noticed that the very short rubber pipe between the turbo and the over engine boost pipe is a bit overly soft. Its not urgent, but I will replace that at some point.
And....It lives!!
Despite the PCV hoses and oil trap that I removed being clear, a glove over the filler neck is sucked in much more than before.
Fuel trims down to +5/6. I was hoping for a bit lower now that every vacuum hose is new, but given that a month or so ago they were >+20 its not an awful result.
I still think the MAF is reading a touch low at 9-10kg/hr at idle when VIDA says it should be 12-14; but I'd quite like to properly diagnose if it is failing rather than just loading the parts cannon.
The other possibility is fuel pressure. I did notice when I depressurised the rail - I had already disconnected so much at the point I remembered I would need to do this that I couldn't start it with the fuel pump fuse removed, so I just turned my face away and prodded the schraeder valve with a screwdriver - that there was 'some' pressure in it, but not as much as I was expecting. it didn't come flying out. This after having been run for about 3 minutes about 1 1/2 hours previously. Since that assessment is not exactly highly scientific I might see if I can borrow a fuel pressure tester to rule it out as a problem.
Regardless, about 45 miles successfully travelled in it this evening, and all the oil is still where it should be.
It has to earn its keep now...
Ticked off one of the MOT advisories this morning, the rearmost exhaust bracket had rusted off the tailpipe
It was just a five minute job to remove the rusted part and bolt on the repair clamp, didn't even need to jack the car up.
I also replaced the passenger side mirror that I broke last November and had the replacement in the glovebox since then.
When I say I broke it, I just touched someones black bin in the dark and the rain on a single cars width street letting someone past, just enough to fold in the mirror housing and the glass dropped slightly. Literally just as I got to a position that I could stop safely to push it back out, the glass fell onto the floor and cracked in half diagonally.
It was only able to fall to the floor because at some point someone had cut off the wires for the heating elements (which would explain the code in Vida).
A couple of spade connectors and a squeeze with Aldi's finest crimping tool and the new heated glass was clipped back in, in theory, the only code in Vida should now be the ubiquitous air quality sensor.
It was just a five minute job to remove the rusted part and bolt on the repair clamp, didn't even need to jack the car up.
I also replaced the passenger side mirror that I broke last November and had the replacement in the glovebox since then.
When I say I broke it, I just touched someones black bin in the dark and the rain on a single cars width street letting someone past, just enough to fold in the mirror housing and the glass dropped slightly. Literally just as I got to a position that I could stop safely to push it back out, the glass fell onto the floor and cracked in half diagonally.
It was only able to fall to the floor because at some point someone had cut off the wires for the heating elements (which would explain the code in Vida).
A couple of spade connectors and a squeeze with Aldi's finest crimping tool and the new heated glass was clipped back in, in theory, the only code in Vida should now be the ubiquitous air quality sensor.
The torque converter in the twice rebuilt gearbox continues to shudder. I syringed out 300ml of fluid and threw in a 300ml bottle of Lubegard Platinum prior to a trip down to Cornwall and seemingly all was well during the week, but no sooner had we reteurned it was up to it's old tricks again.
And back to the gearbox 'specialists' we went...
This time they had it for a week, and their assessment was "it's your viscous coupling on the rear axle binding up sir".
Not entirely convinced by that (not convinced at all, in fact), I went and collected the car, and that very night removed the propshaft at the side of the road. In doing so I found that they had totally mangled one of the allen headed bolts when they were fiddling with it.
I didn't particularly like how I had to lift it in order to get it off - it had to have both wheels on the same side up in the air in order for the prop to rotate to get at all the bolts.
I think I am going to see if I can borrow some time on a lift when it comes time to put it back on again.
So now we have a 2WD car with a shuddering torque converter
At this point I don't really want to take it back to them again, its been incredibly stressful and I have lost faith in their ability to get it right or even diagnose correctly. At the same time I don't want them to 'get away' with our money..
