Ooops, I did it again! A 03 V70 T5 comes home.

[Botbasher]

Hey Guys and Gals!! It's been a little while since I posted anything on here, but a new adventure is afoot!

As the title speculates.. I did it again! I bought a 98 v70 GLT(R) back in August and have been tinkering with it a bit over the last several months. It was supposed to be the kiddos ride, but he wasn't really interested then and I really enjoyed driving it (especially after a full 3" exhaust was added from 8EightFab... talk about a wake up!!), so it became mine.

Well, I knew the kiddo was going to need something eventually, so I kept looking, but all the v70s around here were going for well more than I wanted to spend on his 1st.... until last week that is. One popped up on FB Market... a 2003 v70... 132K... pics look OK... Price? $600 Hmmmmm I wasn't expecting a lot, but unless it's been wrecked, at that price, I could work out the rest!! At min, it'd make a great donor for my middy project car. So off I go.

I get to the car and DAMN.... it's actually a v70 T5!! Get in... Interior is pretty rough, with trashed seats and VERY dirty carpet. It had a water leak at some point and you could smell it (I found about a doz air fresheners stuffed in various cracks. Why do people do that?!?). Motor started right up... sounds good! Take it for a little drive. Pulls good. Has a hiccup 2=>3 and a really bad flare 3=>4... Hmmm OK I can work with this, Sold!! At that price, even if I dumped another $1k into the trans I was winning! Now to get it home!

So I got it home and started going through it. Yeah... it had seen water and mud... and roaches!!! Ewwww!!! But other than some erratic shifting it drove good. Pulls strong and doesn't slip in gears. There is hope! It's got a slew of codes relating to the ABS. Appears the water took out the Yaw Sensor for the DTSC, so until I manage to locate one (none in the dozen cars in the yard) I'm going to have to live with no ABS and lights on the dash!

Last week I played hookie on Fri and went to the JY to hopefully get a couple of parts for some minor repairs. Low and behold there was a 02 XC70 that was in great shape. I took a good chunk of my motor parts I needed from it. I also got a couple interior pieces... hmmmm wonder if those carpets and seats will fit. Did a little internet searching and found that they will fit. Woo Hoo!!!! So back to the yard with the kiddo on Sun... I stripped that thing to the bones! Only thing I left was the steering wheel, the headliner the rear seats (40/20/40 if any one is interested!). I thought about the 3rd row seating but passed. So now it's home to put it all in.

A few hours later and it looks awesome... and now it just smells like a car that sat for a while! Whew! It also had a couple of other quirks like the dash keypad for the cell phone under the armrest! Yeah... it had a OEM car phone! (If anyone is interested in it, let me know. I have all the pieces including the headrest speaker) I quickly replaced it with the fully functional JY sourced cup holder from the XC. Still don't know why it was in the yard, but it wasn't because it was trashed!

Now on to the hard stuff... the trans. I ordered up the B4 Servo kit from IPD and did a fluid dump. Drove it around a while and it did improve it slightly but I don't have VIDA-DICE yet, so I can't start the "training" mode till I get together with another local Volvo nut who does, so for the moment it's generally driven like grandma is in the car or keep it in Geartronic mode. The only bad part about that is when it scares the bejesus out of me when it doesn't reset at a stop like my Jetta does. Starting in 4th and thinking the trans died just doesn't do the heart any good. Thought I was walking several times yesterday!!

So if I can get the trans sorted out, this will be one heck of a find. I'll get a full exhaust put on it. Start working some R parts on to it and I think I'll have one hell of a grocery getter for the price of a beater! I still cautious, but I have hope!

So one with the show.... Here is Sven (GF names all her cars and named mine before I could even say no!)..

Cheers!!

yes, new hood props were already on the way!

[JRL]

Nice but you should SLOW DOWN.
The interior would have been much better smelling if you had thoroughly cleaned all the floors (a couple of times), then scrubbed and wiped them down with bleach and then let everything DRY OUT for 2-4 days!

Where are you located? I can send you a pellet that you drop in a large plastic cup of water, close everything up and let sit overnight. This takes most of the rest of the smells out of a stinky car. (It's a chlorine based gas).

