What did you do to your P2 Volvo today?

[abscate]

Hello Starbuck from Hotlanta!

Ride height Is springs , not shocks. I’m not a fan of the loaded struts as I like to know every part going in and make sure it’s Volvo on those rubber seats , not aftermarket

One of my few deviations from FCP/Volvo ( on car parts , at least) is IPD for their HD blue springs. Running those on all the p80s

Sigh. Missing my girls and my Volvos since they all left house in August. Took my dog, cats, truck….Alan Jackson called and wanted his song back, too.

I head to Port Jefferson tonight to reunite ( like each weekend)

June is moving closer to you in Ft Smith! Bring dog treats!

[Starbuck]

Abscate!

Woo! Learning new things! Thanks for the info. If the springs have failed I figure I might as well replace everything while I have the assembly out. I have that strange steering wheel kickback in corners still (shop's repair didn't fix it) and I wonder if the spring seat or something rubber up there has failed. We'll see!

Noted on the IPD springs. I'm still in the 'add everything to carts and see' mode. I did just mention to better half that I needed to buy suspension components and that they'd be expensive. Then I said if a shop did it the cost would probably double. I received a grunt in return and no follow-up for a figure. This is good!

Stress with me now that Ben's coolant hoses are original and have 03 stamped on them. I really want to upgrade to the all-aluminum radiator from do88 along with the pretty blue silicone (I might have seen those at IPD because I only see black at FCP) ...because I really like opening the hood to intentional color. I consider that a character flaw along with my unexplainable like of smelly-good things and small, glass containers/bottles. I think my head would explode if I ever found a smelly candle in one of those mini Heinz bottles. Sigh, Kryptonite.

I'm sorry the girls are out exploring in the fleet. I think that's the guy whose son dated my niece, haha. It was some country singer's kid that lives near my brother. Didn't work out though because high schoolers. Although I think you married your HS sweetie, right? Did the girls at least leave you the ice cube trays? I feel like they could have left you one cat...

Ft. Smith in Lumkin County? She's gonna need a manual and some horsepower to have proper fun in those twisties! Lock the pups up at night 'cause that's bear country!

[abscate]

I did just mention to better half that I needed to buy suspension components and that they'd be expensive. Then I said if a shop did it the cost would probably double. I received a grunt in return and no follow-up for a figure. This is good!

I can just see this at work playing out

“ my better half just spent $600 on suspension work and now wrenches all weekend”

#Sounds of guys on the knees Bowing in respect

That’s the official “ my gal is awesome , money spent on car parts doesn’t count” grunt

P2 OE rubber is really high quality , don’t sweat running old hoses if the ends aren’t too bulgy. That will cue you into end of life. Make sure you use good closed band clamps , not toy store ones from HomeDesperate or LowestQuality

Those do88 rads are pricy aren’t they? The only trouble I’ve had with rads is when the mounts on the P80 get loose snd stress the end tanks

I see you scored that XC for the Gerrys! Start a new poll for the color of that one!

[Starbuck]

I did score the XC90! He's not perfect but serviceable. Yesterday I changed his plugs with a set from RA. I just can't spend double (?) at FCP yet even if the next set are free. Still kicking myself for accepting FCP's free shipping with my $230 order and not just forking over the $10 to get the parts a little sooner. Ordered on 2/6 and for whatever reason I thought a delivery window of 2/17-23 would make me happy. What was I thinking?

Anywho, while I was crawling around under Norman's hood looking at rusty bolt heads, I reached back and tugged on the ground strap which then disintegrated in my paw. Pictures below. Then it was a trip to Advance at 4:30 on a Friday in Atlanta traffic. Blarg! So after giving parts counter person the deets, they helpfully sent me home with what I knew was wrong but good enough until today's parts yard date. I immediately had to modify it to fit Norman's locating tab and those pictures are below too. There absolutely was a conversation with better half many of you may recognize.

"What are you doing with that drill? Didn't you just buy that part?"
"Yes dear, I'm making it better."
*skeptical womanly stare*

I'll take the money grunt any day! Ha.

If only Bav Money Waster collaborated with Volvo on coolant things... New funny and accurate names! Don't worry, the only coolant whatnots I'll use are going to be the good ones from FCP.

do88 is pricey so not likely to be in my sleds for a while. I'm still ruined by BMW with the 80k mile regular coolant system explosions so when I see aluminum mated to plastic, all trust is lost. Consistency is only a virtue if you're not a screw-up.

[abscate]

Ooof, FUMoCo

We have to rebuild our TC on our Waster , Barbara is being a trooper driving in winter with no 4WD. At least she is down in the city with little snow , much warmer than upstate.

[850 LPT]

Ooof, FUMoCo

We have to rebuild our TC on our Waster , Barbara is being a trooper driving in winter with no 4WD. At least she is down in the city with little snow , much warmer than upstate.

