1998v70 Car Will Not Start AGAIN

[MrAl]

I think there's 3 places where it's held down. It's a rubber plug type deally. You just have to pull and the box will come out after everything else is removed.

The top side of the rubber thing fits in the box, and the bottom fits in a plastic tray that's bolted to the car. I guess they're so the box can move a bit yet is still restrained enough to stay in place. The first time I removed the air box on my 850 I thought the rubber pieces were in horrible shape, but they were just dirty. I scrubbed them up in the sink with an old tooth brush and cleaner, and I realized they were fine.

Hi,

Oh ok ill check them too.

Funny the car started on two occasions now after the no-start incident.
So how in the world can i ever get this car to be reliable?
It's not just for me anymore i promised my neighbor who helped me with the car when i was going through the surgery and i vowed to let him borrow it if he needed it. He has a truck he loves and wont part with but it's got over 200k miles on it so subject to problems. I would surely want him to borrow the car to get to work with while he fixed his truck but the car has to be reliable somehow, someway.

Thanks.

[MrAl]

Correct labeling. There are 2 pins on the far side we are looking at that push into rubber bushes on the inner fender. There are 2? feet at this end and you can see one of them. They snap onto 2 splayed plastic barbs.

Neil.

Hi,

Oh ok i wasnt sure about those pins or whatever they are.
I guess i'll have to tug at it to get it out?

As i was saying in the other post, how can i get this car to be reliable? My great neighbor may need to borrow it for a couple days at some point as his truck (he wont part with) has over 200k miles and he would need a way to get back and forth to work. So it's not just for me anymore. I would also let his wife borrow it but not sure she would want to put up with it (ha ha). She's an amazing neighbor also.

Thanks for any suggestions about the reliability issue.

[scot850]

I am still working on my 2000 R after 10 years. Fix one thing and it finds a new way to torment me! Sold a 2000 V70 base to my buddy after restoring it and 40k miles later and over 200k it still runs well other than wear and tear items.

No old car is going to 100% reliable. Old electrics, rubber parts and the likes age and will fail. It is just a case of keeping on top of it. Often at this age you inherit someone else's neglect on the car or un-mentioned issues that the seller forgot to mention or couldn't fix.

I work on a 98 V70 base for a young mum. I have slowly brought it up to a good working condition, but stuff may still go wrong like the MAF failing. I have many used spare parts and often get a P80 up and running again fairly quickly. It is coming back for a visit to replace some bulbs and possibly the driver's door harness in the hope of fixing the fuel flap reliability in low temperatures (have done a manual override just incase). Also need to try to get to the bottom of the Evap error code. Several repair shops have tried over the last 8 years and failed. Will have to get the system smoked to get to the bottom of the issue.

It is a case of doing the Stage 0 maintenance repairs and then making a list of any other stuff and work through them on a priority basis.


Neil.

[MrAl]

I am still working on my 2000 R after 10 years. Fix one thing and it finds a new way to torment me! Sold a 2000 V70 base to my buddy after restoring it and 40k miles later and over 200k it still runs well other than wear and tear items.

No old car is going to 100% reliable. Old electrics, rubber parts and the likes age and will fail. It is just a case of keeping on top of it. Often at this age you inherit someone else's neglect on the car or un-mentioned issues that the seller forgot to mention or couldn't fix.

I work on a 98 V70 base for a young mum. I have slowly brought it up to a good working condition, but stuff may still go wrong like the MAF failing. I have many used spare parts and often get a P80 up and running again fairly quickly. It is coming back for a visit to replace some bulbs and possibly the driver's door harness in the hope of fixing the fuel flap reliability in low temperatures (have done a manual override just incase). Also need to try to get to the bottom of the Evap error code. Several repair shops have tried over the last 8 years and failed. Will have to get the system smoked to get to the bottom of the issue.

It is a case of doing the Stage 0 maintenance repairs and then making a list of any other stuff and work through them on a priority basis.


Neil.

Hi Neil,

This is starting to remind me about Windows programming or any complex programming. You're never done with it. It's an ongoing thing to fix bugs and add new functionality. It's also called maintenance; program maintenance.

So i guess you do a little at a time and hope for the best and have a tow company on hand (ha ha).

Oh you had Evap code too? Mine had that the whole time i owned it never knew why and not sure if it got fixed or not during my expensive repair shop repair. It took a LONG time to trigger the CEL though, so it was not too bad. I always got through inspection even though it was always 'pending'. it may be fixed now but i dont know yet.

Well thanks for the ideas and all. I just have to get going now and get some of it done. I put off doing the distributor cap and stuff like that but maybe i cant anymore, and with yours and others help here i may be able to pull it off now. I guess i have grown into the automobile 'couch' so to speak, with repair shops doing most of the work. It's not that i hate working on the car, not that, just that i fear i may mess something up because this car is so unusual. NONE of my older cars ever did this, never, not a single one of them and i had a lot of cars in the past of different models. I even had an old cant remember the name now DeSoto maybe or something like that that sat in the yard for ages, but started right up when i went to try it months later. What the hell is up with the new cars. Maybe im just getting too old to deal with it and it always bugs me that it is relatively new technology too. Funny though, i get along with computers just fine, and cell phone, even changed a non-changeable battery in a cell phone one time (what a job it was though).

