I am looking at getting an S70 from a mechanic friend as a work exchange. When I start the car, it has what I would describe as "lifter noise" if it were on another vehicle. It goes away when it warms up. He said it is the cam follower. The car has 156,000 and is very clean otherwise.

Any thoughts? I wouldn't buy the vehicle if I were simply purchasing given the motor noise, but this is a way to get paid on what he owes me. Thanks in advance for any comments

 

How is the oil level? Some of these cars do have ticking lifters while other are fairly quiet. My last one had a tendency to tick when it was even slight low on oil. My white one ticks pretty loud while the other two are pretty quiet, but it runs great most of the time.

 

Most likely it has bad oil pan o-rings I made a post about replacing them.

 

I found an interesting motor flush technique on another forum the other day. just google "2twisty flush" and check it out. basically you flush the motor with atf and a little oil, then drop and replace with motor oil. Sounds kinda ghetto, and I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my list of stuff to do. I'd be curious to see how it works.

 

We've seen that on here before and most of us agree that we would NEVER try something like that on our Volvo's.

 

You may also want to check the oil dipstick o-ring. It's located between the oil pan and the dipstick holder. It's pretty common (according to the dealer) for it to warp and go bad. The oil usually seeps out while driving. You have to look real hard if you're just idling. The shop I went to had me up on the lift pressing the gas, while the tech saw the oil seeping out. If your oil seems to be disappearing, this may be the answer.