XC70 awd/angle gear questions.

[Nick3501]

I've had my 04 XC70 for about 6 months now. the previous owner told me that the all-wheel-drive was not working and knew that there was something stripped or broken and that the cost to repair it would probably exceed the value of the vehicle. mechanic told him at the time to drive it as is and everything will be fine as FWD. I have no idea if anything was changed or removed ie. pulled haldex fuse or removed coupler??

I know that the front wheel spin freely in the snow and the rear wheels don't seem to do anything. occasionally I think I can hear my drive shaft turning at low speeds. I get this rhythmic clicking sound from where the drive shaft would be kind of from the floor in the backseat area.

today however I was pulling away from a stop sign and I heard a loud bang sounded like somebody threw a rock at my car to be honest. after getting out and inspecting for a big dent I didn't find a mark anywhere... there was also nobody around which leads me to believe that the sound was probably from the drivetrain. I've read a few forms of some people saying that the driveshaft sort of jamming or catching on the strip splines makes this loud bang sound but in 6 months I've never heard it so I'm just wondering if anybody has any ideas.


would it be worth it for me to remove the angle gear in the drive shaft to save weight or to prevent any future failure? another thought I had is if the sound came from rear differential would I be able to remove the drive axles and still drive the car as front wheel drive?

I don't have any plan to fix the all-wheel drive because it does good enough with snow tires..its an 04 with 200k on it so $2k+ is not reasonable..

[jonesg]

I've had my 04 XC70 for about 6 months now. the previous owner told me that the all-wheel-drive was not working and knew that there was something stripped or broken and that the cost to repair it would probably exceed the value of the vehicle. mechanic told him at the time to drive it as is and everything will be fine as FWD. I have no idea if anything was changed or removed ie. pulled haldex fuse or removed coupler??

I know that the front wheel spin freely in the snow and the rear wheels don't seem to do anything. occasionally I think I can hear my drive shaft turning at low speeds. I get this rhythmic clicking sound from where the drive shaft would be kind of from the floor in the backseat area.

today however I was pulling away from a stop sign and I heard a loud bang sounded like somebody threw a rock at my car to be honest. after getting out and inspecting for a big dent I didn't find a mark anywhere... there was also nobody around which leads me to believe that the sound was probably from the drivetrain. I've read a few forms of some people saying that the driveshaft sort of jamming or catching on the strip splines makes this loud bang sound but in 6 months I've never heard it so I'm just wondering if anybody has any ideas.


would it be worth it for me to remove the angle gear in the drive shaft to save weight or to prevent any future failure? another thought I had is if the sound came from rear differential would I be able to remove the drive axles and still drive the car as front wheel drive?

I don't have any plan to fix the all-wheel drive because it does good enough with snow tires..its an 04 with 200k on it so $2k+ is not reasonable..

Identical yr model mileage and problem here.
You can't remove the rear drive axles ,they support the wheel bearing inner races.
You can remove the front to rear prop shaft if you want, I left mine.
Pull the haldex fuse. #17? If you can hear the haldex buzzing.
If you remove the angle gear I think you might need a blanking plate.

I do fine with fwd in north maine, we have 16in on the ground with 8 more inches falling right now.
But Sunday it's really gonna snow.

[Nick3501]

we've had snow here for weeks now...winter came early. the car does great on snows you just have to be careful not to let the tires spin with the really low gearing.