(My apologies if this turns into a double post. I thought I posted this last week)

An ex girlfriend has recently gifted me her 2006 Volvo XC70 wagon with 196,000 miles (should have been my first hint). The local Volvo repair facility is recommending a Bevel Gear and Sleeve replacement. The estimate is $1350. She owned the car for 6-7 years and never knew what AWD even meant let alone how to activate it. We both live around Philadelphia so my thought is I don't need to spend $1350 to have four wheel drive that I probably would never use/need. The car rides smoothly and quietly. Very solid. Is my thinking faulty? Is that estimate in line with current costs or might there be a cheaper alternative?

If we sold the car, how much should the price drop allowing for the bevel gear issue?

A minor concern (I have not really searched out yet) is the windshield washer leaks. If I fill the reservoir, it sprays fine, but drains out in a day. I was told that is about $300 to fix. Otherwise, she did spend a lot over the years at a Volvo specialists maintaining the car.

Any feedback very much appreciated.

 

the way these cars work is that its in front wheel drive to move the car, and the bevel gear is what drives the center differential. The Haldex system uses a computer controlled clutch in the center differential which engages the rear wheels when the computer senses a loss of traction. that said, you don't "
engage" four wheel drive, short of finding a wet or snowy road and hit the gas :-) Now as to the bevel gear issue - what's going on that the local repair shop recommended servicing the components? $ to fix are not more than the value of the car so its really about the math on the selling price with a known fault or selling with no faults or fixing and just keeping the car. Here's an interesting post discussing the fix - its far cheaper than replacing the bevel gear itself

https://www.swedespeed.com/threads/n...-again.164579/

For the windshield washer, sounds like you have a cracked reservoir - $300 is reasonable for parts and labor. You can price the part at Tasca Parts (dealer store) or a Volvo friendly site like FCP or IPD just to get an idea. the reservoirs are often buried in the right front corner and may not be easy to get at without removing body or trim (on my S40 I had to pull the headlight bucket to get at the washer pump...) but there may be a vid on YouTube with the how to.

 

Thanks for the details here. I will give a try this one.

 

I'm sorry, Alex, was this your post? I was hoping for a bit more feedback including on pricing and your response may have killed the interest. If you're not familiar with forums, sometimes it is best to keep quiet and just read unless you have a pressing, relevant question to add to the thread.

 

I assume your pricing question is on the angle gear collar replacement. FCP sells a repair kit for $150 and I saw a post which estimated 5 hours of shop labor. That would put you in the $800-$1000 range for the repair.