2002 XC70, turbo, 145,000 miles.

Our XC70 is in nearly showroom condition, we are the second owner and like the previous owner my wife and I take very good care of it. When we bought the car it had brand new tires on it so of course I never really spent too much time thinking about XC70 tires. A couple days ago my wife had a flat while she was out of town for the day and and of course I was out of town with work. AAA came out and put the spare on. Here is where the story becomes dirty so to speak. I told her to just drive home the 50 miles at a gentle 40 given the space saver spare. Shortly there after she called me and said she had pulled over due to a "burning" smell. The distanced traveled was 9 miles at about 40 MPH. Long story short the tires on the car are 215/55/R16 and now after some quick research OEM is 65 not 55. A gas station mounted up a 65 and she continued home at 30 MPH for 40 miles or so with no detection of noise, smoke or smell (I asked her to be extremely alert to anything out of normal to the point of being nearly over-sensative.)

I don't have a lot of Volvo contacts so to speak so given the wide range of knowledge on he forum what are the thoughts on damage? I'm very mechanically able but not an expert by any means on AWD components. What could have been damaged in this instance. Doing some reading I see angle gear? draw out the old fluid and check it's quality or lack there of? I'm assuming damage must have been done because once you start smelling something often it's too late at that point. I guess I'm looking for a couple things here, 1) given everyone's expierence and expertise on this forum is this a fatal issue. 2) what direction should I go given that I'm not fluent in AWD, anything I should check besides angle gear fluid? 3) What fluids should I buy? I generally go through IPD on line. 4) what should my next move be besides crying?

I tried some time ago to talk my wife into a twin 1984 GMC with the 454 c.i. like mine but she wouldn't have anything to do with that idea.

Thanks everyone in advance for taking the time to point me in the best direction.

Mike

 

It is critical to use the correct size tires on this model. There are some case seals that can fail but some weepage around the external seals is normal as the vehicle ages, just check the fluid level. It's a good idea to change the fluid every 75,000 mi along with the timing belts. Change the transmission fluid every 36,000 mi and the unit will last basically forever. When you reverse the car, come to a full stop before shifting into drive and wait briefly before driving off. Shifting into forward while still rolling back causes great strain on the transmission and will cause early failure. Good luck.