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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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#99 ·
Fresh E-Codes! (Had to steal the last set for the T5 SE)



Low beams as set from the factory lol



That's a bit better.

 
#100 ·
Destroyed the bumper brackets while hauling the boat yesterday. That's with about 10 lbs of force. Guess we need some new ones.....if we care. Lol.
 
#101 ·
245k!

 
#102 · (Edited)
Got some metal on metal action on the right rear brakes! I managed to brake it loose while I was dailying this car Nov-Dec, but, thanks to how rusty the rotor was to begin with and then getting even rustier while it was being driven <100 miles/month all summer while my dad and I were both enjoying our turbo cars with functional AC, it din't take long to run out of pad once it started working again. My dad thought he'd throw new pads and rotor in there this afternoon, but then he found this nice surprise.



Yeah, we're not putting new pads in that. Time to finally put those new calipers on......except it's not looking good for the brake line coming out and nobody around here sells monel brake lines. Good thing I bought that white R lol.
 
#103 ·
Wow, never seen one that bad, looks like it was dredged up from a sunken ship. Hope you ordered one for the other side.
 
#104 ·
#105 ·
Wow!!
 
#106 ·
Wow that was sooooo much worse than my rear brakes. Those must have been definitely original to the car. I guess that's why it pays to paint your calipers!
 
#107 ·
247k!
 
#108 ·
Found a mint center console at the JY yesterday. The plastic by the console cover hinge isn't even broken.



Got the cover and glovebox trim, too.



And a pretty decent exhaust tip.



Hopefully we can go back and get the dash trim and the front passenger seat before they go away since they're also mint.
 
#110 ·
Wow completely forgot to put up the picture of the most important change that happened Thursday......went to visit ScottishBrick and picked up the Perfo that came with the T5 SE but now with Nokian WRG3 to replace the Antlia with Michelin Defender. They are a huge improvement in every way. Handling is much better, killed the soft floaty feeling, and grip is better, too. However, it was still able to break the tires loose on hard acceleration in the cold and wet conditions Thursday night while Will's S70 on the same tires could not. I'm going to throw a strut brace on soon to see if that helps.

This will also allow us to finish converting the entire P80 fleet to 302s and liquidate all the wheels that don't clear them, which should cut down on our wheel collection a bit.

 
#111 ·
Wow completely forgot to put up the picture of the most important change that happened Thursday......went to visit ScottishBrick and picked up the Perfo that came with the T5 SE but now with Nokian WRG3 to replace the Antlia with Michelin Defender. They are a huge improvement in every way. Handling is much better, killed the soft floaty feeling, and grip is better, too. However, it was still able to break the tires loose on hard acceleration in the cold and wet conditions Thursday night while Will's S70 on the same tires could not. I'm going to throw a strut brace on soon to see if that helps.
How would a strut brace solve that? I think it's just the difference between the torque generated by hpt and lpt motors.
 
#114 ·
One trim piece down, two to go.



Also installed the strut bar this afternoon. It's hard to tell much driving around the neighborhood (all the roads are covered in sand and we have a lot of really bored cops in this town who like to hang out everywhere road surface quality isn't completely abysmal) but it did feel a bit better. Couldn't break them loose from a roll and launching on sand worked better than I was expecting.

 
#116 ·
249k on the way home from ScottishBrick's place yesterday. Picked up a tan Dolby dash from him while I was there and my dad and I scored a pretty decent passenger seat and the rest of the walnut trim from the S70 at the junkyard a couple days ago so we'll have some nice improvements coming soon.

 
#117 ·
 
#119 ·
Yeah, I should have deleted that before I left in the morning :rolleyes:. Or while I was sitting in the Lowe's parking lot (I conveniently hit 250k about a half mile before a planned stop at Lowe's).
 
#121 ·
It's an NA. Don't worry about it haha.

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I like it when our shiit is working correctly lol. It also doesn't get the fuel economy that it used to. Tank average used to be around 30. These days we are doing good to be over 28.
 
#122 ·
Yeah I feel ya. I drove my s70 for over a year with the cel and ETM lights on lol. And the low coolant sensor light ha. Then I fixed it up before this winter cuz i started using it for VT trips.
I never tracked the mileage on that car. Mainly cuz it doesn't have an info switch. But I bet it's not great, especially since I put 87 octane in it 🤷🏼*♂. Fuel mileage has never been a concern of mine in any of my cars in my whole driving career though. And I don't think it will be any time soon since my next ride is a GT350R lol.


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#123 ·
Yeah I feel ya. I drove my s70 for over a year with the cel and ETM lights on lol. And the low coolant sensor light ha. Then I fixed it up before this winter cuz i started using it for VT trips.
I never tracked the mileage on that car. Mainly cuz it doesn't have an info switch. But I bet it's not great, especially since I put 87 octane in it ??*♂. Fuel mileage has never been a concern of mine in any of my cars in my whole driving career though. And I don't think it will be any time soon since my next ride is a GT350R lol.

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Oh man 87 is the worst! You way more than pay for the difference in cost with efficiency gained by running 91. We tried a couple tanks of 87 when we first got this car and abandoned that very quickly. It'll be faster on 91, too :thumbup:.
 
#124 · (Edited)
Great thread. I'm learning a lot from it.

I also have a pedestrian non-turbo green V70 wagon. Very jealous you have a manual.


I wonder what it would take to swap in an m56h into my 5 speed automatic my2000...
 
#126 ·
Nice. The 4 speed NA can't wheel spin from a dig lol. When it rains sometimes I turn the tracs off at a stop, try to hold some RPMs with the brakes on and let go and I usually spin the front for a second or two. But that's about it lol. The wagon was able to spin tires when I floored it wit the old ****ty tires but not anymore


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#128 ·
Finally getting this interior restoration back on track.

Goodbye to this trashed seat



Much better. It's almost as nice as the picture makes it look, too. Just need to find a driver's seat now. Maybe some clean carpets while we're at it.



And we got the new console with walnut trim in a few weeks ago, too. Killed all the rattles from the console cover :thumbup:. We'll pull the dash over the summer to fix the AC and put in the last piece of walnut trim after we start getting some of the turbo cars back in service for the season.



And my dad hit 251k at some point, too.

 
#131 ·
Oooh thanks I'll take you up on that!

Yes, yes. More beige. Looks super. [emoji6]
#saveTheBeige
Thanks Paul! Clean tan always looks good.
 
#132 · (Edited)
252k. Yeah out of focus I know......kinda have to take what I get from the zone focusing I set up on the SLR before I start driving. Always tough at night.

 
#133 ·
Worried about big brakes. Worried about the best tires. Takes pictures of the odometer while driving 67 at night so you can share a pic of some crusty old wagon turning 252k. You're a weird dude.
 
#134 ·
Well do you think it would be out of focus if I was actually paying attention to the camera? Took about as much effort as changing the radio station lol.
 
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