Hi all... been a member for a while but first post in a long time.

My daughter had an unfortunate mishap with my '94 940 wagon... no one hurt! ... but the car was toast afterward.

So I found a very nice '96 960 wagon, and bought it. It has almost 200K, but is clean and rust free. All maintenance and repairs done at Volvo dealers, with all work orders/receipts in hand. It lived in a garage (here in Maine), Wow.

So - it had timing belt at 70K and 140K, time to do it again soon. I see no record of any idler or hydraulic tensioner, nor any water pumps. Is it smart of me to do all that at once? Also, the serpentine belt has some cracks.

It's had two starters replaced but no alternators. Should I be looking for trouble there in the near future? Right now it charges nicely at 13.8 v. with a resting battery voltage of 12.6v, 24 hr after last running. It cranks and starts easily and quietly.

Also, no record of any exhaust work. It is not loud but I wonder.

Any other words of wisdom from you kind folks here on the forums? Thanks....

David

 

Hi David. I'm new to an S90 and our engines should be similar.

About how much money to spend on your timing belt service - I think the best course is to inspect before buying parts.

The timing belt cover comes off by removing the screw in the middle and pulling the cover straight up. Here you can inspect the belt condition and check for leaks.

Look at the belt in several places where it is bent "outside" like a camshaft pulley and "inside" like the idler or tensioner pulley, and search for cracks. There should be no contamination from oil or water on the belt.

To inspect the pulleys and water pump, the tensioner will have to be removed. It looks like this can be done without much trouble if you have some tools to compress the tensioner. I think that if the crank is turned to TDC and the tensioner released, you'll be able to get your (clean) hands on all of the pulleys to check them for smooth rotation and absence of play. Hopefully, someone with more experience than me will talk about whether this is a good idea.

It is also possible to run the engine with the timing cover off. You may be able to carefully use a mechanics stethoscope to identify noisy rollers. I have noticed in the past when changing timing and serpentine rollers on other cars, that a lot of noise went away with the old parts.

 

VDonkey thanks foryour reply.

I wonder if you can run 960 engine with the timing cover off. Anyone?

 

I saw rspi do it in his timing cover videos.

Be very very very careful touching anything near here with the engine running. Lots of light, go slow, etc.

 

I ran it without the timing cover today, after a good visual inspection. Rollers and pump sounded nice and quiet, no leaks of any kind... but it has been 62K since the last one. I ordered parts today and will do the belts and rollers before really cold weather.

I didn't see any oil leak on the hydraulic tensioner so I'm not going to replace it.

That RSPI video is great. Thanks man.

David

 

Glad you guys found the video. I usually have all parts on deck when I do a timing belt job. I usually do not replace the water pump unless it is leaking or more than 10 years old.

When you do the belt you can inspect the parts better or just replace them.

The 960 that I had was my favorite car of all time. I drove that thing HARD and never had an issue with it.