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JaredR's Dad's 1999 V70 NA M56LK

55K views 443 replies 51 participants last post by  JaredR 
#1 · (Edited)
Welcome to the most boring progression thread ever! Looking for lots of HP? Move right along. Looking for lots of crazy mods? This thread is probably not for you. This is a thread to document the life of a working V70 and what you can do with it.

Ok, now that we're past the disclaimer, say hello to my dad's 412 Tropic Green 1999 V70 NA M56H! We got it in September 2010 at 166k. This being our first Volvo and, really, our first decent car after a time of crappy American econoboxes (except a manual Ford Escort estate that we quite liked) that we'd had since making the mistake of retiring our 1988 Mercury Sable estate in 2002, we had no idea what we were buying into.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Mode of transport Hood


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Volvo cars Volvo s70


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Volvo cars Volvo v70


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Volvo cars Volvo v70


Land vehicle Vehicle Car Volvo s70 Volvo cars














Mods:

E-Codes because being able to see is awesome! These are SO SO SO much better than the DOT lights that were in here; I can't recommend this upgrade enough. We are planning on eventually converting our entire fleet to E-Codes.


Bernie sticker because sea level rise.


Herreshoff Museum sticker because boats.


Trailer hitch because boats.


I'm not kidding.


Scratches because, well, probably also because boats, actually.


XC grill! Car was in an accident before we got it that required a new hood, bumper, and driver's fender, so our best guess is that it was replaced with a hood from a XC.


The crappy repaint on this hood is so shot. Please PM me if you have a tropic green hood that you want to get rid of.


This brake caliper is not working right; need to do something about that.


New Michelin Defenders because they're hard to beat for 15" wheels.


Other mods:
Added roof rails because boats.

Put the floor mats out of the wrecked 850R in here because they were already a mess and the mats that were in here didn't really fit.

Has a 850 purge valve in it because we just happened to have it on hand in the wrecked R. We spent about 6 months dealing with some very strange symptoms after accidentally going to a full-serve gas station. The problem turned out to be the purge valve being ruined by the idiot there overfilling it. I don't recommend going to Murley's Sunoco in Weymouth. Go anywhere else and just mix your own 91. Before replacing the purge valve, we replaced the MAF, o2 sensor, and did the ETM repair (it looked like it was most of the way through the carbon, anyway). Unfortunately, this also decreased our fuel economy, which we assume is related to the fact that we no longer get the running lean code. The good part is that the CEL has been out ever since replacing these things, which has set a new record for most consecutive days with no codes since we got the car.

It is currently sitting at 228k miles and is out of service due to a broken exhaust pipe, so the T-5R is filling in for it. Once we get it back in service and we can take the T-5R out of service to get rid of the Bilstein HDs and IPD/TME exhaust in that car, we may take this car back out of service over the summer to address some of its other issues.
 
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#4 ·
Where are you finding E code glass these days?

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They came from Germany. I don't think they are OEM, though. Some idiot did a hit and run in front of our house that destroyed one of the headlights but somehow damaged nothing else, so those are complete E-code assemblies, not just lenses. We had packaging tape on it for several weeks while waiting for them to arrive, and even that was an enormous improvement over (and less blinding to look at than) the un-broken DOT lights.
 
#5 ·
This is getting good! New exhaust from FCP showed up today. Yes it is a brand new 100% stock Volvo exhaust. What could possibly be more exciting?

 
#6 ·
Nice wagon - great to see how durable these cars are.

There doesn't appear to be too much left of that caliper - never seen one corroded like that. It should be a pretty easy job to just get a rebuilt replacement from FCP but I bet removing that one will be a challenge.
 
#7 ·
Nice wagon - great to see how durable these cars are.

There doesn't appear to be too much left of that caliper - never seen one corroded like that. It should be a pretty easy job to just get a rebuilt replacement from FCP but I bet removing that one will be a challenge.
Yeah, launching that boat in salt water will do that. I can only imagine what the rest of those areas look like. I once had (was given) a 98 Explorer that was owned by someone with a speed boat - Fords love to rust, but this one was beyond the pale.
 
#8 ·
Quote:
"Welcome to the most boring progression thread ever!"

Hahaha, you are kidding!
This is a great thread, "because of the boats", and the love of a great car. It is humorous, entertaining and you have included several other Volvo wagons in the pics. With all those Volvo cars (and boats) you have to be the coolest family on the block.

Actually, who cares about that... you have cool wagons and boats!
 
#10 · (Edited)
Working on putting the new muffler in while the V70 does its best impersonation of an XC.

IMG_8613 by Jared R 945, on Flickr

Uh oh, THIS ISN'T HIGH ENOUGH! Damn, these exhausts are a pain in the ass to do without a lift.

