New Project - 2000 V70 SE NA - 5 speed auto Topic is solved

[scot850]

Well, unfortunately a busy weekend elsewhere meant not a huge amount of progress, but some major issues have been resolved and I'm getting ever closer to getting the rear of the car back on the ground.

I had planned a couple of hours last Thursday to finally tackle replacing the fuel filter and the 2 hoses from/to the roll over valve. On a 200o FWD V70 this is mounted on a rubber bracket hooked onto the side of the carbon filter unit bracket under the car inside the RHR wheel. In typical Volvo fashion it is designed to frustrate by being near impossible for this fat old guy to get under and work on it. I had already purchased the 'J' hose (although it looked old but ok) and the 'L' hose that runs from the roll over valve to the vent filter up by the fuel filler. Needless to say, what could be an easy job ended in the typical Volvo farce!

It was impossible for me to get the old oetiker clamps of the hoses in situ, so the only way to do this easily was to remove the whole roll over valve and both pipes. To do this meant removing the rusty fuel filter from the previously loosened filter bracket.

The bracket it turns out is the support for the carbon filter mounting bracket on the RHS. So, the LH side has a full length bracket with 2 bolt points that slide under the muffler bracket. The RHS has one flimsy bracket with one bolt into it supporting the fuel filter as well. Marvelous piece of engineering (not!).

Fuel filter came off fairly easily but had to really work it to get it out of the rusted bracket. Only spilt a small amount of fuel on myself in the process. Getting better at this! With the 2 fuel hose ends covered, I could tackle the roll over valve and 'J' hose. First to remove the 2 vent hoses into the carbon filter. Usually the large one is a pain to undo, but with plenty of penetrating oil it came off easier than expected. Now to the easy small tube. There is a small press tab on one side of it, you depress that and it should come off with a bit of a wiggle and pulling straight back. No matter how hard I pulled the freeking thing would not come off. Fortunately the pipe is long enough to allow the carbon can to drop low enough for me to get access to remove the 'J' hose end and pull the roll over valve and both hoses out.

Glad I removed the 'J' hose as I found it had also split on the hidden top near the carbon filter. Strangely the car had not thrown any codes as yet.

Vent hose at roll over valve end

J hose split at carbon filter end and on top of hose

Then to the easier job of re-assembly. I had an issue with the 2000 'R' AWD with the 'J' hose oetiker clamps. The ones listed on Vida only fitted at the roll over valve end. The one at the carbon filter was too big. I ended up fitting the same one at both ends. Remembering this I bought 2 the same for the 'J' hose and even checked in store they fitted on the pipe ok. If it was wrong I could use the one from the 'R' if needed.

Went to fit the hose to find the end at the carbon filter would not fit with the smaller oetiker clamp as it was too small. No problem , get the 'R' one instead. Then I remembered I used all my spare clamps on the last 850 project for the PCV system that had no clamps on it!

Phoned the dealer and surprisingly they had it in stock. Next morning headed off in a snow blizzard to 20km to the dealer. Get there and find they are offering a screw type clamp. That would be fine, but the end at the carbon filter is countersunk preventing getting anything on it to tighten it up! Bugger again!

I go back home depressed!!

I find a clamp and have to remove the carbon filter from under the car again to see if/how I can get something onto the pipe to hold it on. Eureka! There is a small slot in the carbon filter casing at the top side, and with careful positioning and a long flat bladed screw driver I was able to get the clamp on and tightened!! Yay!!

J hose at carbon filter

Note it can't be seen easily be seen but the slot is in-line with the screw head at the top of the filter! what looks like a slot on the bottom is in the filter bracket and not the carbon can itself.

Carbon filter and Fuel filter

Mess of emissions/fuel pipes at filter

In the picture above, you can see the mess of emissions and fuel pipe just in front of the fuel filter. If someone is suitably board, can they take a similar picture of their car with this arrangement. I can't believe this is how it is meant to be just hanging in mid-air. The plastic clamp is similar to the one on an AWD but that clamps into a slot on the fuel tank top. If this is how it is, it is a very poor design.

