My '05 V70

[Arquemann]

Well well well, today was inspection day and as expected, everything went swimmingly.
- Rear jacking points are rotten
- Steering rack has play
- Front strut tops are shot

Passed with no faults or advisories

Among other news, the price of biogas has risen ridiculously lately and at the current pricing it's pretty much a wash to drive on gas vs petrol. Since gas-powered vehicles are subject to an extra tax, this piece of shit went from quite economical to being more expensive to drive than a regular petrol version and is now impossible to sell. Putting more work and money into this is now extra motivating as the resale value is basically in the negatives now, unless I part it out.
Prolly going to take it off the road for the summer and just drive the MGM so I'm not paying road tax and insurance for both.
The one fucking time I buy a car with economy in mind, I end up getting ratfucked even worse than I could have ever imagined...

[Arquemann]

The Volvo's services are required soon, so I thought I'd wake her up from the two and a half month nap after I unceremoniously parked her halfway in a ditch.
Dunno what I was expecting, but she fired up like it was shut off yesterday, I ran the engine up to temp and drove up and down the street a couple times to knock the rust off the brakes.
Did a quick fluid check, cleaned up all the leaves and tree debris off the cowl area.

Gonna keep the Volvo till next spring atleast, then I'll decide if I want to keep the car or get something else. The CNG situation will affect it too.

Even if CNG isn't financially useful anymore, it still has some benefits.
This oil is about a year old and has about 6k KMs on it, plus being a 300k KM engine:


(car was on an incline, it's not overfilled)

[Arquemann]

Parents' Mercedes still doesn't have a hitch nor has anyone done jack shit to make anything happen in that regard, so the poor Volvo has been the valiant workhorse and then sit for weeks, repeatedly.

Today I did give her some attention in the form of a new blower motor. Old one made horrendous screeching noises which got worse then the weather got colder.
Doing the blower motor is a shitty job on these mk2 V70's, it's tucked up nicely under the dash and close to the firewall. Even the carpet needs to be lifted out of the way to have enough space for a tool. Whole job takes 2 tools: a T25 screwdriver and a T25 L-key. And small hands (smaller than even mine).

Initially I was going to be a cheapass and just replace the bearings on the original blower motor, but these just use brass bushings of some non-standard size as journal bearings.
And if I'm gonna buy a new blower, I don't want the cheapest one as they're usually much louder than a quality one. So I got a midrange Magneti Marelli unit, which still kinda loud...

I tried to remove the salad spinner off the old motor for recycling purposes, while whacking it with a mallet, a lot of crud came out.
All of this super fine dust came out of the electric motor itself... Car has definitely done a lot of gravel roads!



Other things to do:
- Still gotta figure out what's wrong with the heated mirrors, which I had kinda forgotten about as I haven't needed them.
- I've decided that the rusty jacking points are a next year things.
- I want better high beams, still leaning towards getting illegal LED bulbs instead of aux lights.

[Arquemann]

Since the MGM is in winter storage again, the Volvo is getting all the action. Several dump runs, another sofa move or 5 peeps and a weekends worth of bbq and beer. Volvo does Volvo things.

She got a vacuuming, a dusting and a thorough wash, a bit overdue as the last one was like 8 months ago
After the wash I applied a synthetic sealant on the paint and head/taillights. Used the same Koch stuff I put on the MGM earlier this year. It's so much easier and faster than any sort of waxing and even though it doesn't quite add as much shine or depth as a good wax, it doesn't matter with paint this crappy.

Both side mirrors got new glass, as the heating elements have failed. The new ones should be working, I did have voltage to them. They don't seem to be drying water off them like some other cars I've had, but winter and frost will tell.

Also ordered a pair of LED H9s for the high beams. High-power stuff, but CE-marked, so not complete chinesium atleast, I'm not that irresponsible. Who knows when they'll arrive, I ordered them from a french company and La Poste sure as shit doesn't know when they'll get delivered.


That'll probably be the last wash for the next 5-6 months, so she better be happy about it

[Arquemann]

Winter tires are on, interior heater is set up back in the car, snow brush and ice scraper at hand, door seals moisturised. Driver side mirror heating is still not working...

LED bulbs came earlier this week, got them installed and today I got to try them out in the pitch black darkness of 6pm.
I don't think they are quite the advertised 10k lumens, but they sure beat the standard halogens by a lot. Beam pattern is good, light output to the sides is much better, which is exactly what I wanted. These were 100€ shipped, I don't think I could've gotten a proper aux high beams / light bar for that kinda money, didn't want to mount extra stuff on the front anyways.



