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Meet my newest venture into the Volvo world. "Black Swede Steed"

12K views 131 replies 18 participants last post by  JaredR 
#1 ·
Hello all. I just picked up a car I talked about going to check out on the classifieds posts. I went back and forth about it and decided to take a gamble and either learn a lot of good things OR learn why there are not many P80 R's left on the road.

Specs...

2000 V70R, 175k miles. (How many are left at this point?)

The good: Dealer service from new in late 99 thru 2010. Lots of good details from the servicing dealer per the Carfax. I hope to be able to get more by giving them a call. 0 miles to 150k.

The bad: Car was in a hail storm and totalled out by original owners insurance policy. If you saw the photos on the Craigslist (I saved them) it's not that bad IMO.

As far as I can discover there is not any other reason why it was totalled out.

Second owner (Indy Volvo shop) purchased in May 2010 at an Insurance auction and then later that summer in July, a reconstructed title was issued.

The medium/good. After the reconstructed title the shop owner had the car in his personal fleet that currently includes some p2r and a nice p80 c70 HT. Based on receipts he gave me, in 2016 he did timing belt and water pump, brakes and tires. At the time the car had mid late 160k. After that it looks like it hadn't been driven much and he decided to sell it. Less than 1000 miles driven since June of '17. I got a good feeling about the situation but I know there may be some Gremlins hiding.

I just drove it about 100 miles home on mixed roads. Well behaved. Trans shifts buttery smooth and seemed to have a nice program.

My plan is to drive the car as I think it deserves. I have another car I can use in case I have trouble with it.

I have a local Volvo specialist scheduled to take a look at it on Friday to give me some more guidance. No specific plans other than a "Stage 0."

Looking to get some honest advice and encouragement with this project. I am basically a Volvo novice but am not afraid to tackle a project if I have the right equipment.

Any advice short of "terrible decision" is welcome. Or at least that will motivate me to prove you wrong.

Located near Reading PA (Philly) for any locals.


(Apparently I don't have permissions to attach photos and I don't remember how I did it on my last "meet me")
 
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#83 ·
Hit 179k today. Saving up for some repairs for the spring.

Wanderwagon helped me out with an oil change last week. Work has been too busy to do anything myself. He noted I had lots of sludge build up on the oil filter housing. This part also has a crack. Will replace next oil change.

Overall everything looked good, except for he thought I'm nearing a pcv service. In hindsight I should have done a glove test when I was negotiating the sale price, but testing today I would call it a "neutral" result. Glove did not inflate, slight suck down of the glove, but more floating/pulsing.

Now just need to way the "dollar to grief" ratio of how much I could learn and knuckles I'd bust vs what mechanic would charge.

Also, not sure how I didn't notice this before, but there is something funky on my passenger side inner fender. Notice the weird texture/finish next to the coolant overflow tank. Unreported accident repair? Or just odd?


Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
 
G
#84 ·
Fwiw, when i did my pcv most of the time was spent with the bajo bolt installation...its not a terribly hard job, more annoying than anything

From the sounds of it, it probably wouldn't hurt. It should suck the glove in tight once its clear. Pull your oil stick after a hard run and see if it puffs out smoke. Sounds partially clogged if it was floaty
 
#85 · (Edited)
That fender has been of the car and/or replaced. There is a weld there and it isn't always super pretty, but that doesn't look quite right to me.


Do the PCV yourself. Everything we've ever paid someone else to do has ended up being done wrong. Except my ported head; that actually looks promising.
 
#86 ·
@Wanderwagon, I can deal with annoying... just gotta remember to take my time. Far cry from the pcv valve on my first car. Tube with a check valve from the oil cap to the intake just before the carb.

@JaredR I'll have to run thru the Carfax again and see if there is anything suspicious regarding that side. I'd wonder if that's what ultimately led to my accessory bracket failure.

Definitely seems a little too messy of a weld especially compared to the other side. When I had mechanic look at the whole car, he did mention the hood was a 99. I always figured it was just replaced from the hail damage that totalled it.

Definitely adds more intrigue to the car. Good or bad hah.

Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
 
#87 ·
Been forever since I posted. Work and home has taken a priority. Rolled over 185k recently. Finally 10k since I purchased the car last September.

I thought about writing something up about my experience of my first year of ownership, but I don't really have anything to add that hasn't already been said by others in the group.

Looking at the weather report, we have some snow that could cause some problems Sunday/Monday so I decided to throw my snows on since everyone says the ZLine are wholly a 3-season tire.

Before this I had not jacked the car up. It had had it's tires on and off at shops lining up with yearly inspection and such. Happy it was easy to find safe spots to jack from.

I had been noticing a clunk from the passenger side rear that was not consistent. Discovered that the rear sway bar bushing had failed. So that will need to be fixed. Trying to figure out if I can just replace the bushing or if I need a whole rear bar.

My motivation continued and figured I would finally get around to changing plugs. 1 came out nice and clean. 2 was not cooperating and I got paranoid I was going to screw things up. Moved on to #3 and had a big sludgy mess in the hole and all over the coil boot. Again, didn't want to screw anything up...so reassembled and resigned to go visit the Indy with my driveway mechanic card ready to hand in forever.

Not totally giving up yet, figured I would go ahead and do an oil change while I was already dirty [emoji23]. Thankfully that went smoothly.

Other than that, I put on the strut tower brace from SB. Cool and simple design. Low priority compared to the other maintenance items I need done. But happy to check that off my list.

In May we also got a cat! George Michael. Pictured. That has taken focus from car stuff...

Needed to put some thoughts on digital paper.
 
#90 · (Edited)
Not the best representation, but for some "cheap" LED high beams to try out. I still need to tweak the alignment of the beam, they are both sitting about 5 degrees off. Will post more photos later.(halogen lows and then LED highs in second photo)

I ordered morimoto lows but screwed up and ordered the wrong bulb. Learned not to trust the manual or the fitment guide online.

If this is any indication of what the lows will do, I'll be ordering some for my other half for her car too.

Any luck with LED fogs? It seems like I've read the room for the fogs makes it a challenge?

 
#93 ·
Went to soak some nuts/bolts in PB blaster to take out my broken rear sway bar.

Seems easy enough if not just inconvenient wrenching room.

Looking around back there my frame rails look a little funny. Does this look reasonable to everyone or is this evidence of unreported damage.

1st pic, looks like welded on exhaust hanger using some threaded rod

2nd and 3rd looking towards front of the car forward of the exhaust hangers. Non symmetric holes and not even a little bit straight edges.
 
#98 ·
Small victory. The other day I went to try and take the sway bar out. Poor pre-planning meant I didn't get very far without PB blaster.

Fast forward to multiple sessions with PB over the past few days. Yesterday I got the "easy" passenger side out. Today since it was already broken, I cut the driver's side at the rubber mount. Good idea bad idea. Now I have the bar free but need to borrow some vicegrips to hold things in place.

Next I figure endlinks on the subframe will be a cinch since I unbolted them previously with ease. If you've done this before you know you have to loosen the endlink on the bar side to get enough movement to remove the other end from the frame.

Obviously I tried to get everything to move without doing that. In the process I got lots of debris moving. Rust, grease etc. A nice chunk fell into my eye. After thinking it would just work it's way out, I looked in a mirror and it was a lot bigger than I thought. After an "emergency eye wash" and shower I got it out. Lesson...even if you wear glasses, probably wear real safety glasses to protect yourself.

Knowing I needed to finish the job I went back out after letting PB do it's work on the end links. Luckily that was uneventful. Still kinda a pain to get the bar out.

Went on a celebratory drive "around the block." Lots of twisty back roads, elevation changes etc. Pretty immediately obvious that the bar isn't there. Felt like the back half of the car was all over the place.

New to me bar comes in tomorrow.

Tiny victory compared to what most of you do on your cars. Baby steps...
 
#100 ·
Obligatory mileage post!

186k! Going to visit the Volvo Dr this month to just knock out some stuff I have neglected. I have a few weeks to maybe muster up the motivation to take care of some of the things on my own. Winter has been kind so far, so I can't use "it's cold and I don't have a useful garage" as an excuse.

