What did you do to your P2 Volvo today?

[BlackBart]

Heading 350 miles to the closest dealer for the airbag recall. I asked them to verify they had a black one - I've seen posts here about black cars coming out with an ivory steering wheel center. He checked, they have four in Charcoal. Is that the same as "black?"

New Vredestein tires are smooth and solid on the freeway. Tire Rack, $130 US.

[cn90]

I think "charcoal" is the only color offered and it is a good match if you have black SW.

I admire you for driving 350 miles to do this recall.
I'd wait until a convenient trip to some place first.

[BlackBart]

Well, we were going to drive to Colorado anyway, so we stopped partway to have this done. We used to have a dealer in Spokane WA, not too far, but it closed, unbelievable. Next one is Seattle.

[P80GLT]

One of the items my MOT guy pointed out was an exhaust joint that was starting to look a little crusty so today it was repaired at C&C Exhausts in Hillington. I've been using their services for around 20 years now and highly recommend them for any exhaust work.

Clamp removed to determine what action was required

Exhaust old joint.jpeg (143.59 KiB) Viewed 202 times

New pipe welded onto the rear silencer box

Exhaust new joint.jpeg (216.35 KiB) Viewed 202 times

All back together

Exhaust repaired.jpeg (191.98 KiB) Viewed 202 times

[scot850]

Nice job indeed!

Neil.

[erikv11]

On the green 07 XC70 we had been getting increasing vibration under load at all speeds but especially on the highway. Given repair history and symptoms, driver's side axle (196k, factory part) was most likely the cause.

Couple days ago after work I swapped the driver's front CV axle with a rebuilt GKN unit. Bought from RockAuto as it was $100 cheaper than FCP.

I'm getting too familiar with P2 axle swaps, working slowly it took 2 hours from jacking up the car to having it back on the ground and off to test drive.

chock wheels
remove axle bolt
jack car up put on stands
take wheel off
remove top end link from strut 15 mm
remove ABS sensor 8 mm
unbolt brake caliper by slide pins 8 mm hex, zip tie to coil spring
remove both strut to steering knuckle bolts 18 mm and 21 mm
press axle out of hub with the back end of ratchet
pop out of transmission with 5/8 chisel and a tap with a 2 lb hammer (hooray, this went easily)
visually confirm a match with the new part

No vibration damper on the rebuild but otherwise looks good.

lightly grease trans splines of new axle, install into trans, into hub (hub still has anti-seize on it from recent control arm job)
make sure the axle dust seal is in good shape and properly installed
replace strut to knuckle bolts, hand tighten
while pushing top of brake disk to max out negative camber, tighten the strut to knuckle bolts
re-sand and re-grease caliper slide pins, install caliper and remaining parts, torque down fasteners, install wheel
drop car down
remove plug from end of new axle and install and torque new axle bolt

Test drive went well - axle was the source of vibration.

[BlackBart]

We drove 845 miles, stopped along the way for a free airbag, made it to our destination.

Got 22 to 27 mpg going 75-85, some of which was in serious Wyoming headwinds.

New tires and alignment made a quiet smooth drive. Tires set at 36-38 psi. Taking the bike racks off the roof really quiets things down.

[volvolugnut]

Well, we were going to drive to Colorado anyway, so we stopped partway to have this done. We used to have a dealer in Spokane WA, not too far, but it closed, unbelievable. Next one is Seattle.

Our Volvos are not quite orphaned, but our parents have moved far away.
I plan to sometime drive 100 miles to my nearest dealer for air bag replacement.

volvolugnut

[erikv11]

Ah, trips to the dealer! I did the airbag recall on the green XC70 last spring.

TL/DR: My nearest Volvo dealer is 50 minutes away and they can't even do an airbag swap without wasting way, way too much of your time.

If you've done a steering angle sensor job, you know how easy it is to remove the airbag, a swap is maximum 15 minutes if you've done it even once before.

Made an appointment, earliest I could get was two weeks out. Chose one that worked with my schedule. Dropped the car off Thursday morning, was supposed to pick it up Thursday evening. Got a loaner for the day which I thought was nice, a brand new 2024 XC60 AWD. That car was fun, drove like a new car, but was clearly a piece of crap compared to a P2. Anyway, I called later that day and they bumped it to Friday morning. Okay, I adjusted for that. Friday morning I was about to leave for the trip but their automatic text system hadn't yet notified me so I called the dealership to make sure it was done. Turns out the job was not done, they said FOR SURE will be done by closing, so I rearranged my schedule again to instead drive the 50 minutes and get there before closing. When I got there, the swap wasn't done. My options were to take my car back home or keep the loaner for the weekend. I kept the loaner and stopped calling them. They finally called me Tuesday about 1:00 pm and said the car was ready.

When I went to pick up the car Tuesday evening, the airbag light/message was on! I told them the light has never been on in my ownership, could they please reset it, and are sure they did the job right? Service manager/rep/whatever he's called goes to talk to the shop people, comes back and says yes they know the light is on now, but "to investigate any service lights will be a separate appointment and a minimum 1 hour labor charge." I was livid (I don't get livid, actually)! I try to reason with him: they made the light go on, they need to make it go off. He goes back to the shop, this time comes back with the shop manager to explain that "to investigate any service lights will be a separate appointment and a minimum 1 hour labor charge." I can either make an appointment for service or take the car home.

It's near closing time but I insist they take the car back and reset the damn light. Shop manager brings up the printout and explains that the code has nothing to do with the airbag, the issue is a different module (whichever one talks to the airbag, CEM or DIM? I don't recall which) that just happens to be failing, do I want it replaced? I tell him for the 8th time let's just reset the light and see if it stays off. He finally obliges, resets the light, I drive away and the fault has not returned since.

The shop manager was actually a nice and seemingly knowledgable guy, the stumbling block was he seemed truly certain that the only way that code could set was from a module issue, that it had nothing to do with the airbag swap. Which is still formally possible, but seems extremely unlikely.

Overall, the experience was a colossal waste of time. Our other two P2 cars still have their original airbags.

[BlackBart]

Wowzers. We popped in at 8 AM when the Volvo techs start. Nice waiting room, wifi. Finished at 9:30, all buttoned up, matching steering wheel, seats wrapped in clear plastic. Car came out washed. Service writer was super cheerful and helpful, she went over the car with me. They reset the SRS light (from a cluster replacement earlier) and did a once-over on the whole car - came back with no systems to fix.

Zip, out the door, drove another 500 miles.

The stuff I need to do when I’m home and have room in the garage -
Replace windshield washer pump,
Replace front subframe mounts,
Replace motor mounts(?),
Install alum skid plate,
Angle gear oil,
Haldex oil and filter,
Fix window track rattle passenger door,
Some trim bits.