I'm looking for some advice/tips on what could be wrong and how I can fix my car.
My dad has been driving the S70 since we bought it new, although I drove it here and there while in high school. He's now driving a different car and I get to drive the S70. Immediately I noticed that there was a significant loss of power. I asked my dad about it and he said he thought it felt a little slower. However since he doesn't drive it hard he might not notice it much. A few years back we had a bent connecting rod that supposedly was due to over-revving, I however was off at college when the work was done and don't have much more information on it than that (I'll try to find the service papers and stuff). So when it came back from the dealer after this repair it didn't seem to have as much power, my dad took it back and complained of a loss of power, they looked at it and gave it back later saying nothing was wrong with the car.
My '99 S70 non-turbo 5speed has lost a VERY significant amount of power (maybe 40% loss?). We all know that the non-turbos are kinda sluggish to begin with, but right now it's just appalling how slow it is. Apparently it has been like this for roughly 2 1/2 to 3 years, but I just recently started driving it again. I'm at a loss as to what to do. The car seems to have more of a snarl (sounds like on the intake side) to it than before, but having such a long time in between driving it that could just be me. There are no codes on the OBDII, I checked the air box and intake ducting for any kind of obstruction and didn't see any. I'm planning to check/clean the throttle body this week when I have some time. I've read a couple other posts on this forum and am thinking I should also check the vacuum lines, anyone got a diagram of the vacuum system or anything?
Just to give you some hard numbers, I ran a very unofficial 0-60 last night. The time was 15.5 sec. I could have gotten it faster had I been more aggressive with the clutch at launch and stuff, but still I don't think I could have gotten under 14. When I was in high school I did a similar test on the car and I *think* it was in the range of 9-10 seconds. Also another thing is top speed, I was on an open road a little bit ago and went for top speed, after having the car floored in 4th gear for about 30-40 seconds I topped out at 110...in high school I took it to 115 and it still had a fair amount of pull.
The power band seems to be: not much torque below 2500rpm, decent power between 3500 and 4000rpm, above 4000 when it should start to pick up it is....thinking of a good word....uninspiring? lackluster? anyhow there is basically no more power above 4000 than there is between 2500 and 3000.

hmmm, not sure what else to tell you guys, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Is the clutch slipping at all?
Usual suspects for power loss are spark plugs/wires, distributor cap, rotor, and clogged fuel injectors.

 

No, the clutch isn't slipping...
Just had one ignition coil replaced, service people didn't mention anything else about that system, so I assumed it was fine. Might be a good idea for me to check the plugs...

 

Also check the fuel filter,the plugs,wires,air filter.

And the all main important thing of all the timing.
If they had it apart they might have it a tooth or 2 off.

 

Hmmm, timing...that actually sounds very possible. How difficult is it to check and possibly fix that? In other words, if I take it to my mechanic how much are they likely to charge me? I would have thought something like that would set off some sort of code...but I don't know how that thing works all that well.
Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll be calling the mechanic to see how soon I can get that checked out, and I'll be sure to post results.

 

Not sure how much they would charge you but you can look at it your self if you have worked with cars before.

http://www.babcox.com/editorial/ic/ic60326.htm

This site will give you some idea on how to check it.

 

Well I got home tonight and looked through the service records for the car. There was no break of the connecting rod, it was the bearing that went out due to poor lubrication (we'd been having trouble with oil for the months prior), service was performed in may 2003. 2 months after we had that service done the car was taken back to the dealership due to "lack of power." Dealer replaced: Throttle Body, Gasket, ETM reprogram and gave the car back "fixed." Needless to say it didn't fix the problem. These services were at approx. 53k and 54k miles, respectively. At the 60k mile service (jan 04) we had a bunch of stuff replaced such as the fuel filter, plugs, air filter, and a bunch of other stuff that goes along with that tune-up. The car now has 75k miles on it. COnsidering all these things have been replaced fairly recently I am even more inclined to think it is the timing belt, my only suspision is that it doesn't seem like it'd make that huge of a difference (then again, what do I know....). But considering the fact that it was something that happened immediately, not over time, and it (most likely) was caused by something the dealership did while it was replacing that rod bearing, I am inclined to think it is the timing belt.
As for performing this myself...we'll see how I feel tomorrow. Although I would consider myself mechanically inclined I don't have experience working on cars, and don't wanna screw things up. I'll call the repair shop (not dealer) tomorrow morning and see how much it would cost for them to do it, if it's not bad I'll just have them do it, otherwise I might make it a sunday project.
Tech, thanks again for all your help and advice, I'll be sure to keep you up to date on it.