Eventually got it all stuffed back in, and the only good news was the flimsy rusted fuel filter bracket was not as bad as it seemed. Still a poor flimsy thing, but cleaned off the rust and painted with POR-15 for future protection. New bracket is still on back-order, so cancelled it!

Car fired up on 3rd attempt and so far no leaks!

This now meant I could finish installing the RHR brakes and parking brake cables as the cable is in an awkward path by the fuel filter.

Finished RHR brakes

Next job was to fit the bracket for the muffler broken rear mount. This would be a great and easy fix it the freeking thing fitted! Ever tried to tighten up something that has a minimum size of 2.25" onto a 2" muffler system! Same part is listed for both turbo and NA. Spoke to Volvo dealer and they ordered in an OE part and compared. Both parts (the OEM from FCP) and OE are identical and neither worked! Had to do something so got a piece of muffler pipe from local shop and cut and made a sleeve to make up the gap. All now tightly fitted with new mounts all around at the back.

Rear muffler mount repair bracket

Painted the rear of the fuel tank rear protection plate to reduce likelihood of future rusting:

Protection plate

Not had time to remove the tape yet!

I have cleaned all the loose rust off the tow-bar and will paint it over the next couple of days before re-fitting. That only leaves 2 more jobs at the rear of the car I'd like to do + 1 I'll have to delay. I will have to delay the fitting of rear mud-flaps until I can get to a friends to remove them from his parts car. He is away a lot so finding a good time is hard in winter!

The other 2 jobs are cleaning and painting the lower inner edges of the rocker panels due to paint erosion and fitting the rear shocks and springs. Getting ever closer to getting the car back on the rear wheels!

Even my wife has jumped in and has made repairs to the torn child booster seat pull strap that has been torn out by PO. She has reinforced it on the inside with leather strips and will hopefully have time to complete this later this week. Dam work gets in the way of that progress!

Neil.

[scot850]

Well, this week my plans were shot to heck after doing a spin on ice walking the dog twisting my ankle and whacking my head on the ground. The head did not damage anything fortunately and still did not knock any sense into it! The ankle required X-rays and a cast for a few weeks, but got bored after a few days and went out to do some light repairs on the project. As I can't get back up from the ground yet, I have concentrated on work that involves sitting on my garage wheeled stool, or standing.

I was in the middle of trying to clean up some of the mess on the inside. There was coffee spilt down either side of the center console and coke or something like that down the back of the rear seats. The day before I fell I had pulled the passenger front seat and had started cleaning the carpets on the passenger side. I wasn't able to get all the marks out but after re-filling the water tank on my carpet cleaner 5 times the water did start to come out cleaner and not brown/black.

Coffee stains on PS front

More dirt and coffee

And yet more coffee

The pictures don't make it look as bad as it was, but at least the carpets are more hygienic. Once the carpets were dry I was able to slowly move the passenger seat back in. I had cleaned it first to get the coffee out of the runners and most of the grubby marks out of it too. I cleaned the manual seat runners and re-greased them before re-fitting the seat.

My wife managed to repair the torn pull tab for the center rear arm rest. It is not perfect due to it being torn on the underside, but at least it is neat where you can see it so I really appreciated it that she was able to give the time to fix it for me. Finding a replacement will be a challenge as there are just no P80 V70's out there just now being parted out.

Arm rest repair

It has been reinforced so should be good for a long time to come!

I decided to repair the 2 RH side load area cover panels around the side window. These were parts I found at a car being parted out. Both had cracks in them but I have repaired them and reinforced them across the cracks from the back. The cracks are hardly noticeable and at least the panels are able to work as intended. Our Friend Evan has a better upper panel which he plans to send when he has time. I had heard from someone else on the forum that had the panels and they looked good, but he has not returned my messages, so guess that is unfortunate and not going to happen. I am happy with what I have done, and the hardest part was drilling the 2 mounting holes for the load cover but all is now good and reinstalled.