I said earlier I don't understand how people can not realise the AWD isn't working - it now lights up the front tyres very easily - went to overtake a lorry on a long Motorway sliproad and it started spinning the wheels on dry tarmac at about 25mph. Perhaps the mapping is different on the later ones?
My daughter thought the wheelspin was quite fun, the boost control solenoid decided it wasn't. It made a horrible chattering buzzing noise at startup and shutdown (which to be fair I had heard before from it) for a couple of days, then stopped functioning altogether.
Luckily I was able to find a Pierburg replacement on Amazon for £32. It was sold by Amazon themselves and appears to be genuine. Fitting was a two minute job, one pipe at a time so as not to mix them up
And we were back to full booooost.
I have discovered that when driving the car in geartronic mode, the torque converter doesn't shudder. It locks up with a single definite 'bump'. I'm assuming that in geartronic mode the slip function of the lockup is deactivated.
I'm the only one driving it for the moment as Mrs1roll has broken her ankle, and have successfully done about 600 miles like that so far with no shuddering. It's not a fix, but a workaround to stop it grinding itself to bits.
We've got a trip to Wales coming up next week, and after that I think I'm going to change the gearbox oil for the 16 litres of JWS3309 I still have sat in the shed, on the chance they have put the wrong fluid in it and the lubegard wasn't able to compensate. Failing that if we can use the workaround it until this time next year, I'll have a go at the torque converter myself.
And back to the gearbox 'specialists' we went...
This time they had it for a week, and their assessment was "it's your viscous coupling on the rear axle binding up sir".
Not entirely convinced by that (not convinced at all, in fact), I went and collected the car, and that very night removed the propshaft at the side of the road. In doing so I found that they had totally mangled one of the allen headed bolts when they were fiddling with it.
I didn't particularly like how I had to lift it in order to get it off - it had to have both wheels on the same side up in the air in order for the prop to rotate to get at all the bolts.
I think I am going to see if I can borrow some time on a lift when it comes time to put it back on again.
So now we have a 2WD car with a shuddering torque converter
At this point I don't really want to take it back to them again, its been incredibly stressful and I have lost faith in their ability to get it right or even diagnose correctly. At the same time I don't want them to 'get away' with our money..
I said earlier I don't understand how people can not realise the AWD isn't working - it now lights up the front tyres very easily - went to overtake a lorry on a long Motorway sliproad and it started spinning the wheels on dry tarmac at about 25mph. Perhaps the mapping is different on the later ones?
My daughter thought the wheelspin was quite fun, the boost control solenoid decided it wasn't. It made a horrible chattering buzzing noise at startup and shutdown (which to be fair I had heard before from it) for a couple of days, then stopped functioning altogether.
Luckily I was able to find a Pierburg replacement on Amazon for £32. It was sold by Amazon themselves and appears to be genuine. Fitting was a two minute job, one pipe at a time so as not to mix them up
And we were back to full booooost.
I have discovered that when driving the car in geartronic mode, the torque converter doesn't shudder. It locks up with a single definite 'bump'. I'm assuming that in geartronic mode the slip function of the lockup is deactivated.
I'm the only one driving it for the moment as Mrs1roll has broken her ankle, and have successfully done about 600 miles like that so far with no shuddering. It's not a fix, but a workaround to stop it grinding itself to bits.
We've got a trip to Wales coming up next week, and after that I think I'm going to change the gearbox oil for the 16 litres of JWS3309 I still have sat in the shed, on the chance they have put the wrong fluid in it and the lubegard wasn't able to compensate. Failing that if we can use the workaround it until this time next year, I'll have a go at the torque converter myself.
Well, I didn't want to 'call it' until I was sure, but I think its long enough now to say that I have fixed the TC judder by... PUTTING THE CORRECT FLUID IN IT!
Having done it as a series of drain and fills, the first drain was black, with a little debris stuck to the magnetic plug. The second was much much cleaner with no debris evident, and at that point it would have had ~74% new correct fluid so we started driving it in automatic mode again. It hasn't juddered once since then, with almost 3 thousand miles done.