Now, STOP DRIVING IT before you do more damage!!!
You need either a new or rebuilt valvebody NOW and the more you keep driving it, the more damage you will do to the rest of the (good) transmission.

[abscate]

Go back and get that third row seat. It will never sell without it.

That Barents Blue is sure Purdy

[JRL]

Color blind?
That's grey
No Barents in 2003, only Nautic blue thru 2004

[mrbrian200]

He had the interior stripped out at one point. That would have been the time to clean the carpet. Pulled out of the car you can use different cleansers like a strong mix of spic-span, window, and upholstery cleansers and hose it down/ wet vac repeatedly until all the soap and dirt is out. Typical upholstery cleaner/tools don't generally do well with mud and/or tobacco tar that's caked down into the pile. They just sort of scratch the surface and make it look pretty but odors tend to persist.

I just did that on a friends used Honda CRV they picked up about a month ago. The interior/carpet was evil and they needed it cleaned up (for real, not just surface pretty) for their kid that was having trouble with asthma anytime he rode in the car. Cloth seats got the same treatment. I think PO was one of those that drove around chain smoking with the AC on recirculate. I did appreciate the headliner in the Honda. Even though it's porous/sound absorbing it's rigid/durable with no risk of damage in cleaning it.

[abscate]

Color blind?
That's grey
No Barents in 2003, only Nautic blue thru 2001

Darn night palette on IPad!!

[JRL]

He had the interior stripped out at one point.

He said he installed carpets from another car, it's the metal that is smelling
If it still is the original carpets, it's the under jute material that got soaked and is still holding some mildew
They have to air dry on a hanger for a week, minimum

[Botbasher]

Nice but you should SLOW DOWN.
The interior would have been much better smelling if you had thoroughly cleaned all the floors (a couple of times), then scrubbed and wiped them down with bleach and then let everything DRY OUT for 2-4 days!

Where are you located? I can send you a pellet that you drop in a large plastic cup of water, close everything up and let sit overnight. This takes most of the rest of the smells out of a stinky car. (It's a chlorine based gas).

Now, STOP DRIVING IT before you do more damage!!!
You need either a new or rebuilt valvebody NOW and the more you keep driving it, the more damage you will do to the rest of the (good) transmission.

SLOW YOUR ROLL JRL!!!

My location is in my profile. Thanks for the offer, but no thanks! I can handle this!

I am curious as to why you think the valve body would destroy the rest of the trans. Would you care to elaborate?

It is well documented on this forum and other sites that the process to correct these AW 55-50s is 1) Fluid Changes 2)B4 Update (if applicable) 3)Reflash TCU 4) Learning Mode Drives 5) Valve Body and finally 6) Replacement.

Any particular reason a you jumped past what most people find as a solution for their issues?

Cheers!

KS

[Botbasher]

Color blind?
That's grey
No Barents in 2003, only Nautic blue thru 2001

Darn night palette on IPad!!

I was wondering where you got that one, but Hey... who am I to judge!!

Cheers!

K "colorblind" S

[Botbasher]

He had the interior stripped out at one point.

He said he installed carpets from another car, it's the metal that is smelling
If it still is the original carpets, it's the under jute material that got soaked and is still holding some mildew
They have to air dry on a hanger for a week, minimum

Exactly Mrbrian200!!!!

The donor XC was in incredible shape, so there was nothing to clean on the "new" bits. They just have olily yard smell. While I had mine stripped I took everything out of my car (trim, moulding...) and cleaned under, around, behind... I hand cleaned every seam and crevis with Clorox. There wasn't anyplace except right behind the dash and the headliner that I didn't see and clean.

I have a commercial ozone generator that I bought to clean up a old moldy farm house I was trying to buy. It did wonders for the stench in it. I'm going to let it loose in the car one evening here to deal with the places I couldn't quite reach or wanted to disassemble to get that final bit of old car funk under control. It's fine now, but I know how roaches live and I know I could strip the whole car and not get it all. That will settle my mind on the matter!

It did leak at one time, but it was totally dry when I got it, so either it was condensation from being closed up in humid VA (probable), the leak was fixed (also probable since it rained like hell here last week) or I have yet to see it (lets hope this one ain't the case!! ).

Either way, I will not be letting it get to the same point that I found it in!

K "Cloroxed" S