Buying a used v70 R
Senior Member
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 1,988
Likes: 52
From: Kingsport, TN
Mechanically, the 98 (only) is like an 850. There are good videos by Robert and sticky threads about buying the 850 and what new owners should do after they buy one. In the 850 Forum.
They are pretty reliable. The 98 is much easier to take care of than a 99 because of the simpler computers, basically. I don't have a V70R, but I do have a 98 S70 T5 manual. I have a 95 850 with 300,000 miles on it, but there's no way the T5 is going to last that long the way I am driving it.
The engines are pretty rock solid until you overheat them and blow a head gasket. Alternatively, they can die by timing belt breakage. I had one here, a 87 T5 that had one camshaft seize, breaking the timing belt. Some other folks have had them killed by a locked up water pump or one of the tensioner pulleys.
I don't know how long the transmission will last. They're pretty good, but I suppose a transmission gets a lot of abuse in a V70R.
They are pretty reliable. The 98 is much easier to take care of than a 99 because of the simpler computers, basically. I don't have a V70R, but I do have a 98 S70 T5 manual. I have a 95 850 with 300,000 miles on it, but there's no way the T5 is going to last that long the way I am driving it.
The engines are pretty rock solid until you overheat them and blow a head gasket. Alternatively, they can die by timing belt breakage. I had one here, a 87 T5 that had one camshaft seize, breaking the timing belt. Some other folks have had them killed by a locked up water pump or one of the tensioner pulleys.
I don't know how long the transmission will last. They're pretty good, but I suppose a transmission gets a lot of abuse in a V70R.
Member
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 97
Likes: 1
From: Charlotte,NC
The transmission in the '98 is fine. The old 4 speed automatics are good, tough transmissions. The 2000 5 speed V70R is the one to worry about.
Check out RobertDIY's video on pre-purchase/post-purchase things to do when buying a S70/V70/C70/850. He goes over pretty much everything you need to know. But in a nutshell...
Make sure you know when the timing belt and water pump were last changed. It should be done every 70,000 miles, and if it has been more than that or the last change is unknown, that's one of the first things you should do. Also find out when the PCV was last serviced, and perform the PCV tests. If it doesn't check out, that's also something to go on the list.
Also make sure the oil and coolant are full and the car isn't losing any of either. The 3 biggest things to kill these engines are timing belt failure, PCV being clogged and blowing out seals, which causes oil loss and eventual seizing of the motor if the leak isn't caught soon enough, and low coolant causing overheating and blowing out the head gasket and potentially warping the head and block, being that they are both aluminum.
Overall, these are very reliable cars with some of the best engines out there. Those are the only 3 things you should really keep an eye on, and compared to other cars out there, that really isn't that much! I've seen these cars with upwards of 350k miles, so they last a very long time.
Check out RobertDIY's video on pre-purchase/post-purchase things to do when buying a S70/V70/C70/850. He goes over pretty much everything you need to know. But in a nutshell...
Make sure you know when the timing belt and water pump were last changed. It should be done every 70,000 miles, and if it has been more than that or the last change is unknown, that's one of the first things you should do. Also find out when the PCV was last serviced, and perform the PCV tests. If it doesn't check out, that's also something to go on the list.
Also make sure the oil and coolant are full and the car isn't losing any of either. The 3 biggest things to kill these engines are timing belt failure, PCV being clogged and blowing out seals, which causes oil loss and eventual seizing of the motor if the leak isn't caught soon enough, and low coolant causing overheating and blowing out the head gasket and potentially warping the head and block, being that they are both aluminum.
Overall, these are very reliable cars with some of the best engines out there. Those are the only 3 things you should really keep an eye on, and compared to other cars out there, that really isn't that much! I've seen these cars with upwards of 350k miles, so they last a very long time.
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