I've done a total of 4 changes now, which takes us to 92% new fluid.
Just goes to show - yet again - that if I want anything done properly, I should do it myself!
Obviously the concern is how much damage has been done by ~2-2.5k miles of driving with the wrong stuff in there, but there's not much I can do about that now.
With that buttoned down, I decided it was actually worth servicing the car - the light was on (due to time) since March, but given that it had an impromptu oil change etc when the cam seal went, and that it was no-where near the 10k limit due to being off the road for ages with all the buggering about I was comfortable running it on a bit.
The fuel filter and air filters were changed last time so the Plan was oil + filter, plugs, and a final drain and fill to get to ~96%new fluid with a single D+F each service thereafter.
Also to investigate the leaking driveshaft boot.
I didn't end up taking as may photos as I intended as I was covered in oil and grease.
Managed to get the front end under a bit of shade, but I was still soaking wet by the end of it.
The filter housing was filled with 'coffee grinds' but given this was the first filter change I have done, I doubt any garage will have cleaned it out previously. A good few doses of brake cleaner and repeated wiping out and it was sparkling, so a new Mahle filter was then fitted, which was a much tighter fit than the Mann filter that was in there - inspection shows that the centre bore on the Mahle filter was smaller (and thus there will be more surface area on the pleats) and fitted much more tightly. Given I believe Mahle make the Volvo filters I suspect this is how it is supposed to be. I will remember this for future changes and keep an eye on the state of the filter.
Threw in 5 1/4 litres of Smith and Allans A3/B4 5w-40 Full Synthetic (after much deliberation I decided this will be fine, Opie oils still say 10w-40 which is really out of date info, VIDA says 0w-30 which I can't find in A3 spec for a sensible price - only A5/B5, and most places just bung a basic 5w-30 in everything!) and got it back down on the ground so I could do the plugs.
Can you tell which one was loose?
They had been in for about 35k. The volvo plugs come pre-gapped to 0.75mm, (range 0.7 - 0.8) and on checking they were a shade over 0.8 (I really need to get a feeler guage to go below 0.05mm). I suspect if they did the full 60k they are alleged to be good for, they'd be well out.
A new set of Volvo plugs was fitted - all were bang-on 0.75mm.
Once the oil had time to settle, I checked and topped up to the max with the remainder of the total 5.8 litre fill.
I didn't do the last gearbox drain and fill, as I spotted a weep from the cooler return line seal on the box (again, if you want it done properly..) so I will save the fluid until I replace that.
Then I fitted a new-old-stock MAF sensor. We had been experiencing an intermittent surging at a constant speed - as if driving into very high wind - given that the ETM is new volvo, I have replaced every single vaccuum hose and the PCV the MAF was next on the list - in fact xemodex's ETM flowcharts say replace the maf, and it was reading low at idle compared to the vida specs.
The BOSCH part number is NLA so I took a flyer on this one actually being genuine and working. It came in the old-style yellow box.
It reads higher than the old one at idle and the STFT was then almost precisely opposite the LTFT at idle before I reset it all, so it's definitely doing something different.
It remains to be seen if it will fix the surging as it might not do it for ages before doing it constantly for days.
Last up was to investigate the driveshaft boot.
I literally can't see where it is leaking from. It isn't split. I cleaned all the grease up so it was spotless and then gave it a good squeeze and felt all around where it seals to the the yoke housing etc and it remained clean. In the end I noticed the ear clip had a bit more squeeze available to it, so I crimped that up so the two sides were touching and will have to just monitor and see if that stops it.
If not then I'll have to get a boot kit and pull the shaft out.
We're still propshaftless at present, a little while ago I had a piece of flint pierce precisely in the middle of the tread on the OSR tyre, creating an irreperable split in the inside.
since all the tyres were between 4 and 5 mm, this would have meant 4 new tyres if I wanted to put the prop back on and not destroy the viscous coupling, so at the moment it has a cheap and nasty accelera on there that Dad had lying around.