IMG_8614 by Jared R 945, on Flickr

And the jacks won't work on the low side with this thing already tipping over so far. Well maybe the one on wheels would but we'd rather not have this thing fall on us.

So we had to set it back down and start over. We decided to turn it around the other way because it seemed like that would work slightly better with the way the muffler is situated in the car. The other car enthusiast in our neighborhood was walking by the end of our street with his dog as we were turning it around the other way which was a bit amusing. I think he was really wondering what on earth had gotten into us making one of our Volvos so loud. I think he will be very disappointed when he realizes that this was not actually our new sound and that we were just in the process of putting on a brand new factory Volvo exhaust. Oh yes, it turns out that this is slightly better turned around this way.

IMG_8616 by Jared R 945, on Flickr

I believe that picture also features every single jack that we have. Then we ran out of light.

__________________________________________________________

THE NEXT DAY!

We decided to today off by going to an open house at a place with a garage. The garage absolutely sucked and probably wasn't even long enough to get a P80 estate into with room to walk around the ends (the dude had like a Hyundai Accident or similar in there and there was barely room to walk around that), and the house was way smaller than we expected (since when are enclosed porches actually useful space??). I think the neighbor liked the T-5R, though. That didn't save the house from being a loser, though. But, hey, it's not all bad; it was like right around the corner from the nearest AutoZone and that's cool because we needed to go over there for some muffler cement, anyway.

Then we finally got back to work and just sort of forced the hangers on the exhaust pipe past the suspension parts that it was hanging up on. That eventually worked. For anyone out there trying to do this at home, the exhaust needs to be turned like 90° to get the hangers to clear everything between the gas tank and the suspension. We really didn't want to jack it up far enough to get enough clearance to do that on an un-level surface and in the street, which is why we had to force it through the suspension. We really should have used our ramps as part of this setup, but we have absolutely no idea where they are because we have way more stuff than anyone who doesn't have a barn should ever be allowed to have. Probably doesn't help that my dad hasn't used them since about 1999 when the Chrysler LeBaron that he was driving at the time got flooded with salt water.
 
#14 · (Edited)
That's exactly why we set it back down and turned it around the other way.

The jack stand in the foreground of the last picture was under the car and the red one in the pictures above was, too. These pictures were all taken between the time we started the process of setting it back down and finished getting it jacked up again after turning it around; it is a very incomplete photo essay.

Tall plastic ramps are your friend. Spend $60 and save your life. You will use them all the time..
We have ramps.....just gotta clean out underneath our porch and figure out where they are.
 
#15 ·
I like them so much that I have three sets of them (I also use them weekly to drive the riding mower onto so I can reach underneath and clean out the deck)! Not counting the couple of sets that I have bought and given to friends. The only modification I make to them is to drive a few drywall screws through the plastic underneath into those stupid rubber blocks that invariably come out and get lost. That problem has now been solved.
 
#17 ·
OH BOY finally got our driveway back and got the new brakes on this bad boy. Well, at least on the front; rear brakes still suck. And, hey! Check out these really slick jackstands we get to use now that they're not under the 850Rs!

IMG_8843

Meyle discs and Bosch pads. This will be interesting to see how these last.
 
#18 ·
Retrieved our boat from winter storage yesterday. Fuel economy was record setting; it averaged about 34 mpg between the northern 95/128 split and Rockport, ME running on Sunoco 91. Aircon was off (doesn't work) and travel was not at a relaxed pace, either; traffic was flowing at 70-75 mph most of the way until getting off on US 1, and the slower speeds were no better with all the hills. We've seen over 40 on extended runs at 40-50 mph on flat ground, but never anything like this at such high speeds. The old record was around 33.

And then we got the boat. WHEELSPIN IN A N/A!

MOV04840

And of course we had to make a stop to check out the Coquina we saw on the side of the road on the way home (anyone who has a clue what I'm talking about is welcome to come for a sail sometime).



Averaged 20 mpg on the trip home with just under 4,000 lbs in tow running on 50/50 mix of Shell 89 and 93 (probably would have been better if there had been any 91 available). It got 17 on the trip up before we replaced the purge valve.
 
#19 ·
Finally replaced the hood! Thanks to ScottishBrick for finding it!





Also took the opportunity to upgrade to some 850 washer fluid nozzles. Not sure why you guys all want '99+ nozzles; sure, they distribute the washer fluid more evenly when you're not moving, but we've found the 850 nozzles to be much more effective at higher speeds.

 
#21 ·
Heater core time!!!!!



GOODBYE TO THIS THING!



We thought it would be fun to cut the top off and see what it looks like inside:



New core. WTF is that white thing???



While we were in there........


Oh yeah, much better. Gotta have a bangin' stereo for me tunes on those Lowe's runs, right??



