Hello, newbie here. V70 AWD with some questions/problems

[cvtech]

I just picked up a red 98' V70 AWD with 150k on the clock with fairly beat up tan leather. As a long time Audi guy (20+ years), I have spent many years admiring the boxy Volvo wagons, especially the P80's. I picked this up primarily for the AWD, decent gas mileage and the utility of the wagon. Coming from Audi, I am not afraid of the 20V Turbo but ours are mounted the other way and the AWD is always spinning . This is for my 18 year old daughter mostly who commutes locally for school and work, etc. My 15 year old is hoping to drive my A4 when he is ready to drive but chances are he will be driving this wagon. When I picked this up there were some issues.

1. The heater core appeared (foggy windscreen) and smelled to be bad. Having JUST replaced one a week before in my B5 A4 I was fearing a weekend long project. After some Googling I picked up the eBay aluminum snapped version labeled Swedish Car Parts and replaced it yesterday in less than an hour minus the minor carpet cleaning. I have to admit, I wished the Audi was that easy!

2. Issue #2 is a bad torque tube bushing. I get the KNOCK/THUD from the driveshaft when engaging gear and then acceleration. The part from the dealer is about $33 in 2015. I am lucky to have a great Volvo dealer that also has a wholesale online site. I do internet pick-ups for cheap. This is Volvo of Oak Park just outside Chicago. I I have looked under the car a number of times and read some ideas how to get in there. I am not sure if I can get all the leverage and push I need with the heavy car on jack stands and bottle jacking the bushing into place. I do not want to drop all the drive components to remove the torque tube housing. I may see if a local euro mechanic can do it without removing just in efforts of time. Any ideas before I take it to local wrench?

3. Cooling fans. I haven't dug too deeply into this issue but the radiator fans appears to be either seized or faulty. I can hear the fans trying to spin with A/C or temp increase. A really weird moan/groan somes from them lasting 10 seconds or so and just stops. Fans never come on. I am assuming the relay is working and the thermostat is good since it sounds like they want to come on at temp/AC. Anyone have quick diagnostics? I found some good diagnostics from another forum: http://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-v70- ... ons-60553/

4. Oil leak: I see a little bit of a oil leak coming from the back end left side of the motor. Its minor, a few drops. I am going to look at those plates on the back and replace the gaskets as discussed in this post: https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums ... p?p=355177

5. Door locks/Window controls: I've owned the car for a few weeks and never really played with the driver's side door controls too much before yesterday. I was cleaning all the windows after replacing the heater core and noticed I couldn't roll down the rear windows from their respective door switches. So I figured the window locks must be on. The switch in the driver's door was toggled to ON so I toggled to OFF. I then reattempted to roll up or down the windows from the back doors to no avail. Maybe a bad ON/OFF switch? On a similar idea, I pressed the door unlock/lock from the driver's side switch. This caused havoc. Some doors locked, the hatch locked, the driver's door did not. I pressed it again to unlock, not one door unlocked. Driver's door stayed unlocked. I manually unlocked all door, turned car off, then shut all doors. With keys in hand I remotely locked car. No doors locked. I tried multiple times. I then drove the car for a little then all locks appears to work fine. I am assuming its a vacuum issue but it could be switch plate issue I guess. I can hear the locks making some noise. The key in the driver's door works every time.

6. Indicator lights: The shifter housing does not have any lights at night. I am assuming a bulb or two or three may be out. This is also the case for the right side of the radio, no lights so I cannot see the SEEK buttons.

Upgrades/tweaks:

1. I heard I can turn off the DRL's by turning that little screw on the headlight switch. Is that true?
2. Is there suppose to be beep/honk/lights flash to indicate lock/unlock by remote? The interior lights go on, but I would love to see a flash or honk. Can this be accomplished or is something suppose to happen that is not?
3. I would love to add roof rails. Can I just put some I find from a 850 or XC, etc? This would be a great bike hauler.
4. A "R" spoiler would be cool as well. If I can find one for cheap that would be pretty cool.
5. An "R" dual exhaust would be pretty cool but again if I can find one for cheap.

My son would appreciate these tweaks more than my daughter as he thinks these are pretty lame...ha. I keep saying....20V turbo AWD wagon just like the Audi UrS6 he lusts over.

Sorry for the long post. I appreciate any and all help.

