New guy here. Joined last night. Happily driving my 2006 V70 2.5T. Most enjoyable car to drive I have ever owned. Bought it a couple of years ago as a one-owner 121.000 mile jewel. Switched it to Mobil 1 and faithfully fixed everything that broke, usually at the dealer. Now at 175,000 with a worn out suspension and have decided to keep it and keep on fixing it, which I may or may not regret. Shocks have been banging for a very long time now, and it bounces when you push down on the corners, but remarkably there's no wobble or sway when driving, which is a testament to the design, I suppose. As a starter ordered aftermarket front struts as a gamble - they'll either work or they won't - and KYB rear shocks, which may be somewhat less of a gamble. I found a good (I think) semi-cheap mechanic and I'll buy whatever else is worn out that he finds underneath and he'll install it. I'm now thinking about ways to improve the interior, and maybe a little bit of the exterior, although right now I'm not repainting it (it's black). It seems a little down on power and the mechanic says the intake is sucking wind here and there underneath the hood - maybe some little rubber hoses, I dunno - and he's going to fix that for cheap.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. In particular, the rubber beading on the outside corner post of the windshield and running back above the doors is rotten. Not replacing that - had a good laugh when I found out what that would cost - so I'm looking for some kind of black glossy caulk I might could squeeze onto there out of a tube and dress it up a bit.

Also, I had the transmission fluid sucked out and replaced when I bought it, 50,000 miles ago, even though the manual says don't even pull out that dipstick and check the fluid (what's up with that???) and so far so good. Wondering whether and when to do it again as maintenance.

So we will see.

TIA

 

I'd stick with Sachs for the shocks and struts - they are the OEM supplier and a good match for the factory springs. I'd also use Genuine Volvo or HD spring seats when doing the front struts. Most of the expense is in the labor - its not worth going cheap on the parts to save $20 on a $600 job. Doing the front struts is not that hard if you have a reasonable set of tools - standard spring compressors work fine. Just google for a picture of the components to see the order. Mostly you may will want new spring seats, new bolt hardware and do a new bump stop and dust boot if they are torn up.

When you do the struts/springs its a good time to inspect things like the sway bar bushings and end links. Its my experience that you will feel any play in the control arm bushings and tie rods but again inspect and replace at the same time as you will save $100 on only doing one wheel alignment.

Regarding pulling out the dipstick on the transmission - uh I think the reference was to not pull out with the engine running. If you had the tranny flushed 50K miles ago, it should be fine - I'd just spot check the color (should be a reddish brown) and make sure the level is correct (using the proper cold / warm level check procedure ). Other things to do is consider a coolant flush - drain the coolant, fill with distilled water ($.80 a gallon at Walmart) drain again then fill with vehicle correct coolant ("Euro" spec stuff not Dexcool). Next I'd do a drain fill on the power steering fluid. Buy a quart of Dex/Mercon ATF and a turkey baster. Use the baster to suck out all fluid from the reservoir then refill. Start the car, turn lock to lock 3-4 times, stop. Repeat the drain fill/turn process 3-4 times and you'll see the fluid become clear red and you are done, not tech support required. Last is a brake line flush. This should be done every 2-3 years to get any moisture out of the lines. most shops use a power bleeder to vacuum the lines or you can buy a pump that attaches to the reservoir to push fluid through.

Under the hood you should inspect all the air intake and vacuum lines. normally a torn vacuum line will result in a check engine light so things can't be too bad. I'd think that maybe your coils need replacing and fresh plugs. With that said you can also simply replace the vacuum lines by buying some bulk tubing for about $20 and cutting to fit. Anything bigger would need to be replaced by a factory part.

 

Thanks mt. (I had an uncle MT.) Good advise but its too late now for the Sachs, I already have the junk stuff on the way. It did receive mostly good reviews, so we'll see.

And thanks for the great checklist. I can do some things. I used to race TR3s and then a Super Seven back in the day (shows you about how old I am) and did my own work. Then I suffered with Porsche 944s for a number of years. Great cars to drive when working well. Devilish to work on. I think I'll hire most of the work on this one. I'm a little old for most of it. The plugs and coils are a great idea. I'm pretty sure this thing's running on its originals. I hadn't thought of those.

 

Ummm, well, that was a disaster. Do not use aftermarket strut assemblies for this. You already know how I know this, right? Very smooth roads are ok, but any kind of substandard surface feels like an old 1930s washboard dirt road. Now I don't know whether to try again with factory parts, or maybe salvage the old ones and put new factory struts in them and put them back on the car, or what. Do coil springs wear out? Get tired?

I think I'll go back to my original plan and sell this one (175,000 miles) and buy another well-maintained 2006 low mileage car - maybe with 50,000 miles on the clock. They show up every couple of months or so.

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