Then we got after this speaker that's been cutting out from time to time, because what good is a bangin' stereo if there isn't anything hooked up to it in one corner of the car? Disturbingly, we couldn't find anything wrong with it, so hopefully exercising the electrical connections has corrected the problem.

 
#22 ·
So, what's been going on in the world of the working V70?

The exhaust pipe failed just aft of the cat, so we had the whole thing welded up. Man is that stock system quiet when it is working properly. It's been years since that's been the case so I forgot just how quiet the stock exhaust really is. It makes it feel super luxurious again, although it sure doesn't sound cool anymore.

This car is going to get some 302s and probably some 17s with UHP tires after my collision with the deer last week in the T-5R was significantly less severe than it could have been thanks to my A/S PZeros. Got all the parts to put 302s on all our P80s sitting in the basement now; just need the time and a wheel/tire setup for this car that will clear 302s. The Michelin Defenders will move over to the '04, which will finally send the awful Chinese tires that have been there since we bought the car to retirement.....or maybe craigslist.
 
#25 ·
Very nice man! Subbed! I also picked up a 98 GLT wagon a few weeks ago and am very excited to get cracking on it after the holidays. This gives me inspiration!

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Happy we could be an inspiration! I never would have guessed that this one would be the most inspirational of the fleet. Pick up some 302 brackets from FCP before the holiday rush. Looking forward to seeing your future progression thread!

The white thing adds turbulence for better heat transfer.
Interesting. Makes perfect sense, though.
 
#27 ·
We have an exciting new noise! Something is clunking in the rear suspension. That should be fun to track down.......
 
#30 · (Edited)
It looks like it is the rear trailing arms being shot that is causing this car to be all over the road!

DSC_7766

Yikes!

Well this ought to be fun to get out.
My dad decided that the Volvo tool didn't look like it was worth $100 (I agree after seeing the illustration), so he built his own in about 20 minutes.

v1 didn't quite do the job:

DSC_7767

Yes, that drill is beyond the elastic limit. Don't worry, no useful drills were harmed in the making of this tool; all drills featured in this post came from our bin of retired drills.

v1.1 worked quite a lot better:

DSC_7770

Sorry, no pics of the install......basically we took a furniture clamp and put the back end on the other side of the delta link and a 2x3 between the clamp end and the delta link. Between that, a BFH, and a C clamp over the handle of the furniture clamp, we finally managed to get it in.

Only had time to do one today. Looking forward to seeing if this fixed the handling problems. I sure hope so because we're taking it to Annapolis tomorrow (shameless plug for ZZZZZZZ'S ANNAPOLIS MEET on the 26th that I'll be at in this, yes you should come if you're in that general vicinity....people as far away as Boston :wave: and Long Island will be there) and has been a bear to drive on the highway. The other side visually looks as bad but is not clunking so hopefully isn't behaving as badly. We also swapped the Titans with the 215/45 PZeros onto this car to get whatever improvement we can out of that, too. They were flat spotting baaaad having not moved since the T-5R had its run in with the deer so it's probably good I got them off the T-5R anyway given that there is no imminent progress on getting that car back in service.

We took this car out for a ride to pick up some food and the ride was surprisingly harsh with the green springs and also not really much noticeable improvement in handling, at least at low speeds. Not sure if it's the yellow springs or R sways (or probably both) but the 850s both ride and handle better than this setup. I can see how ScottishBrick wasn't crazy about the stock S70 suspension with the AS3s.

The front tires are also looking pretty worn for having about 20k on them. Haven't measured yet but not impressed with this at a glance given that the Defenders are rated for 80k miles. The rears were new about 3-4k ago due to an epic fck up by Pep Boys (long story but let's just say that Will's got the right idea on this one; we're so going to Costco next time we buy Michelins).
 
#34 ·
The front tires are also looking pretty worn for having about 20k on them. Haven't measured yet but not impressed with this at a glance given that the Defenders are rated for 80k miles. The rears were new about 3-4k ago due to an epic fck up by Pep Boys (long story but let's just say that Will's got the right idea on this one; we're so going to Costco next time we buy Michelins).
When was the car last aligned? That could also be contributing to the poor handling. Have you replaced the LCAs on this car yet?
 
#31 ·
I bet it looks great with Titans. Wanted a set of those or some Volans back in the day when I had the identical automatic.
Thanks for the shameless Annapolis meetup plug! See you on 12-26!
 
#32 ·
I needed to do something not to spoil all the awesome pics that are forthcoming! It does look absolutely fantastic with the Titans, at least at night (I think my dad wants to keep them!); can't wait to see what they look like during the day tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have time to wash it tomorrow morning. This thing probably hasn't been washed since some time in 2015.
 
#33 ·
That reminds me.........I really should get of SS and clean off a CF card.......
 
#39 ·
I think we can figure something out.
 
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