So maybe i can get something done today if it is warm out again. Yesterday was warm maybe today too. I cant work in the cold though my hands get cold too fast.

I was also thinking, maybe i could do it a little at a time. First get the air box out, then next day do the other work, then next day put the box back in maybe. I guess i just have to see how it goes.

Thanks again, and nice hearing about your experiences with these cars too.

I have a feeling it's not Volvo as a whole, it is just certain models like the v70 year 1998 maybe others around that year.

[MrAl]

I am still working on my 2000 R after 10 years. Fix one thing and it finds a new way to torment me! Sold a 2000 V70 base to my buddy after restoring it and 40k miles later and over 200k it still runs well other than wear and tear items.

No old car is going to 100% reliable. Old electrics, rubber parts and the likes age and will fail. It is just a case of keeping on top of it. Often at this age you inherit someone else's neglect on the car or un-mentioned issues that the seller forgot to mention or couldn't fix.

I work on a 98 V70 base for a young mum. I have slowly brought it up to a good working condition, but stuff may still go wrong like the MAF failing. I have many used spare parts and often get a P80 up and running again fairly quickly. It is coming back for a visit to replace some bulbs and possibly the driver's door harness in the hope of fixing the fuel flap reliability in low temperatures (have done a manual override just incase). Also need to try to get to the bottom of the Evap error code. Several repair shops have tried over the last 8 years and failed. Will have to get the system smoked to get to the bottom of the issue.

It is a case of doing the Stage 0 maintenance repairs and then making a list of any other stuff and work through them on a priority basis.


Neil.

Hi,

I forgot to ask, the CLIP in the drawing i posted, what kind of clip is that and how do you get it off?

Thanks.

I posted a drawing of what the 'clips' look like. The four prongs go up into a hole in the air box and then spring more open. The springy mechanism makes the tips wider than the diameter of the hole once the air box is installed and that holds that part of the box down.
That's what it looks like anyway.
I am guessing that you just push the air box toward the passenger side and then yank it up to get it off of that clip(s) and because they are springy they will close up slightly as the hole moves upward from the yank thus releasing the box at the hole location.
Maybe it's not that strange of an idea if that's the way it works because you dont have to loosen anything to get the air box out.
I am not sure if this is the correct way it works through.

[scot850]

I use a pair of wide pliers or adjustable pliers with a decent width. Place it on the corners so it catches all 4 sections and it pops out. You can be a little rough and pull hard and they normally release.

I also have a pair of long reach 90 degree pliers that work well as well.

Neil.

[MrAl]

I use a pair of wide pliers or adjustable pliers with a decent width. Place it on the corners so it catches all 4 sections and it pops out. You can be a little rough and pull hard and they normally release.

I also have a pair of long reach 90 degree pliers that work well as well.

Neil.

Hi Neil,

Do i have to take the battery out to do that? I was hoping to not have to do that.

It is hard to get to that 'clip' i tried using a 2 foot long screwdriver and a 16 inch pair of large hemostats but it didnt seem to work. I seriously doubt i could get a regular pair of pliers in there. I could take a picture if that would help i meant to yesterday when i tried this.

What happens if the 'clip' breaks? Will the box no longer stay in the right place or just jiggle around more?

I feel i am getting close now to solving this little dilemma, thanks again.

[scot850]

It may break, but you might be able to do it without removing the battery, but it is easier to get to the front clip with the battery out. This is Roberts Video of air box removal. He goes the rough removal route:

https://www.google.com/search?q=picture ... WyUcIHcklY

Neil.

[MrAl]

It may break, but you might be able to do it without removing the battery, but it is easier to get to the front clip with the battery out. This is Roberts Video of air box removal. He goes the rough removal route:

https://www.google.com/search?q=picture ... WyUcIHcklY

Neil.

Hi,

Oh that's a great video i didnt see that one or it would have cleared this up faster i think Robert makes great videos.

I see now that what i think would help a lot is to take the frontal air pipe out first, as that may clear enough room to get in to the clips a lot better. I'll try that next. That probably clears that mystery up and the video also helped clear up the mystery of the exhaust heater pipe as he shows, pulling it off of the box. There is also a vacuum line and a connector to be removed.

So this may finally clear up the method to remove the air box as that was the biggest obstacle to getting to the distributor cap and wires.

Thanks once again, and i updated my little drawing to show how i think the clips work in conjuction with the hole in the flange of the air box. See if you agree with the drawing of the mechanism in the bottom part of that drawing. It's just an interpretation of how i imagine it works for now.

BTW i think my air box only has one 'pin' on the side of the driver i thought there were two, but that's not a problem at all just a note. I checked it yesterday by gently pushing the air box toward the passenger side which reveals the space between the air box and fender metal.

[scot850]

You are welcome. I can appreciate how with older plastics we can all get intimidated by having to get tough with removing stuff.

Good luck!

Neil.