The fronts are going to wear very quickly in 2WD mode, so once they get down to below 3mm I'll put 4 new on at that point.
Having done it as a series of drain and fills, the first drain was black, with a little debris stuck to the magnetic plug. The second was much much cleaner with no debris evident, and at that point it would have had ~74% new correct fluid so we started driving it in automatic mode again. It hasn't juddered once since then, with almost 3 thousand miles done.
I've done a total of 4 changes now, which takes us to 92% new fluid.
Just goes to show - yet again - that if I want anything done properly, I should do it myself!
Obviously the concern is how much damage has been done by ~2-2.5k miles of driving with the wrong stuff in there, but there's not much I can do about that now.
With that buttoned down, I decided it was actually worth servicing the car - the light was on (due to time) since March, but given that it had an impromptu oil change etc when the cam seal went, and that it was no-where near the 10k limit due to being off the road for ages with all the buggering about I was comfortable running it on a bit.
The fuel filter and air filters were changed last time so the Plan was oil + filter, plugs, and a final drain and fill to get to ~96%new fluid with a single D+F each service thereafter.
Also to investigate the leaking driveshaft boot.
I didn't end up taking as may photos as I intended as I was covered in oil and grease.
Managed to get the front end under a bit of shade, but I was still soaking wet by the end of it.
The filter housing was filled with 'coffee grinds' but given this was the first filter change I have done, I doubt any garage will have cleaned it out previously. A good few doses of brake cleaner and repeated wiping out and it was sparkling, so a new Mahle filter was then fitted, which was a much tighter fit than the Mann filter that was in there - inspection shows that the centre bore on the Mahle filter was smaller (and thus there will be more surface area on the pleats) and fitted much more tightly. Given I believe Mahle make the Volvo filters I suspect this is how it is supposed to be. I will remember this for future changes and keep an eye on the state of the filter.
Threw in 5 1/4 litres of Smith and Allans A3/B4 5w-40 Full Synthetic (after much deliberation I decided this will be fine, Opie oils still say 10w-40 which is really out of date info, VIDA says 0w-30 which I can't find in A3 spec for a sensible price - only A5/B5, and most places just bung a basic 5w-30 in everything!) and got it back down on the ground so I could do the plugs.
Can you tell which one was loose?
They had been in for about 35k. The volvo plugs come pre-gapped to 0.75mm, (range 0.7 - 0.8) and on checking they were a shade over 0.8 (I really need to get a feeler guage to go below 0.05mm). I suspect if they did the full 60k they are alleged to be good for, they'd be well out.
A new set of Volvo plugs was fitted - all were bang-on 0.75mm.
Once the oil had time to settle, I checked and topped up to the max with the remainder of the total 5.8 litre fill.
I didn't do the last gearbox drain and fill, as I spotted a weep from the cooler return line seal on the box (again, if you want it done properly..) so I will save the fluid until I replace that.
Then I fitted a new-old-stock MAF sensor. We had been experiencing an intermittent surging at a constant speed - as if driving into very high wind - given that the ETM is new volvo, I have replaced every single vaccuum hose and the PCV the MAF was next on the list - in fact xemodex's ETM flowcharts say replace the maf, and it was reading low at idle compared to the vida specs.
The BOSCH part number is NLA so I took a flyer on this one actually being genuine and working. It came in the old-style yellow box.
It reads higher than the old one at idle and the STFT was then almost precisely opposite the LTFT at idle before I reset it all, so it's definitely doing something different.
It remains to be seen if it will fix the surging as it might not do it for ages before doing it constantly for days.
Last up was to investigate the driveshaft boot.
I literally can't see where it is leaking from. It isn't split. I cleaned all the grease up so it was spotless and then gave it a good squeeze and felt all around where it seals to the the yoke housing etc and it remained clean. In the end I noticed the ear clip had a bit more squeeze available to it, so I crimped that up so the two sides were touching and will have to just monitor and see if that stops it.
