What did you do to your Volvo today? Topic is solved

[DennisCA]

New front rotors and pads, also new CV joint on right hand side. I got another for the left side, but for some reason I got a 36mm nut on the right and a 32mm nut on the left. I cannot get the 32mm nut off because my socket isn't deep enough. Need to buy a new one.



Started it up last night and I was ready to take it to the inspector to make it road legal again but I heard an exhaust leak as soon as I started it up. Just drive it in again and lift it up again, it's right behind the cat where there is a seam. I'll try and put some mig welds over it under the car.

[ZionXIX]

Continuing my teardown of the front end. I bought a tool to help trmove the inner tie-rods (which was awful) and noticed the steering rack passenger side (US model) has the expected Teflon seal but the driver side doesn't have anything. I have some fluid leaking out from the driver side. Is there suppose to be some kind of plug or seal on this side?

[Chieber]

Went to an Indy shop repairing Volvos and asked about the oil use ( 1l per 1000km), and the smoking at startup and idling.

He told me that he does not believe it’s the valve stem seals and thinks it’s because the engine has a high carter pressure.

I replaced the whole pcv couple months back and the carter seemed to be free of blockage. So is he right, or is the issue of a smokey exhaust nonetheless from hardened valve stem seals?

As long as the car passes the inspection every year, he said just to drive it till it’s finished.

Anyways, since the engine still runs fine, besides the thrist for oil, I started working on the rear suspension. After that I’ll have to find some free time to do the delta links and the anchorage mounts.
After that, it’ll be the front end.

The shocks and spring replacement took me 5 hrs to do. 2 hrs of which were to gently remove the upper shock mount bolts.

[ZionXIX]

Went to an Indy shop repairing Volvos and asked about the oil use ( 1l per 1000km), and the smoking at startup and idling.

He told me that he does not believe it’s the valve stem seals and thinks it’s because the engine has a high carter pressure.

I replaced the whole pcv couple months back and the carter seemed to be free of blockage. So is he right, or is the issue of a smokey exhaust nonetheless from hardened valve stem seals?

At high mileage these engines can have a lot of blow by. Does your engine pass the glove test? If not there are some mods you can do to aid in relieving that high crankcase pressure. I have had good luck with the PTC mod and upgrading the PCV hose size to a 5/8 hose with a spring inside to keep the hose from collapsing as its goes around the engine.

[ZionXIX]

So apparently my passenger CV axle carrier bearing left the chat years ago.

[scot850]

Ooopsy! I have never seen a bearing fail like that. Wow!!

Sorry, can't answer the steering rack question, as never looked that close. They do have O-ring seals that can fail.

Cheiber, it is as the guys suggested and you have pointed out more likely the valve stem seals hardening. What oil are you running in the engine? 5W-30? If so you could try a thicker oil like 5W-40 and see if that reduces the oil consumption. A long shot is to try ATP AP-205 seal conditioner in your oil to see if it might soften the seals enough to reduce leakage.

Neil.

[scot850]

I was at one of the local Volvo dealers yesterday. One of the service advisors stopped me and asked if I wanted a 98 V70 T5. It is his brother's car and it is looking for a new home. It had been through the shop there to ID any issues. I laughed later when his brother sent me a copy of the quote for repairs. $6600 CDN!! Yikes!

I talked with is brother and he would like $3500 CDN for the car. But as he knows about me and old Volvos, he would reduce that to $2500 CDN as it would be going to a good home which is important to him. The 2 previous owners are former Volvo mechanics I know, so the car has some known history. I need another car like a hole in the head, but hate to see it go to some uncaring sole who would just run it till it breaks further. I ma have a buddy who lost his 99 V70 GLT to a parking incident when someone backed into the car. He still misses the car and it was even silver like this one.

I know the repairs can be probably be brought down to around $1-1500 in parts. Radiator and oil cooler seals, tie-rods inner and outer with boots, CV axle boots (all 4) and serpentine belt and tensioner.

I have not seen the car in years, so I'm arranging for him to bring it to my shop on the weekend so I can get it up on the hoist and give it a major check over. The main issues are the mechanics are mostly younger than the car, so often do not know where to check the cars for issues. They also use a mindset of replace all parts (like the tie rods) when only the RH outer is actually bad. They also miss stuff like the rear axle bushes and the alignment blocks that up here crumble. So I will take a look and have invited my buddy too if we can get it arranged. If I didn't have so much going on just now, I would possibly add this to the garage as a winter beater while the R is sleeping out of the salt. But currently we have 2 Volvos, a Toyota 4Runner and hopefully shortly a 06 V7 2.5T AWD Polestar. The Toyota will go. Someone is already wanting it but I have a few jobs to do on it first.

Neil.

[BlackBart]

Today I moved him to a roomier garage where I have room to work. I want to do timing belt, serp belt, drain the old fuel, new fuel filter, etc.

I flushed the brake fluid, changed oil and filter, flushed the coolant, new plugs.

[ZionXIX]

Question about torquing control arm under preload. I know its best to torque the control arms bolts while the vehicle has weight on the suspension. I have the subframe on the ground right now. Can I install the control arms now since they would be sitting nearly horizontal?

[scot850]

Yes, but once the car is back together, loosen the the bolts and re-torque. In fact, I would just loosely tighten them. You just have to remember to tighten them fully once the car is back on the ground.

Neil.