What did you do to your Volvo today? Topic is solved

[scot850]

Well, I was doing my daily searching for Volvo parts on the local Facebook Murky Place, when I see a new ad for P80 Volvo parts for sale. Now this never happens for my cars, but included in there was a full set of inner and outer tie rods for a 98 P80. They appear to be the correct ones for the 98 V70 T5 I am hoping to look at for my friend on the weekend where one of the major issues listed was inner and outer tie rods and boots. That accounted for nearly $1300 CDN of the $6600 quote from the Volvo dealer! I have a good set of boots in the stash ready to go as well.

Best part was the young seller knew of my ex-Volvo mechanic who inspected his first car a 98 V70XC while he was still at Volvo.

Turns out he is a Volvo enthusiast now and runs a nice looking 02 XC70 which he loves.

He gave the parts for free once he knew they were going to help another Volvo hopefully to be saved.

Free parts

Box of random parts including the new tie rods

Outer tie rod

Inner tie rod

Neil.

[Chieber]

Went to an Indy shop repairing Volvos and asked about the oil use ( 1l per 1000km), and the smoking at startup and idling.

He told me that he does not believe it’s the valve stem seals and thinks it’s because the engine has a high carter pressure.

I replaced the whole pcv couple months back and the carter seemed to be free of blockage. So is he right, or is the issue of a smokey exhaust nonetheless from hardened valve stem seals?

At high mileage these engines can have a lot of blow by. Does your engine pass the glove test? If not there are some mods you can do to aid in relieving that high crankcase pressure. I have had good luck with the PTC mod and upgrading the PCV hose size to a 5/8 hose with a spring inside to keep the hose from collapsing as its goes around the engine.

I did the pcv mod couple months back and it seemed free of any blockage.

There’s a smoke coming out of the oil filler, but the glove is not inflating. There’s a still slight over pressure.

[Chieber]

Cheiber, it is as the guys suggested and you have pointed out more likely the valve stem seals hardening. What oil are you running in the engine? 5W-30? If so you could try a thicker oil like 5W-40 and see if that reduces the oil consumption. A long shot is to try ATP AP-205 seal conditioner in your oil to see if it might soften the seals enough to reduce leakage.

Neil.

I’m running a thicker 10w40 at the moment. Oil consumption is stil 1 liter per 1000km .

Checked online for atp ap-205, but it’s an import product. It costs 68 usd for a bottle…
I’ll have to check what euro alternative is available.

[scot850]

Darn Blackbart! I still regret not buying that car a few years back. Still looks amazing!

Neil.

[ZionXIX]

As part of my suspension overhaul I replaced the factory antisway bar bushings with some polyurethane variants. Before I dropped the subframe, I wanted to see if I could get the sway bar out. I got very close. If the bushings had been completely worn through I probably could have rotated it out. The problem of course is the vulcanized rubber not allowing the metal bracket to maneuver around the steering rack. The other problem is getting to the rear mounting bolt. I was able to reach it from the top using a long extension and a flexible socket.

Problem 4 is removing yhe rubber once you get the thing out. I used a cut off wheel to slice open the bracket, then used a pry bar to open it. After that it slipped right off. The remaining rubber I removed using and angle grinder. This was very messy and removed everything down to metal. The other side I used vise grips attached just tight enough to bite into the metal then rotated it around until all the rubber came off. I prefer this method.

My sway bar has the Red indicator and should be 20mm. I could only find 20.5mm and it worked really well. At first the bushing feel super loose but once the bracket is tightened down, these bushings grab the bar tightly. These also have a zerk fitting so I can keep them squeak-free.

https://www.suspension.com/9.5157

[BlackBart]

Regarding the control arm tightening question -

I’ve seen people put the front on ramps, such that you can get under there, and it’s on its wheels, and you torque things down. I’m not sure what the clearances are if you do that.

[BlackBart]

. These also have a zerk fitting…..

Wow, sway bar zerks are nice!

[scot850]

I will be interested how the polybushes work out on the anti-sway bar. When they used to fail, early on in the P80 chassis life, Volvo sold replacement bushes. They quickly stopped doing it as the originals were bonded to the bar and the new ones were not. They quickly started creaking annoyingly. Strange thing is that I have a IPD front anti-sway bar I pulled off the car trying to find a knocking/groaning from the suspension. I had replaced the bad IPD bushes with Energy Suspension greaseable bushes with grease nipples. It made no change. I replaced the bar with a new OE R one that is still on the car and the IPD one on the shelf.

So definitely curious to see how this goes. It is good to see you have the sideways limiting collar which Volvo sis not have.

Good Luck!

Neil.

[scot850]

Again a US based company, Blue Devil also make a seal conditioner. I have used this on an 850 with a rear main leak after it had sat for a year. Still working 9 years later.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/blue ... #store=299

Neil.

[ZionXIX]

Its been a busy week. I have spent 6-8hrs everyday for the past 6 days in the garage working on Scarlett. Its was finally time to overhaul the entire suspension. I took it a few steps further. Dropped the subframe, replaced every bushing possible. With the exception of the rear trailing arm bushings, everything is new. Even changed all the motor mounts. Also replaced the steering rack, all new brake rotors/pads. Flushed all the old brake fluid out. Meticulously cleaned every part I could get my hands on. I set a goal for myself. I wanted to be done by Friday and go for a test drive. I finished installing all the bew parts today. Tonight I went out on the road and within 1/4 mile she bogged down, running super rough, CEL triggered. This was quite disheartening. I just didnt have it in me to troubleshoot tonight. Somehow the Trans fluid is low, I assume the 1yr old bad gas is causing injector problems/ clogged fuel filter, and I probably need to check the distributor cap for corrosion. Im putting my wrenches away for the weekend.