If not then I'll have to get a boot kit and pull the shaft out.
We're still propshaftless at present, a little while ago I had a piece of flint pierce precisely in the middle of the tread on the OSR tyre, creating an irreperable split in the inside.
since all the tyres were between 4 and 5 mm, this would have meant 4 new tyres if I wanted to put the prop back on and not destroy the viscous coupling, so at the moment it has a cheap and nasty accelera on there that Dad had lying around.
The fronts are going to wear very quickly in 2WD mode, so once they get down to below 3mm I'll put 4 new on at that point.
Edited by chris1roll on Sunday 10th September 13:25
sherbertdip said:
Reading this thread brings back memories of our 2005XC70 (5 pot diesel), I think we did the right thing selling at 10 years old. Yours is a love/hate relationship by looks of it.
The first 2 years all we had to do was service it, put fuel in it and wash it. The first six months of this year have been a f
king nightmare!Hopefully we're through that now, since I can't see what else we would have instead -has to be an estate, we don't want an SUV, my Dad had an E class before but I find the Volvo a much nicer place to be so we'd likely just end up with another one!
Mrs1roll came back from work yesterday and asked "why is my car faster?"
I took our daughter to football in it last night, and it really is quicker!
So the combination of new, tightened plugs and the nos MAF sensor have definitely improved something.
I had a quick check underneath yesterday evening and the drives haft boot appears to have stopped leaking, for now at least, so that's a result
Circumstances have meant that this week it's only been doing short journeys with Mrs1roll driving it, so the average mpg is below 20
I'm hoping that will return to normal or better once our normal routine is resumed!
Circumstances have meant that this week it's only been doing short journeys with Mrs1roll driving it, so the average mpg is below 20
I'm hoping that will return to normal or better once our normal routine is resumed!
The return line oil seal arrived this weekend, so I have changed that.
Last drain of the gearbox fluid, still red now.:
Once the pan was empty , upon popping the line out it was evident that the seal was damaged
I'm not convinced this was actually replaced when the gearbox was rebuilt.
I also noted the wetness on that torx bolt holding the valve body cover on, so I thought I might just tweak up the bolts a bit.
They weren't much more than finger tight, I could easily turn all of them with a short torx key...
With the extra fluid that came out of the cooler line and the orifice in the box, I needed to replace 3.7 litres of fluid, bringing it up to 96% of the new, correct fluid, and less than a litre left in the bottom of the 20l drum.
I can't do any more for the gearbox now, it'll have to either live, or not!
I also replaced the oil filler cap seal that I noted was cracked when I did the service. The original was so hardened it snapped like a piece of plastic when removed.
While it was up on the ramps I was able to slide under the back and measure the rear anti-roll bar (16mm) so I can work on finding some bushes for it. Volvo don't sell the bushes separately from the bar, so an aftermarket solution is required.
Last drain of the gearbox fluid, still red now.:
Once the pan was empty , upon popping the line out it was evident that the seal was damaged
I'm not convinced this was actually replaced when the gearbox was rebuilt.
I also noted the wetness on that torx bolt holding the valve body cover on, so I thought I might just tweak up the bolts a bit.
They weren't much more than finger tight, I could easily turn all of them with a short torx key...
With the extra fluid that came out of the cooler line and the orifice in the box, I needed to replace 3.7 litres of fluid, bringing it up to 96% of the new, correct fluid, and less than a litre left in the bottom of the 20l drum.
I can't do any more for the gearbox now, it'll have to either live, or not!
I also replaced the oil filler cap seal that I noted was cracked when I did the service. The original was so hardened it snapped like a piece of plastic when removed.
While it was up on the ramps I was able to slide under the back and measure the rear anti-roll bar (16mm) so I can work on finding some bushes for it. Volvo don't sell the bushes separately from the bar, so an aftermarket solution is required.
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