1998 V70 No Heat, engine overheating

volvooh · Post by **volvooh** » 22 Jan 2014, 11:57

Driving the 1998 v70. Has about 180,000 on the clock. No heat. At first I was thinking maybe a thermostat till I look at the temp gauge and it was moving towards the red. Had the timing belt and water pump done about 5 years ago...could it be the water pump again so early???

Edited to say the high temp was 7, after about 15 mins it cooled to normal range and stayed there all the way home???

volvooh · Post by **volvooh** » 22 Jan 2014, 12:02

Also wanted to say that I replaced the heater core last summer and replaced the antifreeze with the standard Volvo stuff.

Post by **jimmy57** » 22 Jan 2014, 13:23

if your coolant is low the first thing to suffer is heater core water flow. Start with check of coolant level and addressing where the coolant has gone.

volvooh · Post by **volvooh** » 22 Jan 2014, 13:54

Coolant level is normal

Post by **jimmy57** » 22 Jan 2014, 14:54

You may have a detached water pump impeller. Rare, but happens with some aftermarket pumps.

c70_lindsay · Post by **c70_lindsay** » 22 Jan 2014, 18:24

Could be your thermostat sticking. You said after 15mins the temperature dropped down back to the normal operating range? If that is the case the thermostat may have been slow to open causing the high temps and no heat in the cabin. After a little while the thermostat opened and went to normal.

Post by **rspi** » 22 Jan 2014, 18:45

An error in the climate control system could stop warm/hot air from going to the vents if you have the ECC system.

I would feel the coolant lines going into the firewall to see if they are getting hot.

You may consider stop driving it if coolant is not circulation. You don't want to depend on the temp sensor to let you know if it's going to overheat. I think this was an OEM pump, had 150,000 miles on it.

bncme262 · Post by **bncme262** » 22 Jan 2014, 21:22

engine overheating: don't let it happen. see if thermostat is opening properly: top radiator hose should be good and hot: it won't quite burn you if you hold it, but you don't want to grip it very long. check make sure oil is clear, not milky from coolant in oil. if top hose cool and coolant is circulating suspect bad thermostat. my dad's car read normal on the guage but thermostat stuck open, heat was so so, not real hot like it should be and this caused a cel due to excess fuel (computer read engine cold). also the temp gauge fluctuated due to low output on the alternator (made lots of lights show up). look for coolant leaks on the seam between the aluminum radiator core and the plastic side tanks. ALSO: CAN'T EMPHASIZE ENOUGH TO ALL READERS: TIMING BELT AND W/P JOB IS NOT ENOUGH: IF THE TB IDLER OR TENSIONER BEARING OR TENSIONER FAIL AT 100k PLUS YOUR MOTOR IS ALL DONE. A PROPER T/B JOB IS EVERYTHING WITH A BEARING/BUSHING AND THE TENSIONER. lack of heat could be temp/coolant control valve?

Post by **erikv11** » 23 Jan 2014, 00:20

bncme262 wrote:... ALSO: CAN'T EMPHASIZE ENOUGH TO ALL READERS: TIMING BELT AND W/P JOB IS NOT ENOUGH: IF THE TB IDLER OR TENSIONER BEARING OR TENSIONER FAIL AT 100k PLUS YOUR MOTOR IS ALL DONE. A PROPER T/B JOB IS EVERYTHING WITH A BEARING/BUSHING AND THE TENSIONER. ...

Yes, we hear you, you can let go of the caps lock button now ...

Rest assured, no one who has read even a little bit of the advice on this forum would do a timing belt job without changing the two pulleys. The hydraulic tensioner, change it every other time. The mechanical tensioner I don't trust so every time or switch it to hydraulic. The water pump is the item least prone to failure in the group, change it every second or third timing belt interval. Some people even just let it go until it weeps and do it then.

volvooh · Post by **volvooh** » 23 Jan 2014, 06:57

Thanks, all. I had a complete timing belt job done 4.5 years ago. Not sure if pulleys and tensioners were done as well, but the mechanic I used was very familiar with Volvo.

Would the fault thermostat cause the car to overheat as well? I understand the no-heat situation, but not the overheat. I have the car parked until I find a reason.

Its been cold here...below zero and single digits. Yesterday was below ten when this all happened. Once it appeared the temp was increasing, I parked the car and let it cool...I was planning to move it back home in stages- using the temp outside to my advantage- but after the overheat the car remain in the normal temp range all the way home.