[scot850]

Welcome to MVS and to the Volvo P80 AWD. If you read my current posts on replacing the cracked rear sub-frame, you will learn that as a 40+ year Volvo veteran, I really have learned to hat these cars for the endless stupid problems, but as you have come from an Audi background you are well positioned to work on these.

Torque tube bushing - unless someone has a better suggestion, leave it to someone with the tools and hoist to access.

Cooling fan - If you mean the cabin fan, sounds like yours has failed. The bearings wear and then the motor binds up on the rear bearing. Not hard to replace, just fiddly. There should be write-ups on this. When you remove the fan motor, if you can move the fan blade part up and down on the shaft direction it is done. If it is tight, sometimes just using some light oil on the bearing can work. If you have ECC (electronic climate control) which sits above the radio, then there is a temperature sensor behind the dash to the left of it. It sits behind the little grille to at the RH end of the switches. To access it, remove the radio and the ECC unit and also the switch to the left of the grille to get access to the 2 clips that need to be depressed to remove it. There is a little fan on it that clogs up with air-borne crap. Carefully clean using cotton-buds and alcohol, a small amount of light oil, and check that is spins easily. If you only get one fan speed with the parts replaced, your resistor pack has likely failed. It sits to the left of the fan motor and held in by one torx screw. Don't reassemble the RH side of the dash until you have checked it all works. There will be a fan replacement How-to somewhere on MVS.

I'll skip the oil leak as haven't got time just now.

The Window control is a famous weak spot. Some have remove and dis-assembled the switches. Cleaned with contact cleaner and then worked again. If I recall you can swap the switches cables over to check. Options are to pull a used one (with possible same problem) or buy a contactless unit from Switch Doctor.

Lock is probably the driver's side lock assembly has broken. Used replacement or new. This can happen is someone grabs the handle to open before the buttons have lifted, and it breaks the connector.

Shifter housing light. There is a stupid little bulb (about $10 from Volvo) that sits under the shifter mechanism. You have to pull the center console to access the plate. It unclips from the rear first and then has 2 clips at the front. You may be able to replace the bulb without removing the cover plate but not much room there. If you do remove the plate, make sure you get the position rod in the correct place before re-assembly. Again Robert (rspi) has a how-to on how to remove the center console.

The honk with the horn when door opening I believe should be there, but my 98 never worked. The little horn on the middle of the fire wall in the engine bay does fail, or the resonator plate falls off.

Roof rails should be do-able, but needs a lot of work.

For the dual rear pipes. You will either need the 'R' rear bumper cover, or see if you can cut out the exit on the LH rear side. Before you do that, check there is a kit still available to trim out the cut out.
Can't recall, but you may have to replace all the muffler system. Check if the muffler system is 3" diameter where it splits about the LH side above the rear axle. Then the 'R' pipes will fit. Not cheap! Eurosport in Canada sells a dual pipe system.

Oh, headlight switch for DRL. Yes is the answer to the screw. If you don't have the screw, gently remove the light switch and on the rear there is a little slider switch that does the same.

Neil.

[rspi]

[Ozark Lee]

What bushing are you asking about? Most of the AWD problems are with the propshaft (Volvoese for the torque tube as Porsche and Audi call it) itself but most of those problems present with varying degrees of vibration that is speed related. The CV joints on the propshaft can be user replaced but the carrier bearing and getting things balances is something that you need to send the shaft out for a rebuild to get right. Most of us use Colorado Drive Shaft for that service. They aren't particularly cheap but the shaft will work when you get it back. The front CV is the biggest problem since the catalytic converter tends to bake all of the grease out of it.

Be careful if the engine cooling fan isn't working. Like most aluminum engines the head gasket is easily blown if the engine overheats. The fans themselves are all the same from any P80 car but the shroud is different. It is easy to swap the fan itself out between them though and they are fairly cheap at the Pick-N-Pull lots if you can find one that hasn't been crunched in the front. The fan isn't fused but is does have a fusible link and changing that wire out of the harness is a PITA. We had one member that actually had his car catch fire after the fan seized. The engine cooling fan runs very little with the A/C off but when it needs to run it needs to run.

As far as the window switches go there is a good chance that it is the master switch on the driver's door that is the culprit. That switch is a high failure rate item but the OEM replacements got a redesign and they seem to last.

It sounds like you have a good handle on things though, enjoy a new a different set of quirks!

...Lee