I have also removed and cleaned all the panels from the load area floor as part of the shock/spring install as well as removing and cleaning all the under area and the spare wheel well. Final job was to carpet clean the load area. It looks way better, but still has a few marks to tackle on clean up 2.0 in that area.

I have removed both rear seats and scrubbed them clean and once they are dry I have asked my wife to repair part of the velour panel where the 2 part rear seat belt latch sits against as it has a small rip/hole.

Next on the agenda is to remove the drivers' seat and scrub the carpets clean on that side, replace the seat base cover with a spare and then re-install the seat and the center console and gear shift knob. Then with exception of the speedo bulbs and a little cleaning of the dash area, then internal of the car will be pretty good and I will be happy about that. Depending how long I keep the car, if a better carpet turns up (the rear seat section) I may replace it, but what is there is perfectly fine, I'm just anal about the interior of my cars being clean.

I had a set of beige floor mats which have been scrubbed clean and the 2 passenger side ones have been fitted in place of the dark gray ones the car came with.

As soon as I can crawl under the car I will re-attach the painted tow-bar and that will only leave a little paint work under the inner rocker panels to do and fit rear mud-flaps which the car was not fitted with. Another local enthusiast is going to remove and drop of a pair for me hopefully later in the week as I can't drive for now. Again a sign of how great Volvo enthusiasts are!! It is much appreciated.

I keep saying it but there is still a chance that the car will have the rear wheels back on the ground by the end of the week with a bit of luck!

Having had the ankle issue has at least forced me to tackle the jobs I always hate in having to clean the mess everyone seems to leave in these older cars and all the internal stuff that seems to get broken, but I have no idea how they manage it! These issues usually take way more time than the mechanical repairs.

Ah, the joys of old car repairs...............Hmm!

Neil.

[scot850]

So another quick update, but first thanks to those marvellous MVS members who are out there at junkyards helping me find obsolete parts for the project. At the moment that is interior panels and carpets as well as LH driver's seat belt guide. All these parts are obsolete, which is my usual luck with these cars. Maybe time to move to newer models?

Most of the obsolete parts normally can turn up if you wait long enough. However I am currently 'hobbled' with an ankle injury and have only managed to drive to a local store in the last couple of days as of course I had to damage the right ankle falling on hidden black ice.

Add to that our local PnP's have only had a C70 in since Christmas and a couple of older 850's with no parts I need. Said before it is getting harder to find and buy these cars in this area, let alone find any parts. So the help from those out there is truly appreciated. While I know it is only an excuse for guys to go to junkyards to trawl them for parts, if my parts required gives they guys to go then I'm all for that!

Since the last update I have managed to re-install the towbar, but still waiting for Draw-Tite to supply the replacement ID and safety stickers but hopefully they will follow through with the promise.

Parking brakes became a fiasco as some of you will have read in my thread on Pro-Parts Sweden faulty cables supplied by FCP. No issues with FCP as even their customers have given them a 4-5 star rating and at a 1/4 of the OE parts. If you want to read the issue I had then here is the thread link:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=80615

I am now stuck waiting for a replacement parking brake regulator arm that I broke doing the cable do-over so hopefully the dealer will get that in a couple of days.

While under the car replacing the RH parking brake cable I discovered the fuel pipe connector at the front of the fuel filter I had replaced was weeping slightly. I had ordered a replacement fuel pipe ($200 CDN) but decided to re=look at the pipe this morning to see if by any chance removing, cleaning the connector and fuel filter pipe may fix the leak. Not convinced but so far it is still dry, so have cancelled the pipe order for now, and hoping at long last maybe I get a bit of a break on this car. Not convinced though!

I have re-fitted the driver's seat which is now repaired and in the process found the seat belt is badly chaffed on the lower side as the PO had broken the belt guide and had let it rub on the 'B' pillar cover rough edge. Seatbelt was found at a Volvo Parts specialist (thanks Chapman Motors) as well as a worn but functional guide. The usual luck I have is there are 4 colours of guide available for LH and RH front seatbelts. Only one that is obsolete is the Beige LH front one that I need! One of our MVS members has PM'd me to say he has found lightly worn front guides and pulled both sides to ensure the colours match. Marvelous!

