03 XK70 - Auto climate control issues

[Brandon_K]

Hey guys.

I picked up a new-to-me XC70 for work and winter purposes. Super clean car, 150k, always dealer maintained, came with a stack of receipts upwards of $15k over the last 10 years.

It has some minor issues that seem to be common on the P2 platform. The front spring isolators are shot, even though the struts were just replaced 20k miles ago. Drivers heated seat doesn't work. Alarm system siren needs to have the battery replaced. A few other minor odds and ends that are easy enough to fix, thanks to them being common issues will pretty much eliminate every issue the car currently has.

The one that haven't come across is my issue with the automatic climate control. The climate control has power and sort of works, but it doesn't seem to perform properly. Engine temp comes up, but the blower barely kicks in when the temp is set to anything but "max" heat. If I turn the blower on manually, the blower works fine at all speeds. I believe the dampers are operating correctly as if it's set to max, it's hot. If it's set to somewhere in the middle, it's warm and if set to cold, it's cold. AC works when controlled manually. I've done a lot of searching on this and it seems blowers are pretty common, no power to the climate control at all, but I haven't come across anything with my particular issues.

So far, I absolutely love the thing. It's a boat around corners, but I'm hoping I can find some struts and shocks that are valved a little stiffer with some firmer springs. It's been great in the snow, we just got hammered up here in Cleveland. (I travel a lot for work now, winter and keeping the miles off of my "nice" cars were the reason I bought this to begin with). Having this for a few weeks now has me seriously considering a V90 XC (or maybe the new V90) or a V60 Polestar, though I'm not sure if it's big enough for my need (where's the V90 Polestar!). I now see why Volvo owners are so loyal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.