Let's change the fuel pump on a 2004 XC70

Post by **Allgonquin** » 15 Dec 2014, 19:52

OK, I think this is my first post, bear with me. I researched this topic on the net before doing it myself, but didn't find a really definitive DIY. So here is a shot at a step by step replacement of the fuel pump on my relatively new-to-me 2004 XC70. Symptoms were a strong fuel smell on the exterior of the car, more prevalent on the passenger side. Did the research, read about the recall, called Volvo, the extended warranty on my car expired in June, so I missed it. Volvo customer rep on phone said to take it in and, if diagnosed, they _might_ help me. Had a buddy who did the job on his 2004 XC90, his skills are roughly equivalent, so I decided to go for it. Good for me he had bought the special tool. So here goes.

DO THIS JOB WITH AS LITTLE GAS IN THE CAR AS POSSIBLE. MY COMPUTER SAID 70 MILES RANGE, BUT THERE WAS STILL (surprisingly) A LOT OF GAS IN THE TANK.

Special tools needed: pump retaining ring tool. Ebay is a good source. Looks like this:

: Retaining ring tool; DSCN1204.JPG (170.68 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

OK, let's start. Disconnect the battery. No photo for that. Raise the rear seat bottoms:

: Raise seat bottoms; DSCN1162.JPG (214.11 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Pull the bolsters on each side. Pull the top towards the front of the car to free it, then pull the whole thing up. Here is what the back side looks like - you can see the male parts which fix it to the car body:

: Bolster; DSCN1164.JPG (213.15 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Now we can start to remove the seat. We only need to take out the passenger (wide) side of the rear seat. Disconnect the seat wiring on each side of the car. Note the bolt head near that plug, you will need to take that out also.

: Seat wiring and bolt; DSCN1168.JPG (177.88 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Now we are going to take out two more large bolts for the seat removal. Note all these bolts have paint marks from inspections in the factory. The second photo shows a bolt which is actually mounted horizontally into the side structure of the car. It's hard to tell the orientation on the photo, but it has a locating tab also. These bolts hold seatbelts which have to come out with the seat.

: Additional seat belt bolt; DSCN1172.JPG (198.44 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

: Seat belt bolt on side; DSCN1175.JPG (175.34 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Now undo the tiny bungees under the seat.

: Bungee; DSCN1176.JPG (197.07 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

At this point you can remove the seat. It is not physically attached to the driver's side portion of the rear seat. You just lift up the seat, and move the outer side a bit forward so you can pull it towards the outside of the car through the door. It is heavy and clumsy, and you might have to "work" it to get the big hinge pin out of the other seat section, but it will come out.

Now we're going to lever up the plastic trim on the carpet and padding. Use a plastic trim tool or carefully use a screwdriver or putty knife or something. Just one pin and one male part of the trim.

: Trim 1; DSCN1181.JPG (183.8 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

: Trim levered up; DSCN1182.JPG (209.87 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Now we remove the black steel bar which I think is used as the base for the rear seat bottom to rest on. Two bolts - we only need to remove this to raise the padding and expose the pump cover.

: Seat bottom bar; DSCN1184.JPG (162.85 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

: Seat bottom bar out; DSCN1185.JPG (203.25 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

OK, finally, we can fold up the carpet and padding, and expose the pump cover. By the way, you expose the other cover on the driver's side of the tank by popping the trim the same way on the driver's side, but you don't have to remove the seat or the seat mount bar. Here is what it looks like when you fold back the padding. I used some plastic clamps to keep it out of the way. Fold it back as much as possible to give you room to work when pulling the pump.

: Pump cover exposed; DSCN1186.JPG (201.34 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Here is what my pump looked like. It was all wet with fuel, and lots of wet dirt and grit. No wonder the car stank... Note the retaining ring, two fuel lines, and electrical plug.

: Top of fuel pump wet and cruddy; DSCN1189.JPG (186.41 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Now you can do the best you can cleaning up the crud, and disconnect the fuel lines by pushing in the white plastic square button on the end fitting - they slid off easily for me. Clean some more after you remove those connections. And blast out the ends of the fuel lines with WD40 or something to clean any crud out of them. Now you can use the special tool and loosen the retaining ring. I used a 6" x 1/2" extension on the ratchet. Here is what it looks like without the ring. Clean it up some more.

: pump top without retaining ring; DSCN1200.JPG (185.94 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Now or before this would be a good time to remove the tank cover on the driver's side, and take out the level sensor, etc. The tricky part to this whole job is the fact that there are two suctions on the fuel pump. One on the pump itself, and then there is a ~2-3' extension suction line to the other side of the tank, under the other cover. You take this retaining ring off the same way but there are no connections. The cover actually holds another level sensor, and it also "fixes" the other pump suction. Hard to describe, but you will see it when you pull the cover up on that side. Here is what you are pulling up (sitting upside down in the photo). At the end of the suction line is a plastic piece which fixes on the bottom of that piece. Obvious when you see it, but hard to describe.

: Driver side pump cover with level sensor; DSCN1191.JPG (177.59 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Now you have to fix up a "messenger line" to be able to pull the long suction line from the passenger side to the driver's side. I used some wire I had laying around, but whatever you use, it should be strong and not affected by gas! You may have to pull with a lot of force. I first tried to pull the pump out and pull the suction line with it, drawing it over to the passenger side from the driver's side. So I put a messenger line on the driver's side. FAIL. I pulled the pump out of the tank, but could not pull the suction line over to the passenger side, it was hanging up. Here is a photo of the driver's side end of the suction line with the wire attached.