Also got a call from my brother in California to say he had gone to the local PnP and found a good guide as well. Got to love family too!

Have finally finished cleaning the carpets and am on the look out for better examples down the line. May have some leads on possible better examples including a brand new front LH one that is really needed (holes in the current version). Still looking for an un-cracked beige lower panel under the RH load area side window. Most so far have had cracks in the same point as my current one just behind the RH rear seatbelt mount area.

I have pulled the upper dash cover and replaced the speedo cluster bulbs. Only had to do this twice as one of the new bulbs blew immediately I switched them on to test them. Fortunately I had another spare and had not re-assembled anything other than the RH airbag!

So now have to clean the load area plastic cover mat and load cover and once the car is back on the flat to replace the LH front seatbelt and guide. Then I have to give the windows and inside one more go over and final detail. Who knows maybe the point of getting to work on the mechanical front end stuff next week?! Oh, once the parking brakes are completed and checked, the rear carpets and edge strips need to re-installed along with the cleaned rear seat, and center console and non-broken gear shift lever.

Progress but slow, progress never-the-less!

Neil.

[scot850]

Been a while since an update has been done on this never ending project. This car is becoming like the PITA 'R'. No sooner do I fix one thing I find another thing the PO or 'mechanics' have broken or failed to fix correctly. This car is already way passed nickel and dime, it is beating me hard with a 4 x 4 with large rusty nails in it.

I'm now working in the front of the car as you may have seen in the posts for help on various items. I have repaired a multitude of smaller issues, but the first main issue was tackling the broken CV outer boot on the RH axle. Removing this is way easier than on the axles with the large nut on the ends. Removing the axle I found the carrier bearing appeared to be noisy. Whereas the bearing for the older cars are still listed (@ about $150 US and up) it is not listed for the later axle as fitted to my car. Not sure if the 99 model with a 4 speed auto uses the same axle as the 5 speed auto in my car but it would appear that the carrier bearing is not replaceable, but I still plan to investigate further. I am convinced the carrier bearings for the RH axles are all the same, a 75mm x 45mm x19mm wide ball race bearing that is sealed.

It took a lot of searching to find an axle at Erie Vo-vo. The axle should be delivered tomorrow by the thieves known as UPS. I will then find out if the carrier bearing is actually noisy or if that is the normal condition. I happen to have a RH aftermarket used axle from the last project lying under my workbench. When I spin that bearing it is nice and quiet which is what I expected it to be. Maybe the later ones are noisy. If they are I'll be mad as I will have wasted $240 US on an axle I didn't need, especially as one turned up in PnP later this past week and I pulled that yesterday for $35 CDN. The carrier bearing on it is as noisy as the original.

I plan no matter what happens, to try and replace the carrier bearing on one of the spare axles to see if it can be done. On that front our friend abscate put me onto a supplier of a bearing that appears to be the same that was based in Turkey. Part is used on a Fiesta and Transit apparently and cost a whole $12 US with free shipping! That should arrive sometime in the next week or so.

RH axle removed

I have now painted all the suspension on the RH front corner waiting to re-assemble with the axle when it gets here. I hate working on dirty cars so cleaning and painting as I go along. So far the RH suspension has been painted with POR-15 along with the lower control arm and the end of the anti-sway bar and steering end link.

The Front bumper was pulled to replace the headlight wiper motors but also there was signs of some damage under the front of the car so I plan to try to tidy up the bottom of the bumper cover panel which looks like it has been dragged backwards off a parking bay limit concrete block. Removing that then showed the bottom of the air conditioning evaporator had taken a small hit and the bottom of the radiator where the undertray should hook into. Naturally the hook on the undertray is broken off. That is an easy fix that I'll get to at some point later in my repairs.

