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I wasn't expecting this.
Sold it almost exactly two years ago. The guy who bought it from me flipped it to "G". within a few months. I emailed G to see how it was doing. For this story, you're going to need your seatbelts on, everyone! Buckle up.
(I only know of G. because he emailed me shortly after he bought it - knowing I was the upstream seller - because the battery I had bought at O'Reilly's had died, and he thought [correctly] it may still be under 1-year warranty. It was actually out of warranty by just a few days, but I went in and pleaded my case to the manager [on behalf of a the new owner] and the manager ruled in my favor. O'Reilly's Auto forever has my respect and business.)
Actually, kind of bad / good news about the V70.
It was doing pretty well, until I decided to roadtrip it from Colorado to Ohio. On the first night, I hit a pothole outside of Denver that blew two tires and cracked a wheel. Luckily, I was able to tow it to Walmart where some bros from the volvo club hooked me up with R wheels. Then, I hit a deer in Missouri and damaged a good part of the undercarriage. I was able to repair it to running condition on the side of the road and made it to Ohio, where I planned to repair the damage and drive home. After a few weeks of fixing it, I was out and about around Toledo when injector 5 failed open, dumped fuel into the cylinder, and detonated.
Unfortunately the block was damaged, and although I sourced a replacement head... and then a replacement engine, I was ultimately unable to rebuild the car as I was having to fly out every time I wanted to work on it.
I ended up giving the car away for free to be scrapped by a former teacher of mine, who originally introduced me to Volvo wagons. Much to my surprise, the wagon ended up not being scrapped, and was instead sold to a high school student studying to be an A&P aircraft mechanic. The wagon has since been rebuilt with a replacement engine and is out and about driving around in Ohio. I've seen it a few times. It's currently on 740 wheels, and the R wheels/ tires were kept by my old teacher.
It has a 16T & N/A cams, as I provided them with the car. I made a few repairs and improvements to the body while I owned it.
Before I sold it, I had nothing but trouble with it- not because the car was particularly bad, but because the previous owner (N) had to leave it street parked, and while I was attempting to redo the wiring for the alternator, I *also* had to leave it parked on his street. Someone hit it and ran, knocking a corner off. I rebuilt it anyway. Then the radio died (replaced), and then it started overheating above 9,500 ft... probably a slow headgasket failure, but it didn't matter anyway because that engine is now gone.
I think it was telling me that I wasn't the right owner for it.
I had purchased the car to be used by Air Force Lieutenants while they were in town for flight training. The wagon was used as a store runner for pilots in IFT for a little while, they took it on a few road trips, then gave it back to me before I took it on its fateful drive.
It's still out there, with damage on every panel, slowly making its way through dozens of owners and crossing every state. Your T-shirts stayed with the car. As for me, I went back to driving my 940.
I've attached pictures of some of the adventures.
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