These were basically the only high-power ones I could find that didn't have a large bulky base on the bulb or external drivers. Even these were a tight fit in the headlights, the connector is just slightly further back than on the standard halogen bulb. Funky looking things, but atleast they don't look like 00's gaming PCs like a lot of the chinesium stuff.

[Arquemann]

Volvo is being a little brat!

Usually when I'm thinking about selling a car, said car starts giving me trouble, but not this one... I've gotten kinda fed up trying to find something to replace the Volvo, and thinking more and more about keeping her for longer. Thinking about giving the Volvo some attention and little fixes, and that's when the car starts acting up?

On saturday the key fob decided not to work at all, which is when I found out the lock cylinder on the driver's door is completely stuck. A bunch of deicer, lube and fiddlefuckering later, there's zero movement, almost as if the keyhole is fake.
I got distracted and managed to fumble the key battery swap by accidentally put the old battery back in. And for some fucking reason the fob worked again, with the old battery...

Yesterday we took the Volvo for groceries since parents' car is in the shop. I was scraping ice off the windows while the Volvo was idling away. I think it was about to switch from petrol to CNG and the engine just died. Fired up again after an uncomfortably long crank and switched normally to CNG shortly after. After grocery shopping, I got another long crank. Every startup after that has been normal. Other than yesterday I haven't had a single long crank in months.

Aaaand today the driver's door didn't want to open. Press unlock on the fob, ca-chunk, everything seems normal, little buttons pop up, but the handle does nothing. And neither did the interior handle... Fuck me sideways.
Haven't felt this clumsy and unwieldy in a long time as dragging my arse and big winter boots over the center console.

Even though this door handle failure seemed entirely mechanical, as if a lock rod fell off etc. but it apparently was due to an "Upper Electronic Module" losing it's shit. I unhooked the battery for half an hour and now the handles work normally again.

[Tynnerstroem]

The thing I like about our old vehicles is that for all of their annoying faults, they’re usually logical. Since they’re so mechanical you can always usually troubleshoot it fairly easily but when you get these gremlins man that’s when anxiety creeps in. Still there’s comfort in the fact that the color is so damn handsome on this car. Do you hand wash it in the winter or do you use those automatic car washes?

[Arquemann]

The thing I like about our old vehicles is that for all of their annoying faults, they’re usually logical. Since they’re so mechanical you can always usually troubleshoot it fairly easily but when you get these gremlins man that’s when anxiety creeps in. Still there’s comfort in the fact that the color is so damn handsome on this car. Do you hand wash it in the winter or do you use those automatic car washes?

This is the second-newest vehicle I've owned and it's also the one with the most electrical problems I've had. Can't even trust a Volvo anymore?? It must be the Ford stuff that's mixed into these newer Volvos...

Haven't washed the Volvo since November and probably won't until it's warm enough for a hand wash outside. I dislike automatic washes enough to not use them (also the undercarriage sprays are completely useless) and hand washing is miserable to do. I do have access to a friend's shop where I could wash it inside, but I just can't be arsed to go there.
The Volvo has 300k KMs on it, it's been rust-proofed a few times, it's a bit crusty everywhere, it's not gonna get much worse from the little driving I do. This winter has been great as far as road salt goes, as it's been consistently well below freezing so they're not spreading salt on the roads constantly and any salt already there isn't wet or splashy.

[Arquemann]

Inspection is coming up next month, so I should do something about the rusty rear jack points / control arm mounts that the inspector warned about last year.
Now I find out that the left side mount is a bit different on the BiFuel models compared to every other model. OEM part is discontinued and nobody else makes it...
So, to try and weld the old one back into good shape or chop the extra gubbins off it and weld them to a new mount?

Oh and due to the shitshow in the Middle East the price of fuel has shot up again, so driving on biogas is somewhat cheaper than petrol again

[sly]

Inspection is coming up next month, so I should do something about the rusty rear jack points / control arm mounts that the inspector warned about last year.
Now I find out that the left side mount is a bit different on the BiFuel models compared to every other model. OEM part is discontinued and nobody else makes it...
So, to try and weld the old one back into good shape or chop the extra gubbins off it and weld them to a new mount?

Oh and due to the shitshow in the Middle East the price of fuel has shot up again, so driving on biogas is somewhat cheaper than petrol again

Good luck with that. I'm thankful I live south of the rust belt and don't have to worry about that for the most part.

