What did you do to your 850/X70 today???

[400-ascona]

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/attac...1&d=1626686606
https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/attac...1&d=1626686310

Fixed a coolant leak in the week (hose from the back of the engine to the bulkhead fitting for the heater!) and then took her to Shelsley Walsh for the day to see some Group B rally legends attack the hill.
I really do need to swap the aircon pump!

[Dutchiev70]

Changed a lot of bulbs of my 05 for leds.

[RollingThunder]

Originally Posted by 400-ascona

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/attac...1&d=1626686606
https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/attac...1&d=1626686310

Fixed a coolant leak in the week (hose from the back of the engine to the bulkhead fitting for the heater!)

Its a bit of a pain changing those isn't it! Did them on the S70 a while ago, and I should replace them on the 850R (I have the hoses) but I've been putting it off. I'll do them when I do the heater matrix replacement next year (another preventative maintenance task).

[Luxobarge]

Noticed a bit of a blow from the exhaust recently, coming from around the middle somewhere. Jacked it up and had a look, and the joint from the rear of the Cat was leaking - the steel clamp had completely rusted through and was just hanging there, I didn't have to undo it, I just pulled it off with my fingers. Cleaned up the mating surfaces with a wire brush, and fortunately I happened to have one of those clamps as a spare in the workshop so I used some gun-gum as additional sealant and bolted the new clamp on - sorted, nice and quiet again now.

Next job was front pads - advisory at the recent MoT that they were low, and on the left side they certainly were! Dirty job but really straightforward, although I had some binding on the LH side afterwards, as the piston in the caliper was now of course much further in, and was sticky. I have an infra-red temperature guage gun, which showed that the LH disk was 45 degrees hotter than the RH one after a run. I'm prepared to replace the caliper if I need to, but first I used a G-clamp to push the piston fully back, then pushed it out again by pressing the brake pedal. Repeated this about 8-10 times and now it's not sticking at all. Took it for another run and now that disk is running 7 degrees cooler than the RH one - this shows it's no longer binding at all, and the difference will be down to the pads not having bedded in equally on both sides yet, and I'm happy with that small difference anyway.

Job done - happy days!

I'll keep an eye on those brake temps to check that the caliper doesn't go sticky again, but the boots on both sides are in good nick so I suspect it'll be OK for quite a while now.

As an aside, I reckon it's good practice to put your hand on the centre of each wheel after a run from time to time and check none are running hot, as binding brakes seem to be quite common in my experience, and it's dangerous as well as a waste of fuel. Had exactly the same on my wife's BMW 330 last week, again I found working the caliper in and out sorted it for now, but we'll fit a new pair of front calipers on that when it's serviced next month as they are the originals and I can't take any risks with her car.

Cheers

[ITSv40]

On all my cars I remove the calipers and check and clean the pads etc as routine maintenance before the mot. Even after just twelve months it is surprising how mucky they get and benefit from a clean and lube. I also peel.back the piston boot and check the piston is clean and then dribble a couple of small drops of brake fluid - with a pipette - around the piston before winding back. It makes a big difference to the piston movement.

[Martin Cox]

Took the V70 Tdi for its MoT which it passed but with one 'repair as soon as possible' type defect. It was a split in the offside outer CV boot that was letting the grease out.

I didn't spot it the day before when I checked the car over or I'd have never put it in for its test in that state. Immediately after the test, there were some traces of grease on the boot but by the time I'd got home it had spread rather further.

I fancy the tester, the Master Technician at the local Volvo dealer, was being rather generous in passing the car but then encouraged me to have a go at fixing it myself.

He said "if you can fix a broken cambelt, fit new front shocks and springs and ABS reluctor rings then a CV boot shouldn't be too much of a problem for you".

I hope he's right since I now feel honour-bound to do it! So folks, any hints and tips and pitfalls to avoid?

Car is a 1998 V70 Tdi Auto and it's the right hand CV boot that's failing.

I had hoped to take the car to the Nothern BKV tomorrow but that doesn't seem too good an idea. If nothing else I can't face cleaning all the grease out of the wheel arch and it would it wouldn't be sensible to risk trashing an otherwise sound CV joint

Martin

1998 V70 Tdi Auto 228,000 miles

[ld0595]

Simple one for me - tightened the handbrake on my 850 and shampooed the boot to clear it up. Looks much better now!

Next job is to figure out why my headlight washers don't work. I just end up with a puddle on the floor

[DaveNP]

Originally Posted by Martin Cox

Took the V70 Tdi for its MoT which it passed but with one 'repair as soon as possible' type defect. It was a split in the offside outer CV boot that was letting the grease out.
...
I hope he's right since I now feel honour-bound to do it! So folks, any hints and tips and pitfalls to avoid?
...
Martin

If I were making a recommendation I'd say get a whole new CV joint and replace it all.
I used a stretchy boot (and one of their 'cone tool' ) from GSF when I did mine earlier this year. It was easy enough to fit and didn't need taking the shaft off of the car or taking apart the joint, but you still have to take the lower suspension apart and get the shaft end out of the hub though. In doing mine I brushed the rust off of the ABS reluctor ring too vigorously and ended up having to pull the thing apart again to replace that too. I had ordered a complete CV joint from from PFS/PartsForVolvo but unfortunately they were struggling to get stock into the country in the January post brexit confusion so I had to go with the stretchy boot in the timescale I had available, the whole joint would have cost about £45 and I ended up spending near £36 on the boot, tool and reluctor ring plus the time of doing it twice.

[Martin Cox]

Replaced the offside outer CV boot. Since I'd fitted new springs, dampers and ABS reluctor rings about 18 months ago, it all came apart easily and removing the driveshaft was straightforward.

I disconnected the anti-roll bar link from the damper and the track rod end from the steering knuckle and removed the steering knuckle to damper bolts and hung the brake caliper out of the way. This gave enough room to remove the driveshaft. For me this was a much easier proposition than disconnecting the lower control arm as is usually suggested.

The CV joint seemed in excellent condition but could I get the thing off the driveshaft? No and that grease gets everywhere! Its a job that's probably easy enough if you have four hands but not being so blessed it was quite obvious the joint was going nowhere and all I'd end up doing was trashing it which would have been a shame.

Part of the skill in doing a job like this is knowing when to stop before you break something so I took the shaft to our local independant Volvo garage who, for a trifling sum, removed the joint and fitted the new boot for me. I'd have been happy to reassemble it all but they offered to do it. They usually use the stretchy type of boot where all that's needed is a new boot and I can well see why. So my thanks to Chris at Voltech Motors in Hull for his help.

They also recently did a cracking job of replacing the rear brake hoses after I chickened out of doing it myself. Wisely it seems since I believe it turned out to be an absolute pig of a job. On the strength of my dealings with them so far I'd be very happy to recommend them.

Anyway it all went back together easily enough with a couple of new nuts and bolts for the damper to steering knuckle joint and a new nut on the driveshaft.

Would I do it again? Probably, although I'd probably explore the stretchy boot option if the joint was still sound.

Martin

V70 Tdi Auto

[RaelG]

Looked at it whilst putting the bin away…