All perfectly fine if you have a good set of snow tires. Which you did get for the P2, didn't you? 4WD or AWD is terribly overrated anyway.

[abscate]

Facepalm

I’ve just got no-seasons on the P2 as a LI backup car, she used the Waster in the one storm we have had this winter. I actually reactivated the TC for that since it works fine up to about 45 mph which she never reaches o. Her short commute

Charged and reinstalled battery. It died on me yesterday. Dated 4/2014

[BlackBart]

All perfectly fine if you have a good set of snow tires. Which you did get for the P2, didn't you? 4WD or AWD is terribly overrated anyway.

We always had good luck with 4 Blizzaks on the FWD 850. We enjoy the XC (with Blizzaks) for deep snow and say glare ice climbing a pass. It's really planted.

[850 LPT]

All perfectly fine if you have a good set of snow tires. Which you did get for the P2, didn't you? 4WD or AWD is terribly overrated anyway.

We always had good luck with 4 Blizzaks on the FWD 850. We enjoy the XC (with Blizzaks) for deep snow and say glare ice climbing a pass. It's really planted.

Of course it all depends a little on where you live. AWD makes a lot of sense if you live in the hills with steep inclines, but around here it's not really needed. We owned two XC's and we always had snows on them, and they were loads of fun in the deep snow. But that happened only twice a season.

[lawrencium265]

Let me tell you my tale of woe

I've had this 01' v70 XC for some years now. It was a spur of the moment purchase for $1100. It ended up having more issues than were worth dealing with so it just sat in my driveway. I was actually thinking about sending it to the auction because used car prices were going up. Then my daily driver broke part of the frame due to rust. I didn't really feel like I had time to mess with the Volvo, I'm currently going back to college a few classes at a time I'm in my 30's with a toddler, and I work full time. After failing to find anything reasonable to buy on the used market I decided to go ahead and fix the Volvo. I put new tires on it and replaced the upper strut mounts, sway bar links and one sway at bushing to fix the scary crunching sounds it was making. I managed to fix a transmission issue by installing a Nissan transmission speed sensor.

During this time our cat died, which just added to my stress level, as I considered her a part of our family. I had started lithium for my bipolar disorder in December. Then my plant manager started questioning my schooling, you see, the company offers educational reimbursement if you go to school for something relevant to the business and you achieve high enough grades. I'm getting a business degree, and for the past year everything has been approved. Fortunately we got it worked out, but it took several weeks and it increased my stress load by a lot.

The Volvo still had issues, it would pull to the left when you hit the brakes and it was still shifting funny. It was leaking brake fluid from the abs block, I had actually caused this leak when I pulled the abs pump motor to see if I could repair it. It also had an error for the security system (siren). I replaced the B4 servo cover and previously (before I had vida on my laptop) done the transgo shift kit and replaced the fluid with Toyota iV. It also had a check engine light for vvt solenoid, and knock sensors. I hated driving it, I'm pretty sure that the incident with my old car gave me ptsd (I'm not kidding). The day before my old broke there was a very bad ice storm and the car was behaving oddly, it started to have "trailer sway" which I got out of by slightly accelerating. When that happened it gave me the coldest chill down my spine I've ever experienced, I thought it was from the ice but it wasn't natural. It was the metal on the frame bending back and forth getting ready to break. Then the next day on the way to work when it broke free the back wheel started shuddering like crazy. Fortunately I was still driving slow because of the ice.

I decided to throw some more parts at the Volvo and ordered up new subframe bushings (cheaper then inserts) all five engine mounts new rostra solenoids and inner tie rod ends and control arm bushings. I had an extra tube of urethane sealer and decided to just fill the subframe bushings, I wasn't able to get to that stuff yet as our daughter had a close contact with covid at daycare, she was required to stay home for 10 days. Daycare was gracious enough to offer us a one time half tuition for that week though. My wife was able to work from home, but that meant that on my days off during the week I had no time to fix the car. Then we had a snow storm, so again, everyone stays home and no time for wrenching. Then life decided to throw us another curveball, my wife, myself and our daughter end up actually getting covid. We're pretty sure that my daughter got it from daycare, but it meant everyone at home again. This time we still had to pay full price while she was off. I figured I'll go ahead and drop the subframe and replace all this stuff while I'm off, that way I can take my time. So once my wife would get done working and we would get dinner made and our daughter wound down for the night I started working on the car. I decided to buy an engine support bar as my wife's car will also need the cross member dropped (Ford Crown Vic oil pan). The hardest part of the whole job was the steering shaft was really stuck to the rack and the 3 10mm bolts on top of the front of the subframe are really fidly. As a side note, there is a needle bearing on the steering shaft inside the car, I think the only purpose is to isolate the shaft from the rubber boot going through the firewall. If you have to hammer on the steering shaft to get it loose you may dislodge this bearing. If that happens the rubber boot will rub on the steering shaft and it will sound like a dying seagull.

