1998 Volvo S70 - MAF Part Number

sewsavannah · Post by **sewsavannah** » 18 Oct 2012, 19:52

I inherited my mom's s70 a few months back. I love the car... Lately I have to remind myself of this almost constantly, since it's been a lawn ornament that causes me to cuss whenever I step outside of my house.

Here's what's going on with it.

It was running fine and then I let my daughter drive it. She got home and it was running ROUGH! The gas tank was also really low (no shocking thing there) so I got in it and drove down the road to fill the tank. I never made it. The car was running rough, rough, rough and then it stalled on me. I had my son push it home, fuming all the way. My husband put it on a code reader, it said the MAF was no good. So he cleaned it. I thought he replaced it.

It was still not running. It would try to start but to me it sounded like it was smothering. I have to admit, the hubby is no "car guy". For some reason he decided that the fuel system relay had gone bad. It took six times ordering the darned thing to get the right one in at the auto parts store here. We kept getting the right box with the wrong part in it. Put the new part in, and she's still not running.

Honestly, I got frustrated. I refused to try to look at the car for a few weeks.

Tonight the hubby decided that the battery was the problem. I'm not sure where he got this idea, but the battery had a bad cell he says, so he put a new battery in the car. It started but again it was sounding rough. He told me this was because it had been sitting in the driveway while I had my temper tantrum about the car and that I should drive it around the block. I made it four houses down the block and she stalled on me.

My daughter walked down to me while I sat in the car fuming and pulled off the MAF. The car started. It ran enough to get home. I parked it in a new spot in the name of diversity of lawn ornaments.

My real question is this: What is the Part Number for the MAF for a 1998 Volvo S70, non-turbo? I don't want to go through another bout of wrong parts coming in for the car, I just want her fixed.

I need to get it running soon, as my neighbor reported me to the city for having a non-running vehicle and have a month to prove to some little man with a little badge that the car isn't immobile. (oh, and the day after the badge-man came knocking the neighbor offered to BUY the car, so I know it was him).

Post by **rmmagow** » 18 Oct 2012, 20:28

Get it right off the MAF itself. Check at the top of the page here, IPD, FCP and any of the other sites will fix you right up. Call them on the phone and they will be sure to get you the exact right part from BOSCH. Sounds like your fuel relay should be OK.
Call them! Since the car ran a bit with the MAF off, that is a great sign that the MAF is dead.
PS, that might not be all that's wrong, but it's a start.
Gat back at your neighbor, sell him the car

Post by **cn90** » 18 Oct 2012, 21:10

The good news is this is a very very easy fix with a screwdriver.

- For now, unplug the MAF so the car can run.

- 1998 S70/V70 MAF is PN 1275749. Use only Volvo or Bosch brands and nothing else:
http://www.eeuroparts.com/Parts/4114/Ai ... mNumber=19

- When you replace it:
1. Unplug the MAF
2. Flat Screwdriver to undo the clamps.
3. Watch out for the large O-ring (if I remember correctly, the O-ring is on the Air Filter side).
4. Then put the clamps back on and tighten them

The whole thing should not take more than 10 min.

Post by **erikv11** » 18 Oct 2012, 21:15

The MAF is expensive so you should be sure it is broken before you replace it. So are you saying the car runs better with the MAF unplugged? It is fine to try to drive the car around with the MAF unplugged. You can't drive it all day like that, that is too risky, but you can drive it 5 miles. If it runs a lot better with the MAF unplugged, then the MAF needs replacing.

But rmmagow made a very important point: you can not buy a cheap rebuilt MAF or an off-brand MAF from the local parts store, it will not work. You must buy the Bosch part. Here is an example price for a new one
http://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo-m ... 0280217107
cn90 provided the Volvo part number up above but that is not the Bosch part number, as rmmagow said you will need to read that off of the MAF.

