1998 V70 Throttle Cable maintenance

Post by **cn90** » 11 Jan 2011, 09:37

1998 V70 Throttle Cable maintenance
My car with 105K miles runs fine, no issues at all, but just wondering anyone of you guys ever had issues with Throttle Cable?
Does the Throttle Cable need replacement after ___years and ___miles at all?

Post by **jblackburn** » 11 Jan 2011, 09:48

As long as there is no visible shearing in the plastic sheath for the cable to get stuck up on, the only thing it could really use is a bit of white silicone grease on the parts of the throttle wheel to throttle body parts. This will both help with pedal effort and make the cruise control system work a bit more smoothly. Don't use WD40 or anything like that.

I broke my kickdown switch at the firewall during the the PCV change; the plastic retaining ring behind the boot there was brittle after many years and just snapped. After that, flooring it at any speed in 'E' mode would only cause it to lazily drop one gear - annoying when you're trying to merge into fast-paced traffic. Keep undue stress away from that part of the cable and you should be good.

Post by **JRL** » 11 Jan 2011, 13:27

I would.
About now (13-14 years old and many miles) they're all pretty gummed up and have become very STIFF
When you install a new one you will NOT BELIEVE how easy and smooth it will be!

It should be a light as a feather, pushable with a pinky tip all the way down to the floor, if not, it should be replaced.
We've tried to clean them up, that doesn't work!

sven · Post by **sven** » 13 Jan 2011, 16:58

I'm convinced that mine has stretched. About 2 years ago I was on a 200 mile trip in the middle of winter. Car felt lethargic and started to upshift really weird. Check engine came on and I pulled over. I noticed that the gas pedal did nothing in the first couple inched of travel. I basically had to tighten the throttle cable several turns. Car drove great after that.

Now its starting to feel lethargic again and the gas pedal feels weird again. I think its time to replace it finally!

cdnbluez · Post by **cdnbluez** » 14 Jan 2011, 13:10

I just bought a '98 V70 with 200k miles for my 17 yr old son, and the pedal was so stiff it felt like you were driving an old diesel. I've had a few Volvos, and ever experienced this before. Today I took the cover off the throttle linkage and sprayed the whole thing down with wd40. I didn't think it would work, but it did. We'll see how long it lasts.

Post by **mtd240** » 11 Aug 2013, 07:55

jblackburn wrote:As long as there is no visible shearing in the plastic sheath for the cable to get stuck up on, the only thing it could really use is a bit of white silicone grease on the parts of the throttle wheel to throttle body parts. This will both help with pedal effort and make the cruise control system work a bit more smoothly. Don't use WD40 or anything like that.

I broke my kickdown switch at the firewall during the the PCV change; the plastic retaining ring behind the boot there was brittle after many years and just snapped. After that, flooring it at any speed in 'E' mode would only cause it to lazily drop one gear - annoying when you're trying to merge into fast-paced traffic. Keep undue stress away from that part of the cable and you should be good.

Just did the PCV job yesterday, and had this happen to me. Just a warning to those out there about to do a PCV job. If the plastic sheathing is peeling off the throttle cable, it is probably at an age where the whole thing is a brittle mess.

Failure mode: The throttle sticks open whenever you press the gas pedal. I am happy this happened in the garage, and not while my wife was driving the XC. Could have been a lot worse.

Klausc · Post by **Klausc** » 11 Aug 2013, 09:44

cn90 wrote:1998 V70 Throttle Cable maintenance
My car with 105K miles runs fine, no issues at all, but just wondering anyone of you guys ever had issues with Throttle Cable?
Does the Throttle Cable need replacement after ___years and ___miles at all?

My 98R had a stiff throttle which eventually caused the cruise control to respond so slow that I thought that the CC was broken. It was my daughter that gave me the clue to replace the cable, "Dad, why is the gas pedal so hard to push down?"

I had already lithium greased all of the external parts of the linkage and no improvement. The CC was working to spec and was great on flat stretches of road.

Age, not mileage, is the factor to consider when replacing the cable.