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

[foggydogg]

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PikesVille is in your backyard or at least in the your 'hood isnt it?
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NW of Baltimore. Drove through there once on the way to PA. The big dog recycler in the DC area is Brandywine, with one yard foreign-car specific in Upper Marlboro. Haven't been in a while.

[kallekula]

Changed spark plugs in my S70. Think the plugs I had was wrong. Probably came from a turbo model that was recycled. This time I bought the four electrode style Bosch FGR7DQE0. Cheap plug but it's supposed to be oe.

The new Bosch plugs I put in lasted 5K miles☹ Recently I noticed that rpms would drop at idle randomly, but always when warm. It was also missing on hard acceleration. No codes at all. I thought it might be a valve body problem, line pressure etc. But nope, just new CORRECT OEM plugs was enough to get her back running smooth again. 300K coming up soon .

[Fiodor]

Installed a Do88 Intercooler with a friend, seems to pull stronger in the top end.
Quite easy to do, although lining up the holes on the radiator, the condenser and the intercooler proved somewhat troublesome.

[abscate]

Went for a walk because I couldn’t decide which Volvo to drive

[Eddystone]

After wrenching Volvos for 13 years without a driveway or garage of my own, I am settling into a house near Cleveland, Ohio with a 2-1/2 car garage with spiffy garage door opener, a 16 ft door and overall size of about 24 ft wide and 20 ft deep. Great big heavy duty work bench. Have installed garage heater, my big old vice and my bench grinder wire brush machine. Organizing my tools, spare parts, fasteners, et cetera. My old tank compressor fired up and works fine after over a decade dormant. My incredibly heavy 6000 lb floor jack also still works and is wonderful bruiser to use. The house is great, too, but THE GARAGE!!!!

[Eddystone]

Went for a walk because I couldn’t decide which Volvo to drive

I like the red one.

[abscate]

I’m bummed because now you are 7 hours from me instead of 4 but I have a Sooner trip planned this Spring, post vaccination

[ZionXIX]

Cross post from the XC90 forum. You guys seem to appreciate these posts a bit more. I was going to just post the link but I couldn't figure how to link to a specific post within a thread. So you guys get the full monty.

Xc90 radiator replacement.
The saga continues. Long post.

I started the radiator job last week. I found that removing the bumper cover (2 bolts, some tabs and 2 fog light wires) made removing the skid plate much easier. Discovered a rounded bolt on skid plate removal. Supported the condensor with zip ties before removing the 4 radiator sandwhich bolts. I had to drop the radiator to access the upper fan bolts. Thanks for that one volvo.

I dont really understand the reasoning behind volvo reversing the transmission cooler flow. Removing the cooler lines took longer than I care to admit. I have never seen transmission fluid that looked exactly like liquid charcoal before. I dont understand how at 80,000 miles the fluid could be so dark.

I was able to drop the radiator beneath the vehicle and angle it outward for removal. I did not need any kind of floor jack for lift. There was plenty of room. I went with a good junkyard volvo brand radiator with questionable mileage. Upon installation I crushed 2 coolant channels but didn't notice until after it was almost installed. After that frustrating discovery I decided to just buy a new one. Off to FCP I went.

Oh decisions decisions. Blue box or Nissens? I'm usually quite the blue box snob but the nissens has good reviews, FCP lifetime warranty, and it could ship to me several days sooner than a Volvo brand. So I chose the Nissens. Key differences are the Nissens lacks a drain peacock (Is it really that hard to design and add one? ), transmission cooler connections are threaded inserts (presumably for different sized connections) and some of the spring clip nuts need to be transferred, the mounting bushings are a bit thinner than stock, and the coolant hose connection lack a metal reinforced ring.

Finally got the radiator in place and bolted up before realizing the tiny side hose (Vent? Bypass?) was not connected and I did not have any clamps small enough for it. 3/8" oetiker style PEX clamps at the hardware store worked very well.

Decided to change the coolant to the appropriate type. Had some volvo brand concentrate while waiting for some Zerex G48. I had the bright idea of changing the transmission fluid at the same time using the vinyl hose method at the upper radiator hose connection.

I used the Aisin brand fluid from FCP. Purchased a case of 12 for this job. This is where things got bad. First 8 quarts pumped out resembled darkness and despair in its purest form. Liquid charcoal. I have never seen fluid so black. It might as well be crude oil. Dumped my bucket of old fluid and started the next batched. Pumped out 2 quarts and filled with 2 new. Up until this point it was taking 45 sec to pump out 2 quarts. Halfway through the second batch I noticed how much longer it was taking to pump fluid. 2 minutes went by and flow had stopped. I shut her down and went looking for a problem. After scratching my head not finding any leaking hoses I looked around and found a lake of fluid running down the driveway. The Oh $#!* moment occured. I was immediately concerned that I ran the transmission dry. So many thoughts were going through my mind. What did I break? Where wil I get a new transmission? Will this lake of red transmission fluid permanently stain my driveway like a scarlett letter for all the neighbors to see?

I started looking around for the source of this massive leak. I searched high and low. I checked every hose and connection until I saw it. The funnel I was using for adding new fluid was sitting about an inch above the fill tube. At that moment it dawned on me that I didn't have a leak. I poured all of that transmission fluid onto the driveway myself. I experienced a clash of paradoxical emotions. I was happy I didn't break the transmission. But I was disappointed I made such a mistake. A quick late night powerwash (neighbors be damned) and a few days will hopefully yield good results.

[abscate]

ATF is the Renaissance Mans driveway sealant

Tell the HOA Wankers that is on the internet as a real thing

I changed oil on the Bavarian Money Waster once , with the plug out. ugly

[volvolugnut]

I’m bummed because now you are 7 hours from me instead of 4 but I have a Sooner trip planned this Spring, post vaccination

Come soon. Your New England blood will boil if you wait until it gets hot here in Sooner state. May might be too late.

volvolugnut