This also highlighted the RH turn signal unit was jammed in place as the RH fender has been bent by (in my opinion) the use of regular high grip rivets which do not break like the OE plastic coated ones. This bent the back of the fender out and pushed the front in, in the area of the turn signal light.
This has now been straightened ready for re-assembly. I just need to find a good 'solid' mud-flap. My spares are the basic scoop style ones which means buying more expensive rivets to swap the LH one out to, to match. More on the subject here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81028

Serpentine belt looks like it may have broken at some point as there is a little damage to the power steering pulley wheel and also the timing belt cover was bent. This I have straightened with a heat-gun and patience, I have a spare power steering pump I could swap over, but I am not planning to do just now as the original has only cosmetic damage. Serpentine belt has been replaced and all the pulleys have been cleaned.

While the bumper was off, I repaired the 2 headlight wiper motors by removing the thermo-resistors and replacing with a piece of copper wires. I eventually plan to fit in-line fuses to protect the main fuse. When checking the wash wipe system the only things that worked were the front and rear wiper motors and arms. Neither wash motor worked and the seal around the motor for the front windshield was leaking. I removed the pumps and repaired them and replaced the main pump seal. All is now working and the fluid bottle got cleaned while in there.

Bumper removed

Next un-planned repair was finding the RH front brake caliper had a bad dust shield that had obviously been like that for some time as the piston was badly rusted. Again the front rotors and pads had been replaced just before I bought the car by a repair shop. There is no way a good mechanic could have missed this.

Subject is covered here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81007

All the engine mounts have been replace with the exception of the top torque mount. I had already fitted a good spare that had only light cracking. I have a new one but haven't fitted it yet. Subject is covered here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=80886

One point to note, is that having discussed the fact the bolt hole and the bracket hole for the top torque bush don't line up, having asked the shop foreman at the dealer, he said that he had never seen one that did. The always have to tip the engine forward to install the bolt.

There have been a bunch of other small issues but all take time to resolve. There have been many pieces of advice and help on parts sourcing from the great members here on MVS which has been greatly appreciated.

Currently I am cleaning off the area around the spark plugs and the coil packs. It is filthy and there has been the normal leakage from the oil filler cap seal. However, when I removed the coil pack for cylinder 2 I found oil around there from the PCV hose to the head from the catch tank. The PCV system was supposedly replaced a couple of years ago by a Volvo 'specialist'. They had used an Oetiker clamp and either used the wrong size or the crimp was not completely done as the hose just lifted off. I removed it and replaced it with a worm drive clamp and replaced the oil filler seal. I still have a couple of days cleaning around the top of the cylinder head and spark plug recesses to do. I will also have to replace all the corrugated wire covering as it is crumbling.

Oh, the A/C dryer has also been replaced as it had been damaged.

Damaged AC dryer unit

Once the axle has been re-installed and the RH suspension re-built and the brakes bled, the only other issue to attend to that I know of it to remove the air box and clean it out, replace the filter (cabin filter and the washer motor and linkages have been cleaned, replaced and lube'd), and clean the throttle plate.

Wiper motor area cleaning and cabin filer change

Above picture tries to show before and after. LH side has been cleaned and wiper motor area still to do.

I'm hoping then I will be nearly complete. I will have to do some repairs to the front bumper lower edge and then re-install the front bumper and headlight wiper arms and wash tubes but it is edging slowly forward!

So yes it has been an endless job, and still has some time to go, but progress has been done, and the car is at least hygienic in the cabin area with everything repaired or replaced that was broken or just plain filthy!

There is still some hope for this old car yet!

Neil.

[scot850]

Been a long time but a quick update on the very slow progress. Back from vacation and the care is ready for the road. Just have to go get it insured and registered which I hope to do in the next few days.

There are still a few items I need to get to, but most are cosmetic, and I'll attend to once the car has been run for a while and hopefully nothing else breaks!

