Hey guys, I'm a new owner of a 2002 S60 2.4T AWD.

It look like the timing belt was never changed... I went to a local dealer, got a belt and I removed all the timing covers yesterday and tried lining up the marks like the instructions.. I found the mark on the bit between the pulley and vibration damper but I couldn't find a mark on the engine block/oil pump to line it up with.. it looked more like a protruding bit of metal crudely represented here /___| with no obvious marks on it and some nearby bolt, with the marks on the camshafts lined up the mark on the crankshaft is somewhere in the middle of that metal thing. the guides that I've seen dont show this part of the engine in enough detail and was wondering if anyone had any experience with this and its the reason why im making this post, but I will continue on with some other stuff.

I've noticed the engine is pinging at near half throttle and concerned the timing may be off a little? (belt stretched?) It may just be bad gas.. i usually run 93 octane in my other car and it never pings, but this car still has gas in it from the previous owner so i will have to find out later.

So anyway onto some other details about the car what i've learned so far and what I need to fix.

I got it around 2 weeks ago with 145k on it and a broken rear-diff and I paid $2500 for it...seemed like a deal at the time since it ran smooth and ac worked and was priced well below fair market value.

I bought the car broken rear differential (case cracked pinion gear shredded) and replaced it myself with a junk yard part I got for $350 shipped to my door... seems like a really nice car now that its driveable.. it does shift hard into drive sometimes but i've got ATF from the dealer and plan on doing a drain and fill soon, didnt notice any problems shifting from 2nd to 3rd though and all the gears shift smoothly (a lot better than my other car; 95 mitsubishi galant).


Another thing is the driver power seat work intermittently... anyone else ever experience this? I checked the fuses in the car and they're all fine.

I've probably put $1000 dollars into this car already and I'm concerned things will start failing and it will become a money pit... normally I wouldn't buy a car with so many miles and the previous owner kind of neglected it, but I hope to change that.

I've just ordered a bunch of other parts tonight that I'm going to replace... front sway bar links (theyre banging around), top engine torque bushing from ipd (its busted), fuel filter, spark plugs (volvo / Bosch ).. oe headlight wipers (theyre falling apart)

I'm also thinking to order two whole font control arms since the front wheels moved quite a bit when kicked, can also feel a lot of torque steer.

I would have thought twice about buying this car were I able to properly test drive it at speed, but it seemed like a much better car than what I currently own ( 140k on it and a lot of things just dont work) .

Hope someone can help me with some of these issues, or maybe share their experiences, thanks in advance.

I've attached a picture of the car before I put in the rear diff/carrier assembly.


EDIT found a better picture thanks anyway!

 

OK, so you got the timing belt mark figured out then?

Wait until you get your own gas before you start worrying about the pinging. These cars (expecially the turbo models) should run premium gas. The timing should be able compensate for poor quality fuel to some extent, but if the belt is stretched, who knows.

I'm not sure why the power seat would work intermittently, but if the fuse is good, I would suspect that it's the switches themselves.

The main thing that worries me is the torque steer that you mention. Being an AWD model, you shouldn't feel much torque steer at all if the AWD is actually working. I have the exact same model '02 S60 AWD w/ 2.4T and get absolutely NO torque steer on hard acceleration, even from a stop. Recently though, but ABS controller is going bad and the AWD has stopped working. I notice that since the ABS stopped working, even though I have an entirely new front end suspension on the vehicle, I still get some pretty harsh torque steer.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your project!

 

One more thing. If you're creative on the internet, you can download a program called VADIS that will have all the service information, procedures, specs, etc. that you'll ever need for this vehicle.

 

that is another thing, how do you know if the AWD is working? I figured Id have to wait for some snow or do some donuts over the neighbors lawn (not really ).


Something did seem different about the new carrier assembly compared to the old one. if i jack up one of the rear wheels, it spins freely in park... not sure how its suppose to work, but the junk yard told me the new assembly only had 47k on it and it seems really quiet when driving so it must be working? the old one so so badly damaged the car was undriveable (driveshaft was binding up followed by loud banging), i had to get the car flatbedded to my house.


anyway i just took off my timing cover again and I'm going to try to take off the harmonic balancer today... im hoping I can better see the marks with that out of the way because something doesnt seem to match up with those pictures and I cant tell if im seeing the mark or not..

the crankshaft bolt is 30mm correct? gotta go buy that socket and possible an impact wrench or somehow fabricate a counterhold...


about the torque steer, the bushing on the front control arm are pretty worn, I can clearly see it has separated from the sleeve on the driver side so replacing those should help a lot i think.. just a bit pricey and im not looking forward to detaching the ball joint or going to a dealer to have them press it out, the car also needs an alignment, the front tires were wearing on the inside... im just anxious and tired of waiting for parts to get this thing road worthy.. my other car has about the same mileage and never had any alignment issues or bushing problems, so you can imagine im a bit weary.

thanks for your answer.. i'll update my progress but there probably wont be much till mid next week

 

Yeah, I think they're supposed to spin free when in park. I'm not sure what the best way is to tell if the AWD is working, but I can tell you one thing... I have NEVER been able to spin the tires in my car until the AWD stopped working. Now, when turning and accelerating from a stop, it's almost difficult to make sure the tires don't spin. So, give it a shot. If your'e front tires spin while turning from a stop, then your AWD is almost certainly not working, if not then you're golden.

I recently did the timing belt on mine too (130K miles) and I didn't take the balancer off. I was able to see the timing marks though. If you don't remove the balancer, you'll have to remove a small plastic guard that is on the under side of the balancer (bolted to the block w/ two 10mm bolts) to allow the belt to be slid in and out.

 

okay cool, i'll have to take a look at that guard...

 

I don't know much about suspension work / parts, so I won't be much help there. I've never heard of FEQ, but that doesn't mean much coming from me. I know a lot of guys on this board will direct you to IPD or FCP Groton for Volvo parts. I've had good experiences with FCP Groton. I haven't dealt with IPD yet.

 

hey man, the timing belt is installed and all set, i checked the bearing in the idler and tensioner everything seemed good, just the belt was starting to show signs of dry rot/cracking and couldve failed at any moment.


thanks for all the tips they really helped.. i just removed that little cover like you said and it was a piece of cake, I think the timing may have been off a tooth? once the belt was off it was easy to see where the crankshaft was supposed to be.. got it all together and made sure the tension window was a little to the right because its almost 95 degrees today.

I also did it without removing the strut brace or the power steering reservoir.


I ordered some control arms from FCP Groton earlier (fcp brand), I found a 10% off coupon and took the free shipping option.. came to 150 even. I believe I will have everything I need for a nice road trip once everything is installed and i get an alignment


I dont want to ruin the new tires I just put on there.

Ill post here again once the rest of the stuff gets here and I get em installed.

I have a 400 mile road trip coming up for work and I dont think my old car is up for the task.

Thanks again.

 

No problem, glad I could help! It's good to hear that everything went smooth and the car is back up and running.