You can also get one from a junkyard car, any 1995-1997 850 or any 1998 S70 or V70. But it must be a Bosch MAF or it will only give you more headaches.

sewsavannah · Post by **sewsavannah** » 19 Oct 2012, 07:00

erkiv11, she runs almost fine with the maf removed. i was able to drive it back home from down the block and up into my insanely steep driveway without it stalling. I didn't want to risk it any further without the maf removed... mainly I didn't want to pay to have her towed back home if she misbehaved again. I'm waiting in line on the phone for the local you-pull it. I hadn't thought of a used part. If it can get me going again it would be great to not have to drop almost $200 for the part. Thanks for the suggestion.

rmmagow, the fuel relay had better be ok, it's a new one! This is the second time this particular neighbor did this to me over a car. The first was a friend's car that died in my driveway. The guy buys cars and fixes them and sells them. I have no problem with people making a living but can he take the vulture act somewhere else?

cn90, thanks for the photo, link and encouragement.

It means a lot to me to get the car running. Years ago, when Mom bought her, I went to admire the new car and I was goofing around with my sister and I licked the windshield and said "I claim this car in the name of Susan!" (Yes, I actually licked the windshield, it's an old family joke - I also did it with my Aunt's new BMW last month... ) She kept the car in great shape, and I love it. It's not only a nice car, it's a tangible reminder of Mom at this point. I'd like to keep it forever.

Post by **erikv11** » 19 Oct 2012, 08:02

BTW - the MAF from an 95 850 with a manual transmission is NOT the same as your car's, and the MAF from a 94 turbo 850 IS the same. The 93 850 also has the wrong MAF for you.

It's OK to drive it around for a couple days without the MAF. The car goes into a default mode for setting the air:fuel mixture. See how it idles in your driveway, you might want to drive it down to the pick and pull so you can try the MAF on the spot (if they have one!), and make sure the used part works. You already know how a bad MAF behaves so you should be able to tell right away ...

Post by **cn90** » 19 Oct 2012, 08:10

The average lifespan of an MAF is about 10yr/110K or so. Mine failed at 110K miles.

I buy used parts for my cars all the time, but when it comes to certain items that involve safety, I stay away from used parts, I buy new from Volvo or Bosch.
Last year when my MAF failed, my car stalled on the freeway, almost got rear-ended by people behind me. I quickly pulled over the shoulder, wheeeeww!

To me, buying used MAF is like buying used spark plugs! This may give people a false sense of saving money, but on the long run, it costs you more because the junkyard part will fail soon after you buy it. In fact, you save money by buying new part.

Your 1998 S70 will easily last another 10 years if well taken care of, so $160 for the new MAF is not that bad. It works out to be $16/year or $1.30/month!

PS: I think the MAF for 1998 S70 ---> Bosch PN 0280217107.

Post by **erikv11** » 19 Oct 2012, 08:28

Your experience is based on one car. Mine is almost as useless, based on three cars. But together we have four ...

I have three running 850s. One of them came with an aftermarket MAF that the PO explained was mistakenly put in when there was actually a problem with the electrical portion of the ignition switch. Unfortunately the aftermarket MAF didn't work right so I replaced it with a MAF from the junkyard. That was only 10k ago but so far so good. The other two are still on the original MAF, each is near 200k miles. So over the last year that's 4 original MAFs in my hands, all of which are good. I actually have a spare in the garage from an unknown mileage car someone was parting out, I tried it and it works but haven't left it on the car for very long, so that would be 5. IMHO the average lifespan is much more than 110k or 10 years.

1 new MAF costs as much as 60 new spark plugs so not sure where you are going with that one ... I also don't think it is much of a safety issue, a car with a bad MAF usually just runs rough, but I see your point that erratic engine behavior can be disturbing.

I don't know how many junkyards you have walked through but the vast majority of 850s/x70s there have Volvo MAFs that were working just fine on the day the car died.

Post by **misha** » 19 Oct 2012, 15:14

cn90 wrote:..PS: I think the MAF for 1998 S70 ---> Bosch PN 0280217107.

Yep...it's 0 280 217 107 from '95 up to '99.