New 99 S70 GLT owner with a couple questions

[dmb41]

I got a pretty good deal on a 99 s70 GLT turbo with 78k miles. I know the original owner and they have several cars they drive so none of them get very many miles put on them. He said he always had it serviced at the Volvo dealer and only used Mobil-1 oil, and it seems like it was taken care of.

I do have a couple questions with some minor problems it has that I was made aware of before purchasing the car. I have done some basic maintenance on cars in the past but nothing major (I'm a computer programmer by trade), so some of this stuff may be trivial. The drivers side door makes a cruching/creaking noise when it's opended/closed. It certainly sounds like it's beyond a WD-40 fix but I am not sure what needs to be done to fix the problem. Is there a way to establish what may be wrong there? I have also ordered new trunk struts but those seem fairly straightforward to install. The guy I bought it from said that he did not do the 75k service yet and I was hoping to do some of it at home considering a lot of it is just topping off fluids, etc. However, I did some peaking around the repair DB and some people said to use caution when changing the transmission fluid because if you switch to using synthentic it could damage the car. I asked the owner and he said that he never bothered to ask what the dealer used, so I am not sure what kind I should use as I don't want to damage the car. Same question also applies to the coolant as there seemed to be some debate as to which kind was suitable for a Volvo. Some people used Prestone and others swore by only using Volvo brand.

I don't want to damage anything while working on the car. Are there a list of best practices to follow?

Thanks in advance.

[JRL]

Most probably the door "creaking' is the door check, that metal piece that holds the door from opening into your fender
These go bad, usually from lack of grease and many are right now after 10-13 years since new.
You can try some white lithium spray grease and check to see if it's tight on both ends. If not or the noise does not go away replace it now.
If you don't, it will get worse and start to make a snapping noise until it finally breaks (at best), at worse it can tear right out of the door jam and then you have some welding to do!
Sometimes though, all it needs is to be tightened

[Ozark Lee]

+1 on JRL's suggestion on the door check. If it turns out to be bad don't buy a ScanTech replacement - it will be dead again within 3 or 4 months. In the meantime be very careful about opening the door so as to not damage the A pillar.

Same question also applies to the coolant as there seemed to be some debate as to which kind was suitable for a Volvo. Some people used Prestone and others swore by only using Volvo brand.

There are a number of threads on coolant. Volvo coolant is stupid expensive but it has the correct HOAT formulation and it is phosphate free. After much research I have been using Zerex G05 in all of my Volvo's since it matches the specifications (except color) and it is less than half the price. It is hard to find but NAPA normally stocks it and as I recall it costs around $12.00 / gallon undiluted.

When I change to a different formulation I flush the system rather than just adding it.

Check your owners manual on the service intervals, my newest Volvo is a '98 and the 70k service includes the timing belt. I believe that got extended to 100k on the '99s but I am not positive. Any timing belt problem is "Game Over" for the engine. If it is the original timing belt I would replace based on time alone even it the mileage is under the limit.

Welcome to the forum,

...Lee

[dmb41]

Thanks for the help guys. I was able to fix the door by removing the T40 torx screw and putting some lock-tight on it. However, it appears that this was already done at some point because there was red residue on the torx screw and it looked to be pretty stripped. I did some Google searches and it doesn't appear replacement torx screws are very easy to come by. Is there a common place that you guys are able to find replacement torx screws? I figure down the road if I have to do the same repair, it would make sense to replace that screw as it's in pretty bad shape.

Thanks again for the replies. I will follow up when I receive the trunk struts and have installed them.