Hi everyone,
Was at an auction today by my house where i had been eyeing an 01 v70 xc. The auction was down to 4 people in the room plus online bidders and the auctioner asked if one in particular I was interested in that they would pull it ahead in the line for me. He asked what can you go and I blurted $1k max so they made a quick call to the dealer it came from then came back screaming SOLD before it got to the garage for online bidding. I am guessing this is good since I was seeing some real bad shape cars going for $1500+ with online bidders barely even running. Or maybe they are laughing what a sucker, guess we find out tomorrow.
here's what I do know so far.
91,000 miles on odometer.
minimal dents and scratches and paint looks like it's in great shape still once she gets a good bath.
interior i found a small crack in speaker housing by the trunk but The seats look imaculant for leather that old but am questioning if aftermarket in the rear since I could not figure out the child boost seat in the short time I had that I seen in videos from other posts and does not appear to have backrow seating in trunk.
the car starts and has a steady smooth sounding rpm but had to be jumpstarted.
abs light is on..
A/C air did not get cold but was blowing good amd heater worked.
sunroof is inop and so is the tap lights next to the switch.
have not seen it move nor was able to myself so good chance i may have the dreaded 01 transmission issues

it has been well over a decade since i tickered on cars and have been living the work, kids, sleep rinse wash repeat lifestyle.
Today I feel like I have a new life in me and can't wait to turn this car into a fun weekend rider/ backup ride to take the family out for weekend getaway road trips and since I have no life outside my job and the wife n kids anymore I am going to post my volvo cherry popping experiences for others to enjoy or cringe at and make some friends along the journey. Have a couple pics from today but will post more once I pick it up and clean it up a bit. Lemme know what you think good, bad, or ugly and thanks for having me on this forum.

 

If you are capable of working on the car yourself, I'd say $1000-1500 is worth taking a shot at a low mileage XC even though there are several major known problem areas (Bevel gear failures are more common than the transmission, ETMs need to be rebuilt, ABS controllers fail and need to be rebuilt etc). IMHO only a bad transmission would turn this car into a parts car

 

Should be fine for most mechanical, I would say I am that gray area between a mechanic and a automotive tech so I follow flow charts and always diag before tossing parts at a problem but have also had to make some crazy bush fixes.

After doing some reading last night I think first new tool on payday is going to be picking up a more volvo friendly ob2 scanner. Was looking at getting Vida if I don't have to subscription pay or an icarsoft both sound like they have their pros n cons. Kinda amazing how many sensors feed off each other on these cars for being over 20 years old and kinda sucks for the same reason too, I can see why so many report gremlins.

 

The interior of that car is in amazing shape

 

copies of the VIDA software for the pre-2015s can be found on eBay and is useful for its documentation. Unless you want to do programming of modules etc, most of the basic OBD scanners will get the job done (I use a $30 Harbor Freight Centec) - the more expensive ones (ie $150 or so) will do things like SRS codes etc To use VIDA as a scanner you need to buy the DICE interface unit. Google around as Volvo Support does sell time based licenses (ie xx days) if you want to be legit but some of the features may be active in the gray market copies on eBay. Not sure where you'd really need to do any programming as companies like Xemodex rebuilt CEMs, ABS controllers, ETMs without changing programming so you can get your part repaired and simply reinstall.

 

I would like to add that VIDA can be really tough to get used to. It is very different than a regular OBDII scanner. If you don't plan on working on the volvo constantly, I would shoot for a regular scanner.

That being said, I have a beautiful cloned DICE unit if you end up with VIDA I also have vida but I need to see if the SSD it is on still works lol

 

Prob gonna go cheap scanner, flow charts and old tsb's would be nice but I can def wait until it is needed plus sooner I get codes read the better.
This forum has already saved me from breaking out the dvom soon as I got it home today. did a jump at the auction lot got it home which was only a half mile away, went a got a new battery inside and did the lock car set alarm trick and boom working interior lights and sunroof! also noticed blower came on soon as I hooked up negative so looking like a blower motor resistor due for some changing but ac was blowing cold, did I just score huge? That was about the only highlight then i was reminded 1k car is a 1k car. Driving it home found no power steering and a slight light smoke w slight studder on light accel, didn't think too much at the time. I dump a lil euro ps fluid after battery swap and tell the misses hop in let's go kick the cobwebs out... we made it two blocks before circling back, when I opened her up and yummie bluish greyish smoke everywhere so tasty turning around and driving through my own fog but at least it didn't taste sweet. Soon as I was in the driveway got a oil pressure warning so I killed it right away.
what threw me off was after the battery I was idling in my yard a good 20 minutes b4 we took off with a very steady 800rpm ish idle, no smoke, temp reading good and same thing after I checked all the fluids and restarted once home. Asked wife if she had a rubber glove and after looking at me like a perv says yeah and comes back out of the house with the largest damn dish glove I ever seen. After a good laugh I open the oil cap just to look and lots of sludge in there and at that point called it a day. Mon n wens is daddy day care while momma bear is in class. Tomorrow gonna test pvc, see if oil is passing through turbo and pull some plugs to inspect then go from there. One other nice thing is while I haven't been over 40mph yet shifting between drive, neutral, and reverse in the yard felt really nice and I kinda got off on opening and closing the doors over and over, can really tell that's not cheap metal on these cars.

Still no wash but gonna wait till a cool day then shine it up a lil.

Mostly clean

Hard to tell if seals are leaking or power steering fluid but some gunk on the bottom.