 

If you have any quiestions along the way feel free to ask.

 

Ok, now I'm thoroughly confused...I was too busy this past weekend to change the timing belt and I wasn't sure whether it was the hydraulic or mechanical tensioner. Last night I take the cover off to find out which belt and tensioner I need to buy (mechanical by the way) and while I have it off decide to look at the timing marks on the camshafts. What I found just doesn't make sense...if you look at the picture below you'll see that the marks are almost lined up in the same position, suggesting that they should be in sync when both marks are vertical. However in the tutorials that I read (http://www.volvospeed.com/volvo_performance.php) about changing the timing belt it shows the marks lining up with the top cover (which happens to be missing). There are two possibilities that I can think of for how it got this way: either the timing is soooo far off that it's almost back to being right (doubtful), or for some odd reason when they had my engine apart they took off the intake camshaft timing gear and when they put it back on they turned it 120 deg clockwise (slightly less doubtful). Either way something very fishy is going on and I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm planning to take it to an indy volvo shop and see what they think there cause as it is I'm a bit scared to change it by such a large amount, however I'd be interested to hear what you have to say tech (or anyone else that can make sense of this).
On the picture I made the timing marks more obvious by highlighting them white.

[IMG]local://upfiles/2578/C0B96690DDA84E6BA35C493B7E300414.jpg[/IMG]

 

Is there anyway you can take a better picture?
Also take a picture of the tensioner if you can so I can make sure which one you have.

I modified your picture.The blue arrow is one of the timing marks. I can't see the other timing mark.

The red arrows are about where the marks should be to match the cover.

You also have to match the one up on the crank.But you need the top cover in order to get it on time.

[IMG]local://upfiles/853/3ECC7B3DEA0749C8841B297DD39CAB29.jpg[/IMG]

 

Alright, here's the other pictures I took but didn't post before, they're too big of files to post full size so I'll rescale them but leave them unmodified other than size.
However, I took it to the mechanic this morning because I decided it was weird enough that I didnt' want to mess with it and then have some catastrophic damage.
[sm=smiley24.gif] Here's to hoping everything turns out right and this solves my problem...

[IMG]local://upfiles/2578/D244FE31967F4599A187CDE998DF2BB7.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/2578/12AEB76E1218445DB04564D53D1589F8.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/2578/C7FC7C0BC5F547EDAA78F8BE81E3A784.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/2578/659C07CC6232407FA13D4023B4C86A81.jpg[/IMG]

 

Let me know how it goes.For the record here is the timing marks.

[IMG]local://upfiles/853/0600FC725C50427EB9C1E0D3877AAEC8.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/853/39EE2BB8549D4EF2A592DDE5A1FBB3CE.jpg[/IMG]

 

Got the car back...still the same ole slow car. Thankfully it was a justified maintenance and not just me chasing the lost ponies...I haven't opened it up yet to see where the timing marks are at now, but according to the repair shop it is timed correctly.

 

HMMMMMM something still sounds fishy.

Let me brain storm for a little.

 

i cant figure out how to start a thread.98 s70 t5 has engine issues, the symptoms are clear and im mechanical but im at a loss. help with thread and maybe car plz thanks.

 

Good God man - you can find a 7 year old thread and can't find the "New Thread" button or info on starting a new thread?
Button is halfway down left side of screen on main thread page. Pretty self explanatory after that, or you can always go to the FAQ page.

Hmmmmmm, wonder what the OP's problem turned out to be?