Many Problems with a newly bought 01 Volvo XC 70, 82K miles

Krisbakshi · Post by **Krisbakshi** » 09 Aug 2008, 19:51

Some history; Always wanted to buy Volvo XC70 and never got. Finally, I found one (2001 V70 XC70 with 81K Miles) on the ebay and bought it (biggest mistake of my life). Looked good in pictures and seller said the car runs great. As soon as I drove away from the DAS pickup point, got a warning of low oil pressure. Stopped and checked the oil. Level was fine, so drove it home for further investigation. Didn't like the gear shifting (2nd to 3rd) A friend recommended Swedish Engineering in Ann Arbor, so took it there for oil change and trans shift diadnostics. The mechanic took the car out for test drive and came back to me and told me that the car needs a oil pan clean up, pickup tube cleanup, heater core hose starting to leak (need to replace), recommends trans flush, sway bar link needs replacing, need to replace the oil breather system ($1000.72), upper motor mount broken ($219.82), brake fluid dirty ($145.00), spark plugs need to replace (174.54), both upper strut mounts need to replace ($427.71), front control arm bushings (front and rear) need to be replaced ($596). PRICES SEEMS VERY HIGH, so will be doing it myself.
I could not drive the car back home that day as they didn't have the heater hose. Four days later, they replaced the hose , clean the oil pan, replaced the sway bar link, and charged me $1451.00 (cost seems very high, I think)
I was not a happy camper but didn't have any option. They aslo told me that the technician has found a trace of transmission fluid in the engine coolant. Please come back after two weeks and they will check for free. So I went back to them and they told me that they need to replace the radiator. The comments from technician, "the transmission cooler inside the radiator is leaking" - aprox. cost is $1077.66
So that got me to start looking at web and see if I can do the repair myself. That brought me to eEuroparts, FCP Gorton, and this forum.

I like, what the members of this site have posted and am sure they can help me. I think, I have figured most of the parts that I need but how to do is not sure yet.

My biggest question at this time is, How can transmission cooland mix with engine coolant? Aren't those two different radiators? I looked under the hood and seems like there are two different radiators.Before I started to write this e-mail I looked at the engine coolant reserviour. It had about 12 oz of transmission fluid (I sucked with a syrige).
Any help is appreciated. This car has around 82K miles.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 09 Aug 2008, 20:20

Welcome to Matthews Volvo Site...I'm glad you found us!
The radiator actually has 3 parts inside of it...oil cooler, transmission cooler and coolant (antifreeze). You may indeed be in for a new radiator but this is not horribly difficult to replace yourself and the part is much cheaper than this dealer is quoting you as you have figured out. In fact this dealer is trying to rape you on prices and your car might not need everything they've quoted you- typical of some dealer (whom we try to avoid at all cost here). The upper engine mount for instance (depending on which one you get) is $26 and a 15 minute job that anyone can do. I recommend you check out www.ipdusa.com and look at their poly upper mount which will last the life of your car.

Did you have the transmission flush yet? (another btw- there's a great write-up on how to do this yourself in our repair database). If not, don't buy the expensive Volvo fluid. You can buy Mobil-3309 from the web or even Toyota Type IV as many Toyota's use the same transmission and their fluid is identical and much cheaper at the dealer. If the radiator truly needs replacing, this would be a good time to replace the transmission fluid and the antifreeze (btw, get only ethelyn glycol- the florescent green stuff that is phosphorus free- once again, don't buy the expensive Volvo fluid). I would also recommend that you look for and buy a VADIS DVD from a reputable seller on eBay. This is Volvo's own diagnostic and "how-to" manual that Volvo has now replaced with VIDA, but it will be great for your car if you're going to be doing your own maintenance. It is to bad that you couldn't check this XC out more thoroughly before you bought it.

Post by **JRL** » 09 Aug 2008, 20:37

Those prices are NUTS!

tripleb · Post by **tripleb** » 17 Aug 2008, 13:22

Most of the problems you have with your XC70 are common to this model, so it's not out of the norm. The previous owner didn't have his car properly maintained otherwise many of these problems would have been addressed. It's always a good idea to have the vehicle checked out before you buy it!

The radiator comes the bottom, so it may be tough to get out in your driveway, but I bet many here have done it and can offer better advice than I can. I can tell you that if engine coolant gets into the transmission, you can damage the transmission, so you should address this soon.

The transmission shifting may be a software upgrade issue. If I just bought this car, I would take it to a capable independent Volvo shop, or the dealer and have the software updated for the entire car. There are software patches out that fix random problems, but if you wait until one of those problems occur, you will pay more to have the problem diagnosed, and possibly just the software for that problem installed.

Post by **JRL** » 17 Aug 2008, 13:56

Most of these are common 2001 Volvo problems (a VERY bad year for this car, 1st year model with a multitude of issues)
I'm sorry to tell you that you also may need a transmission.
If you do some searching on the Volvo boards you will find that about 75%
of 2001 transmissions have blown up (for the lack of a better word).

You MUST do the flush with 3309 fluid, reset the tranny adaptors, install NEW SOFTWARE and pray.

If this is the case you may want to just resell it on Ebay and take your losses, a new transmission cost is now WAY over $4000 installed as the price of transmissions went up (to the dealer) over $1000!!! and you will have more than doubled your purchase cost

Krisbakshi · Post by **Krisbakshi** » 17 Aug 2008, 16:31

Since then, I have bought most of the parts and having an old mechanic (that takes care of my other cars) to replace the radiator, upper engine mount, front strut mounts, etc. I am hoping that this car doesn't give me more problems till this winter, then I may sell it (or I should sell it) as recommended by JRL. Is the software upgrade available other than dealers?
Thanks again for all the help and info.

Post by **JRL** » 17 Aug 2008, 18:18

Krisbakshi wrote:. Is the software upgrade available other than dealers?
.

For the most part, no, dealer only or a large shop that does Volvos and has VIDA (the computer access to Volvo's web based software, most do not) but the flush and adaptions are more important,
You can go back and do software but it's still recommended you do all this at once

Krisbakshi · Post by **Krisbakshi** » 18 Aug 2008, 05:44

When I first took the car to Swedish Engineering in Ann Arbor, MI, they did the trans flush and the coolant flush. But I think, I should do the flush of both systems again as they have been contaminated with each other. I have driven the car so far around 800 miles. It is funny though that transmission shifts smooth some times and the other times 2nd to 3rd is very hard. The rpm goes around 3200 and a hard shift. I am planning to sell the car later but don't want to sell it without fixing it. JRL mentioned that 01 model year was not a good year to buy. Which year XC70 is the best to buy and about how much will it cost?

Post by **JRL** » 18 Aug 2008, 05:56

Krisbakshi wrote:. Which year XC70 is the best to buy and about how much will it cost?

If you like the newer body style, 03 thru 07 and of course the later the year the better.
They just get much better with every year but the 03 starts off with the electric Haldex AWD with no viscous coupling to mess with
(Better engine too, 2.5t)