And yeah... gas shot up 50¢ overnight here and I'm sure it'll keep going up. I may dip into my reserves at home for the small yard engines if it gets stupid.

[Arquemann]

Last year's inspector was full of shit, ain't no way he would've smacked his pick through the jacking points. They do look quite crusty, but they're thick stuff and do not feel soft anywhere.
Good thing I didn't have to replace them after all, considering a lot of the brackets and bolts look like they'll only come out with a grinder. I dug out all the rocks and sand from the topside and hosed it all with cavity wax that won't do absolutely anything, but it makes me feel better. Also threw on a large washer on the corner of a heatshield that had broken off.

Then changed the spark plugs, they were last done twenty-something thousand km ago and the replacement interval for CNG use is 30k. Also I've had occasional misfires at idle. I took out fine looking Denso Iridiums and put in OEM Volvo triple tips. Volvo used to recommend iridium plugs for CNG/LPG use but now just offers the same plugs for all B5244 N/A models.
Old plugs were alarmingly loose, probably could've loosened them with just the socket extension if I had good gloves on They did seal though.

Inspection is coming on the 7th, after that I'll assess if I need or want to put more money into this pile. Slowly leaning more and more towards keeping the car. Summer tires are old and quite worn, ac compressor leaks, there's play in the steering, front shocks are crap, and the unending fight against squeaks and rattles.

[Arquemann]

The wipers had gotten squeaky over the winter, so now that the ice season is over I got new blades.
They did not fix the squeak...

After some fiddlefuckery and confusion, it would appear that the driver's side wiper pivot bushing etc. has given up. Of course it's not a repairable design and I can't spray any lube in there with the cowl panel on either. Guess I'll remove the cowl and poke around in there. A chinesium wiper linkage would be about 60€, which is cheaper than most used parts.

Also I'm not sure if the new plugs did anything at all, or if they even had a negative effect. The occasional misfire at idle hasn't disappeared, either it idles perfectly, or its slightly worse than before. And the throttle feels less "crisp" and as if I have less torque (this may be placebo). Supposedly it doesn't matter if you have iridium plugs or not in CNG use, but would make sense that the single electrode would give a better and more accurate spark than a triple tip. Especially considering that CNG burns slower than petrol. Can't say about fuel mileage yet.

[friskyfrankie]

The wipers had gotten squeaky over the winter, so now that the ice season is over I got new blades.
They did not fix the squeak...

After some fiddlefuckery and confusion, it would appear that the driver's side wiper pivot bushing etc. has given up. Of course it's not a repairable design and I can't spray any lube in there with the cowl panel on either. Guess I'll remove the cowl and poke around in there. A chinesium wiper linkage would be about 60€, which is cheaper than most used parts.

Also I'm not sure if the new plugs did anything at all, or if they even had a negative effect. The occasional misfire at idle hasn't disappeared, either it idles perfectly, or its slightly worse than before. And the throttle feels less "crisp" and as if I have less torque (this may be placebo). Supposedly it doesn't matter if you have iridium plugs or not in CNG use, but would make sense that the single electrode would give a better and more accurate spark than a triple tip. Especially considering that CNG burns slower than petrol. Can't say about fuel mileage yet.

Have you tried OEM spark plugs? Not sure what you are using, hence the question.

[Arquemann]

Have you tried OEM spark plugs? Not sure what you are using, hence the question.

Yeah they are OEM, mentioned it in the previous post. Volvo used to have OEM iridium plugs for CNG use, but they dropped the iridium recommendation and now offer the same basic OEM plugs for all naturally aspirated models.

[Arquemann]

Got the cowl off, driver's side wiper pivot is indeed wallered out a bit, lubed it and a couple other bits with PTFE spray and worked it in there as well as I could and slapped the stuff back together. Didn't seem to be squeaking on the couple test wipes. Maybe it'll last a week, maybe four, maybe it'll squeak after tomorrows rain.
When it starts squeaking again I'll order the chinesium wiper linkage. OEM is readily available but its 5x the price.

After fruitlessly swapping the blades, I thought the squeak would be coming from the pass. side pivot. It has a cool feature of the pivot grommet not fitting in its place, as the cowl panel is resting on the pivot arm that's below it and it always pops off. The grommet not staying in place means any water can run straight down the pivot and it's bushing. It's either caused by the cowl panel being bowed down from age or whatever, or the wiper linkage is bent. Fun!