: Driver side suction line with messenger attached; DSCN1198.JPG (229.6 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

In the end, I decided to COMMIT and I cut off the fuel lines and wires from the old pump, and tied a messenger line to the passenger side end, so I could pull the suction line FROM the driver's side. This worked well, after starting to put in the new pump I could pull the suction line to the driver's side without pulling too hard. Here is a photo when I finally pulled the old pump. CAREFUL because it is full of fuel. You will need a decent size plastic bin to put it in, like in the photo. I also used a turkey baster to suck out as much fuel as I could which was in the base of the old pump. Remember every drop you spill into the interior of your car will stink for days...

: Old Pump in bin; DSCN1201.JPG (204.63 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

So... finally, you are ready to put in the new pump. Installation is the reverse of removal, as they say. It is rather finicky to get the new pump in, and as you are putting it in you draw the suction line over to the driver's side. Careful of the level sensor on the pump. In my case the pump didn't feel exactly like it was going all the way down, but I believe it is designed to more or less rest on the bottom of the tank and there are spring mounts which give it some gentle pressure to stay in place, so you have to press the tank cover down with a bit of force before starting to rethread the retaining ring. I used a new O ring for the pump side, but not the driver's side cover.

Here is a photo of the new pump in place with the fuel lines connected but not the electrical. Do not forget to connect the very small electrical connection on the end of the suction line either!

: New pump in place; DSCN1203.JPG (224.97 KiB) Viewed 13376 times

Just be slow and methodical, and don't force things, and you can do this job in 3-4 hours. Now go have a beer and congratulate yourself on saving $800 or so by doing it yourself compared to the dealer!

draser · Post by **draser** » 16 Dec 2014, 09:14

Good tutorial, thank you.

bugeye · Post by **bugeye** » 16 Dec 2014, 15:53

Well written with GREAT pictures. Thank you. I hope I never have to do this on our '04 XC70.

Post by **emartin** » 18 Oct 2015, 17:38

seems mine was leaking from the bottom inside of cup with the cross in it, i thought i would try to epoxy it using a fuel tank repair kit from autozone. cleaned it really well and spread the epoxy into it and filled it up. waited 20 min(suggested cure time) then started her up. needless to say i was really happy to return the 400$ fuel pump to the store unused. time will tell if it holds up but the car has 100k on it i am always reluctant to throw too much money at it. this write up really took all the guess work out of getting to the pump itself.

Sardine · Post by **Sardine** » 19 Oct 2015, 13:59

Allgonquin wrote:
DO THIS JOB WITH AS LITTLE GAS IN THE CAR AS POSSIBLE

I read elsewhere that it is safer to open a fuel tank only when it's nearly full. The reason being that it is the fuel/air mixture that catches fire, not the fuel itself.
I'm not sure what to believe now. Was I lucky before, when I replaced a rubber collar in my 740 many years ago, or are you lucky now?
Does anybody know what is safer? Or are both just as bad and just be very careful.

perkinscl · Post by **perkinscl** » 12 Feb 2017, 18:58

Thanks for this writeup! I followed it to replace the pump in my 'O5, same exact procedure. Very helpful!

goldxc70 · Post by **goldxc70** » 14 Apr 2017, 23:42

My problem is my 2004 acts like it's running out of fuel when the gauge shows about 1/8 full. My guess is that the long suction line to the driver side has either come loose or is damaged or blocked. However, I have ordered a replacement pump just in case. Either way, I'm going to follow your excellent directions to check it out and will report back afterwards. Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: I followed this write up in preparation for my new fuel pump to arrive. It's very good and makes things almost obvious when you're actually doing the job. When I ordered my pump, I neglected to order the tool so decided to make one myself while waiting for the pump. I used a piece of left over 4" ABS pipe and cut 18 slots into it using a table saw. Then, I put a few holes into it so I can insert a lever. Here's a pic.

goldxc70 · Post by **goldxc70** » 19 Apr 2017, 19:16

UPDATE 2: Replaced my fuel pump today and the only difficulties I had were getting the old pump out and the new pump in on the RH side and the sender out and back in on the LHS. The floats on the level sensors kept getting caught up so it was a bit of a fiddly job. In my case, I had no problem fishing the lines and the ejector pump across from the RH to the LH side. It took a bit of manipulation but the job was done in a few minutes. Since finishing, I have just taken it for a short drive but so far, so good!

Post by **jonesg** » 20 Apr 2017, 15:48

Great art8icle, howsabout another article,

Lets do the PCV breather system ?

Post by **jonesg** » 20 Apr 2017, 15:53

goldxc70 wrote: ↑14 Apr 2017, 23:42 My problem is my 2004 acts like it's running out of fuel when the gauge shows about 1/8 full. My guess is that the long suction line to the driver side has either come loose or is damaged or blocked. However, I have ordered a replacement pump just in case. Either way, I'm going to follow your excellent directions to check it out and will report back afterwards. Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: I followed this write up in preparation for my new fuel pump to arrive. It's very good and makes things almost obvious when you're actually doing the job. When I ordered my pump, I neglected to order the tool so decided to make one myself while waiting for the pump. I used a piece of left over 4" ABS pipe and cut 18 slots into it using a table saw. Then, I put a few holes into it so I can insert a lever. Here's a pic.

I used a peice of wood and tapped the locking ring around with a small hammer, did the same on my old 740.
You could sell that tool. I'd pay $100 minus 90% tax. FREE shipping on orders under $200