2000 V70R parts car - worth buying and fixing up? Topic is solved

[eee]

Hello,

A 2000 V70R has popped up in my area, and I'm tempted to take it on as a project this summer. I'm hoping someone experienced can give me a sanity check.

The current state of the car:

• Located near me here in Ontario

• 340,000km

• Engine runs

• Body in good shape

• Interior in good condition

What's wrong with it:

• Automatic transmission (it was rebuilt a year ago, but I would prefer a manual)

• No turbo

• No front brakes

• No center drive shaft (i.e. it's FWD only at the moment)

Let's say I can buy it off the guy for 500 CAD. I would hope to do the following to it:

• Manual swap, either M58 (live in Canada, should be easy to get for <500) or M66

• Install front brakes

• Install some kind of turbo, whatever is easiest

• Get the AWD working

• General tune up (i.e. all the stuff in the sticky post)

• Suspension refresh

My questions:

• Is 500CAD a reasonable price for that car, given the state it's in?

• Am I crazy for thinking that with the right tools and a whole lot of wrenching, this could all be done for less than 5000CAD?

• Is it more trouble than it's worth?

Cheers, e

[abscate]

Restoring one of these from neglect On a 5000 CAD budget sounds doable. It won’t be worth more than this, so it’s viable if you want to drive it only.

[oragex]

It's a car for the scrap yard, I think they give him something like 2-$300 for it if I'm not wrong. So you should be good to buy it for around this amount.
The manual swap it's a big headache, I believe it also needs a ECU swap or alike.

[scot850]

Depending on your determination then anything is possible. Owning a V70R that has 270,000km on it, I spent $6500 just on replacing the cracked rear sub-frame (check it for corrosion around the mounting bolts inside of each rear wheel). Rear brakes are a 1 year option, so calipers are no longer available, and even rotors are hard to find. Spare parts are not available to re-build the calipers either. Many parts for the rear of the car (including the clips holding the rear parking brake cables) are obsolete, and some of the rear suspension bushes are not available.

Only good news is IPD have introduced a lower torque mount for AWD P80's as that is also obsolete.

Look up my thread on replacing the rear sub-frame to give you some idea of what is involved with these versions of this car.


personally I would not recommend any non-running AWD P80 to anyone. Sure trans can be changed and all that stuff, but be prepared for the big costs (I am into mine for over $25,000 CDN!!).

Neil.

[wizechatmgr]

The "no front brakes" worries me. Is it just they let the pads go and you need rotors and pads or are the calipers frozen as well?

[scot850]

At least the only 'fancy' thing about the front brakes is the caliper bracket. If they are gone then you will have to hope FCP Euro still has replacements available. You may be lucky and be able to buy re-conditioned calipers with the brackets included but you will pay extra fro not returning used ones for re-build.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo- ... 56#fitment

V70R's use larger rotors on the front which needs larger caliper brackets, but the calipers themselves are the same as other models. The rear brakes as stated before are the issue if they need replaced. Volvo did offer a 'kit' which used parts from P2 Volvos to replace the rear brake calipers, rotors and pads. Oh, if the rear dust shields are rusted, they are also un-available unless you can find good ones from a rust free state. Used pars sellers don't like them as you have to pull the rear hub to remove the bearing to get to the backing plate. Otherwise they just cut them off.

Neil.

[eee]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I've been doing a little more research and looking at other builds, and I think the right way to proceed would be getting the thing working properly as an FWD automatic R, and then going down the rabbit hole of manual swaps, fixing AWD, etc. That ought to be easier on the wallet and the wrenching side of things.

The seller has sent me a bunch of photos, and based on the overall condition I thinking of dropping the price down to the 300-400CAD range. The rationale is that depending on what's missing on the brakes, it's going to need at least 300 to get it out of deathtrap-mode. Salvage turbo is another >500, and then everything needed to get it to "stage 0" would be at least another 500, depending on how far gone it is.

One more question. The thing has no turbo. I'm assuming this means the guy removed the turbo and all associated plumbing (calling tomorrow to double check). Would driving it ~120km like that—given that everything else is safe—cause any damage or should I just tow it?

Restoring one of these from neglect On a 5000 CAD budget sounds doable. It won’t be worth more than this, so it’s viable if you want to drive it only.

Depending on how it's been taken care of, I think it could be done for <3000CAD (famous last words). I wouldn't be reselling it for the foreseeable future if all goes according to plan, it would just be an occasional driver for me.

It's a car for the scrap yard, I think they give him something like 2-$300 for it if I'm not wrong. So you should be good to buy it for around this amount.
The manual swap it's a big headache, I believe it also needs a ECU swap or alike.

That's what I've been thinking (wrote about it above). The guy either tries to part it out or scrap it. Hopefully he sympathizes with my desire to get the thing rolling again and takes my offer .
I've been doing a lot of research on the swap for the '99-'00 models and it seems to be a crapshoot in terms of compatibility, ECU swaps, tunes etc. Like I said above, I'll focus on getting it working before starting the hardcore stuff.

Depending on your determination then anything is possible. Owning a V70R that has 270,000km on it, I spent $6500 just on replacing the cracked rear sub-frame (check it for corrosion around the mounting bolts inside of each rear wheel). Rear brakes are a 1 year option, so calipers are no longer available, and even rotors are hard to find. Spare parts are not available to re-build the calipers either. Many parts for the rear of the car (including the clips holding the rear parking brake cables) are obsolete, and some of the rear suspension bushes are not available.

personally I would not recommend any non-running AWD P80 to anyone. Sure trans can be changed and all that stuff, but be prepared for the big costs (I am into mine for over $25,000 CDN!!).

Yikes! 25k is a lot more than I'd like to spend! Thanks for the tip on the subframe. Are there any other things I should look for on the P80 Rs? There doesn't seem to be a good "buyer's guide" for the P80s like there is for the P2s.

The "no front brakes" worries me. Is it just they let the pads go and you need rotors and pads or are the calipers frozen as well?

That's what I'm worried about too. I'm giving the guy a call tomorrow to check. I figure if it's just the rotors and pads, then it's ~300CAD worth of parts and I'm good to go. If it's anything beyond that.... different story.

[wizechatmgr]

I don't think you can really run a turbo spec'd car without the turbo with it entirely removed. It will dump in way too much fuel anticipating air it isn't getting for boost it isn't getting.

That said, I haven't tried it. I would gather it would be okay at low RPMs but a real bear if you either put your foot down or attempted any sort of "upper" highway speeds.

[eee]

I don't think you can really run a turbo spec'd car without the turbo with it entirely removed. It will dump in way too much fuel anticipating air it isn't getting for boost it isn't getting.

That said, I haven't tried it. I would gather it would be okay at low RPMs but a real bear if you either put your foot down or attempted any sort of "upper" highway speeds.

Good call. It's worth the money to get it towed rather then driving an unknown quantity 120km.

[abscate]

Are you sure you are getting a title?

Selling for under $500 makes no sense, it is worth more parted out.