Just picked up this 01 v70 with 123k on the clock. Drives great, shifts just fine but today I took it out for errands and notice the temp needle just past half way. Stopped to go to the store and on the next short trip it hit 3/4 on the temp gauge. Let it sit while shopping for 30 minutes or so and drove home with the heat on and the gauge was dead nuts middle.

Let it run in on the drive way with the A/C cranked and the temp gauge was just pass 1/2.

Oil looks clean, don’t smell any coolant in the engine bay or in the exhaust. Oil looks clean as well. I’ve only had it 2 days so I can’t say much more about the history. Planning a coolant pressure test and maybe a leak down test before replacing the standard tstat, cap and coolant flush.

Also has a turbo sensor A code but it passed emissions with flying colors. P0237 code maybe?

 

In no particular order:
Make sure the aux fan turns on with the AC.
How does the coolant look? No wastefulness in changing 19 year old coolant for new but if the stuff is filthy cleaning the radiator is a must.
Also consider spray washing the radiator from behind. I've been surprised by how much plain dirt there can be.
Changing the cap and stat? ...then do the coolant temperature sensor too.

 

Thanks so much for the reply. The coolant looks good but that's only what's in the res and it's just above the full line which leads me to believe it was topped off recently.
It's good to hear someone else mention flushing the coolant before the tstat and cap. I drove the car for 45 minutes in stop and go traffic this afternoon (80 degrees outside) without
the heat or ac on and the temp gauge stayed right on center.
Any tips on blasting out the radiator? I've never worked on a pressurized system like this before so I'm used to just disconnecting the hoses and flushing it with the hose before rinsing
it with distilled water and refilling. Sounds like this system has a few more nooks and cranny's to try and get a complete flush

 

Use any commercially available cleaner. My friends system was completely neglected. We followed the directions on one can of cleaner. Then, after the rinse water was pretty clear, we did it again with a different cleaner. We got more dirt out.

Also, the pros swear by citric acid cleaner. You can buy it as a product or plain bulk citric acid.

It's a powder and it's apparently a food grade (or very near) ingredient.