With the subframe out of the car it's really easy to press out the old bushings using a wheel bearing press kit. I actually could have just installed inserts, the bushings weren't torn at all and surprisingly came out without damage, I might even list them for sale on ebay. Unfortunately I didn't have the correct rearward control arm bushings and I didn't have any way to replace the forward bushings as they are too long for my ball joint press. I also forgot that I didn't have a way to drill out the sway bar bushing bracket holes as I dulled the bit I used on the other side, but since the bushing was still good I just left it. Replacing the inner tie rod ends was a breeze and the only difficulty was getting the boot off. I also took the opportunity to degrease everything. It was a little cold out but the wash tub in the garage has hose thread, so I was able to use hot water. Dropping the subframe also made it really easy to replace the engine mounts. I simply removed the top nuts on the front and back mounts and left them atatched to the rack and subframe. I did have to loosen the back one when I reinstalled everything just to get it lined up. It also made it super easy to pop the transmission cover off and access the solenoids. I also drilled adjustment holes in the transmission cover and installed threaded inserts so that I can just pull a bolt out in case the solenoids need to be adjusted.

I would still probably recommend not removing the subframe completely though. I could have easily done everything by dropping it down only a little bit and saved myself some hassle. Having the support bar made things a lot nicer than using a jack though.

I also went ahead and pulled the gauge cluster again. You see, the sneaky previous owner had pulled some bulbs out so the dic was never illuminated. I replaced all the bulbs with led previously, but the warning triangle wasn't working and I would need this to do the shift adaptation. I pulled the cluster apart and pulled off his carefully cut little piece of electrical tape covering the LEDs. Fortunately with the cluster back in the warning triangle illuminates when you turn the key on. I was worried there would be damage to the led or circuit board.
I felt like I needed to get this job finished up so I was staying out in the garage late. I got so wrapped up in what I was doing that I forgot my own birthday. I got a text from my dad one night around 1 a.m. saying happy birthday. I was just coming in for the night.

Unfortunately while I was working on the subframe job I noticed a few coolant drops on the back of the engine on the right side of the car. I had planned on doing a timing belt and water pump and resealing the top cover in the future and already had all of the parts and the special tools. The previous owner had smeared silicone around the inside of the spark plug welIs and on the outside of the driver's side cam plug in an effort to stop the oil leaks (which didn't work) There was also oil all over the top of the cam cover. I decided to go ahead with that not wanting the water pump to fail completely (knowing my luck). The top cover and cams were very nasty and covered in carbon buildup. I rinsed off the oil residue with brake cleaner and then soaked the parts in oven cleaner for a few hours. I still had carbon to scrape out of the oil passenges and one of the oil holes for a camshaft journal was completely clogged with carbon. I'm guessing this is due to lack of oil changes or the pcv having been bad for awhile. I will probably run an oil "flush" product through the engine based on this and the fact that I changed the oil when I started driving this car and it's already black.

Once I got all of the parts cleaned up I turned to my artistic side and rolled on a nice even coat of anaerobic sealer. For some reason I still had a brand new unopened tube of it and I had a brand new mini foam roller. I guess it was meant to be? New orings for the cover went on and once that was all in place and torqued new cam seals as well. Then I got to work on putting the timing gears and belt on. I watched several videos and read the procedure and followed along with one of the videos just to make sure I got it right. I cranked it around twice by hand and checked the timing marks and all seemed good.

After that I got everything buttoned back up, I noticed that the wires going to the ignition coils were showing bare copper, the wiring was very brittle. I ordered new connectors online and decided to put everything back for now and seal the damaged wires with liquid tape and separate individual bare wires using small zip ties just so they don't come into contact with each other.

I then filled all the fluids I drained and bled the power steering system while the wheels were still off the ground.

I then lowered the car and attempted to start it. It cranked but it sounded a little weird, there was a message in the dic that said "immobilizer see manual" well I don't know anybody named manual so I googled the problem and locked and unlocked the door and flipped the key five times while saying the sacred invocations. The message was gone but the car would still not start. It would crank, then struggle then pop. At that point I decided to check fuel pressure because I had been meaning to anyway and I had replaced the fuel filter during all this as well. It showed a steady 50 psi at the fuel rail. This was last night, it was starting to get late, I hadn't eaten dinner yet, I decided to just put the battery charger on to make sure It wasn't low from me having the door open quite a bit and the car sitting for almost a week. I'm working today, plus I have schoolwork due tonight and tomorrow and also work tomorrow. I will get one day off this week, my daughter is back at daycare and if there is another "close encounter" I may be saying some bad words. Hopefully If I have the timing off, it's not far enough to have bent the valves. I actually have the parts to replace the pcv system so I may go ahead and pull the starter and actually use the crank locking tool (I didn't use it because it seemed pointless) and check the timing again. Maybe the damaged wires blew a fuse, who knows. I know I'll keep trudging along and I'll figure it out, I just wish it wasn't on top of everything else.