I've been toying with the idea of doing something with the exhaust as one of my tips is all banged up. I'm thinking it has to do with the mystery rear end damage sometime in its life.

I want to replace the tip, but obviously the OEM is NLA. Scottish "tipped" me off that the P1 c70 tips are a close match. $50-60 a piece. So then I thought... well if I'm gonna spend 100± on tips, what's a new exhaust cost. ~700 shipped for the Jetex/simons system that seems to be the only one worth getting. Do they go on sale a few times a year?

My other option is a local exhaust shop. They gave me a quick quote for a 2.75" cat back dual exhaust in stainless for about $400. Has anyone gone this route and liked the way it sounded? Am I likely to have drone with a system that isn't truly designed for the car?

Just thinking about my options. Spending money on exhaust is low priority. Have more important things to do on the car and in life, but still like the idea.
 
#106 ·
Quick little update. This Corona situation has drastically reduced my driving. Just rolled over 188k this week.

I have a habit of discovering more broken things as I fix others.

1) I ordered a Grom, installed it. It's nice...but now my driver's side dash and door speakers aren't working mysteriously. I'll have to pull the radio out again and see if something is getting pinched.

2) I ordered new lock pins and bezels. I had thought about getting a friend to 3d print some, but I got attracted to the ipd ones. They're nice, but now I discovered (as I'm sure we all have at some point that after 20 years the glue on door panels has failed. Both rear doors are pretty bad. Another future project. I barely open the rear doors, so not a huge priority. 2a)Discovered the tailgate lock pin does not twist off the same way, and the hole for the bezel needs to be widened slightly to accept the ipd pin. Also had a repair kit for the clips etc, replaced those, but then immediately broke them when I messed up putting it back on.

3) installed new tailgate struts. Learned quickly that one strut will not hold it up at all. Luckily I caught the door before it fully smashed my leg.
3a) my rear wiper has never worked. Determined it works with tailgate up and starts to slow about 20 degrees from closed. Think it's getting pinched in the hinge.

4) finally decided I didn't like having my lower grills missing. I have my original peices in the back of the car above the spare, but clips are cracked. Nice and easy install of new OEM grills. Eggcrate really pops now.... still need to put black bezels in my jewels.

5) I was doing some investigating of integrity of motor mounts and noticed strange wear on my ps front rotor. Full contact on outside pad, half contact on inside pad. I was gonna pull a wheel and investigate, but my driveway wasn't playing nice with my jack. I have a gravel driveway and it was a little soft from rain recently.

My accomplishments with this car are tiny and barely worth recognizing, but nonetheless it gives me joy to drive.

 
#110 ·
My accomplishments with this car are tiny and barely worth recognizing, but nonetheless it gives me joy to drive.
Uh, oh! I'm in trouble then! I just posted about cleaning and installing a floor mat, LOL. To me it just keeps track of improvements and shows pride of ownership! Drive on, sir!
 
#107 ·
"My accomplishments with this car are tiny and barely worth recognizing, but nonetheless it gives me joy to drive"

I disagree, any accomplishment is worthy of recognition !
 
#109 ·
Ordered front rotors and pads today. Rotor on passenger side is definitely not right. Surprised no one has noticed it yet. I'd never looked closely and expect it would have been something either mechanic id taken it to would have seen.

But I suppose it's not something obvious unless you pulled the rotor. It hides fairly well because of the dust shield. Tried to capture a picture. (Foreground is the dust shield for reference)

I'd guess the pad somehow isn't sitting on the right spot? Or part of the friction material is missing? Weird nonetheless.

I have an extra long weekend so maybe the parts will arrive and I can tackle it this weekend.
 
#113 ·
Subframe bushing removal - drop the subframe out. Use a sawzall with a demo blade to cut the outer plastic shell in the void between the inner and outer parts of the bushing. From the top of the subframe, hammer a prybar or large flathead screwdriver between the plastic bushing sleeve and pry down and the bushing should pop right out. This way takes 10 minutes total to remove all 4 bushings. I’ve done it on a couple of subframes and it’s super easy. Make sure you don’t cut the subframe but otherwise it’s pretty simple
 
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