Nothing that I hate more than overspray and those tiny rear drum brakes.
Nothing that I hate more than overspray and those tiny rear drum brakes.
In reply to Slippery :
I know, right?
At least all the rotors are all spinning in the same direction now.
You probably want to drill the hole for the star wheel adjuster before the ridge of rust builds up outboard of the park brake shoes, after which you will need to adjust them down to get the rotors off. Also, pick at the friction material on the park brake shoes. Its not unusual for them to debond, which then does anything from nothing to locking the wheel solid. If you need shoes, make sure they come from a European source. Wagner and other American companies make them, but the friction material is too thick and makes you practice your cursing.
I had the very same car in my shop this past week, for a new rad and no awd. The typical problem is that the splines on the drive sleeve between the trans and the angle drive wear out, and that was the case here. Problem, though, is that Volvo doesn't sell the R angle drive anymore. Sleeve was no problem, but when there's no splines left on the input...Well, lets say the dude has a front wheel drive R now, and by golly, it kinda sucks. So, my advice would be to pull the angle drive and at least clean the powdered rusty residue of the spline wear out before they grind the rest of the spline material off. I'm of two minds about lube in there, but I usually come down on the "Some lube has to help the splines survive a bit longer than no lube...
While you are in there, you can replace the turbo drain o-ring that was making the mess a couple of pages back. Order two, since having two will keep the fates from cutting the first one going into the block. Ask me how I know...
Another common leak is from the seal on the back end of the exhaust cam, where the cam sensor bolts in.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Good to know.
For now, the brake adjusters are fully in. Shoes and everything else in there looks original. I doubt that there is any self-adjusting going on.
How difficult is it to pull that angle drive? I'm hypothetically in the middle of upgrading form a MaxJax to a four post lift, but I don't know how long it's going to take. That's kind of limiting the scope of the projects that I'm willing to tackle at home for a while. In fact, I'm actually thinking about paying a shop to do the next timing belt swap. I may even have them do the PCV system at the same time. The PCV is still working, but that tube is getting pretty hard, so it may be getting near the end of its life.
You may have missed it, but the oil leak was taken care of a few weeks back.
Axle out, driveshaft unbolted, angle gear has five bolts holding it to the trans. One is impossible to see, but is accessible with a flex socket and 12 inch extension from above the drive, below the turbo. Getting the unit out of the hole is a bit of a Tetris exercise, easier if you remove the oil cooler. If it's out, there are three axle/input seals and the pinion seal. The only one that ever seems to fail is the smallest one that keeps dirt out of the axle hole on the right side.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
Thank you. Sounds like you've done it a time or two!
Volvo made this first generation of the V70R for three years: 1998-2000. Each year got a little more horsepower than the year before, 240-->250-->265.
Our car is a 1998, the lowest powered of the three years. So on paper, it might seem like the least desirable. But overall, early V70Rs are fairly scarce, and when I found this car, in this condition, with relatively low mileage, I knew that I had to jump on it.
As my Volvo-enthusiast friend said when I sent him the link to the ad, "How is your dog going to do better than that car, at that price?"
Obviously, he knew what he was talking about.
And, as sort of a happy accident, I have discovered a few one-year-only details on this car that, at least for me, help offset some of that lost horsepower.
The first two things that I learned have to do with the interior, and I wouldn't have discovered them had I not sought out the replacement for the rear seat. The guy who was selling the seats told me that he had bought a full set of front and rear V70R seats to swap into his 1998 V70 T-5, but discovered that the front seats that he bought had airbags in them and the 1998 cars do not. He sold the fronts to someone else (they weren't as nice as the ones I already have) and I bought the rears.
I'm all for safetyishness, but I'm also okay with not having an airbag in my driver's seat. My seat is worn, not torn, but at some point either the bolster or the base is going to give up the ghost, and then, it will be pretty easy to swap in one of the nice Recaro-made Porsche seats from my basement.
Another interior discovery was that in either 1999 or 2000, Volvo added a pair of LATCH anchors to the back side of the rear seats. Whether the rear seat is upright or folded down, the sharp edges of the anchors would have been disastrous to any canine passengers. I chose to replace my seat base only and keep my original seat back.
And finally, these cars went to drive-by-wire throttle in 2000, and they are notorious for failing. Our car has a good old reliable throttle cable, and once I hit it and its linkage with a little WD-40, throttle modulation, as well as transmission kickdown, got a little bit smoother.
So...there's some joy in having only 240 horsepower in your European Luxury Sportwagon / Dog Hauler.
Also, our car came with sixteen inch wheels. I actually prefer the smoother ride from the taller sidewalls of sixteen inch tires for this car. And I like the way they look.
Bitch stole my toast...
Are you sure there is no parking brake access port on the backing plates? My Subaru has a rubber plug on the plate that you remove and stick in a screwdriver to spin the star adjuster wheel. No need to remove the wheel.
In reply to Aspen :
Just seeing this now. I don't think so, but I'll take a look. Thanks!
So today, after three months of ownership, I discovered that this car has a factory alarm system! I guess I've never locked the car before.
In reply to Woody :
With a built-in guard-dog I suppose the alarm is redundant?
The front end of this car was kind of clunky and annoying. Front sway bar end links are a known point of failure on these cars, and upgraded replacements are fairly cheap from IPD, just $42 for the pair.
So I replaced these...
...with these...
It was a fairly simple job, though rather than do it properly, I just jacked up one side at a time and then persuaded the sway bar into alignment with the new links. Pre-tension...blah, blah, blah, etc. Whatever. The dog can’t feel the difference.
I needed to use the bar in order to get my impact wrench on the lower nut. The only other tricky part was that I had to use a super skinny 16mm bicycle wrench between the ball joint and the sway bar to keep the stud from turning.
Holy cow! I can't overstate how much of a difference these things made. The ride is so much quieter now. The annoying clunks are gone. I've never really pushed the car in corners because I usually have the dog with me, but handling is noticeably better. This was cheap and easy and I should have done it sooner. If I ever buy another one of these cars, this will be one of the first things I do.
While I was under the car, I discovered another loose heat shield. The nuts were still there, but the holes in the thin aluminum had opened up and it was flopping around.
Another pair of bigass fender washers came to the rescue.
A 2004 just popped up on my local FB for sale ...204k miles for $5900
After model year 2000, they can have some issues. Not that these don't, but it's a matter of degrees.
In reply to russde :
Seems too expensive for the mileage
If you think that was easy wait til you do it the normal way where the swaybar isn't actively loaded by the way you jacked the car up. 
In reply to Vigo :
Oh, I'm fully aware of the way that this is supposed to be done. I've changed more sway bars than I can remember, but I was in a rush/lazy this time.
Four years ago today:
And today:
The new sway bar end links haven't completely eliminated all of the clunky-ness in the front end, so I ordered a lower control kit from IPD.
Only five bolts per side... How hard can this be, right?
You said it in front of the car, didn't you? The car can hear you.
(IIRC the forward bolts are a pain because of their location)
Dear Volvo,
How the berkeley am I supposed to remove this berkeleying bolt with the berkeleying engine in the berkeleying car?! This is a berkeleying “serviceable” part, you berkeleying Swedish berkeleys!!
You'll need to log in to post.