I have re-fitted the repaired and (averagely painted) front bumper after a lot of swearing, as I could not get the 2 long mounting bolts to line up with the top threaded nut even though the mounts had been marked and returned to the same position after cleaning and painting. Have to out that down to me straightening the mounts that were slightly bent. With help from my son the bumper eventually (after numerous attempts) was locked down the day before going on vacation.

On my return, I just had to swap the summer rims onto the car, re-rivet the front bumper to the fender liner, and re-fit the headlight wiper arms and pipes.

As seen in another post today, I tried to improve the fitment of the speedo cluster and upper and lower dash panels but no luck.

Final work as I said, will be done after a bedding in period of a few hundred km's. I know I still have to swap out the LH axle and trans seal, re-drain and flush the trans, and the engine oil, but hopefully mechanically that is all I hope needs done for now.

Bodily, I still have to re-paint the flaked portions of the rear bumper and the scrapes on the tailgate spoiler, along with touching in small chips and scratches, before bugging and polishing the car.

It still amazes me that swapping the summer alloys onto the car can make the car look so much better than the steel wheels and tatty covers. More importantly, I have to give the car a thorough wash and clean on the outside to get all the dust off it as can be seen below!:

Please clean me!

2000 V70 NA base speedo cluster 007.JPG (2.5 MiB) Viewed 1999 times

LH side

2000 V70 NA base speedo cluster 009.JPG (2.27 MiB) Viewed 1999 times

Grubby all over!

2000 V70 NA base speedo cluster 010.JPG (2.19 MiB) Viewed 1999 times

Neil.

[scot850]

Took the car for its first short bedding in run today, all the way to the local car wash (to remove 6 months of dust from all over the car as seen in the pictures above). Only had 4 warning lights come on! ABS came on for a short while then went back off, but then the TRACS light came on and stayed on. The bulb out light came on (turned out to be a bad FR turn signal bulb), and the never ending Engine check light. As I had the basic tester with me, tried to pull at least the engine codes, but it says there are none. When I got home, reset the warning light and re-started, and no lights on. The lights did not come on initially on the first run, only after a short distance. The only light that came on immediately was for the bulb warning.

Tomorrow it is going to get the A/C system re-gassed and an new Shraeder valve, so here is hoping that goes well!

Then the plan is to run it for a while to bed everything in, and try to figure out why the random lights are coming on. Possibilities are the ABS module, the cable connection on the module or an ABS wheel sensor. I'll have to get the Vida system down to look at that, and the TRACS issue. Could be the LH axle as it was flaking paint in chunks at the sensor ring at the wheel bearing end of the axle. I plan to swap the axle out shortly with a good spare and fit a new trans/axle seal at the same time as well as a 2nd drain and flush. Actually tried to check the trans fluid level, but it is a swine to read. It is either full/max at hot or it is 1/2" too low!

Engine check light will be a breeze (not)! It will be a challenge if it is no throwing a code, unless it is the comms issue again.

Otherwise car ran ok so far, slight clunk from the front end but otherwise good!

Neil.

[abscate]

You can check the ABS sensors up top by finding the plugs on the shock tower and measuring the amperage there.

[matthew1]

Wow, Neil, great updates on this Project (capital "P" there for certain). It's great to follow along.

At this age of car, it's just going to go beyond nickel and dime every time.

[scot850]

Good to know about checking the ABS sensors, rears can be done from behind the rear seat at the connector too. First going to run the car for few days to see what else falls off, and then tackle the issues that come up. May have some time to look at the fault codes with Vida on the weekend to see what the basic tester is not picking up, if anything. Not too concerned if the ABS/TRACS lights are on for a few days as long as the brakes are working ok, and so far, so good. Car needs to be taken for a longer run to get everything nice and warm, then park it to allow it to cool down and see what is broken. Eventually I hope to get it to the point where I can start using it to test all the heating electrical parts that I have and anything else I find and then the decision comes on if it stays or goes or the 'R', or both!

Thanks for the input guys.

Neil

[850 LPT]

Wow Neil, this is coming along very nicely. Sounds like you are on the home stretch.
I think with so much work into both, the R and this one, you need to keep both

Dirk