the other day.. my wife complained of a check engine light coming on. i knew this would probably happen since i just had straight pipes run and the catalysts removed. so i told her to bring it by the shop just to make sure and swap vehicles, let me scan the volvo and test drive. and sure enough , both catalysts below threshold along with an odd code that i cant find was there... so i cleared the codes and test drove home, since it was the end of the day.. noticed the car jerking and sorta sputtering, but no check engine light on.. i figured it was just the ecu readjusting itself after clearing codes and relearning things. got home. pulled in the garage and noticed what sounded like a drive belt squeak, so i figured id take some more time and investigate the noise. looked at the drive belt and it looked brand new.. started wondering what the noise could be, possible the drive belt tensioner. started noticing certain detail and bolted and ran and shut the car off. THE TIMING BELT HAD EATEN THROUGH THE COVER!!!! it had about 4 mm holding on to the top of the cam cogs!!! you could almost see the water pump and guide and tensioner...with the timing cover still on!!!! so tore down and found that my tensioner had no ball bearings at all in it, that it was spinning and holding on by a thread to the 12 mm head on the fastener that secured it. .. and to think that i was going to run it at a dyno the day before, but luckily they were too busy to get to me. started thinking about what 2 hrs and 200 bucks in parts and how it would compare to 2000 bucks in parts and at least two days of labor to install an engine. WHEEWWW.... an enormous relief. and here it is three days later and i just drove the car to taco bell.. man.. how this story coulda been so different and so sad!!! and with the two volvos that i have owned.. i have noticed that it wasnt the belt that broke, but the tensioner had been the culprit. the 960 that i own, the entire tensioner blew a hole throught the timing cover, and this one was close to it.. and yes.. i did have to do an engine swap on the 960....but anyway, i look forward to posting some dyno information on this page as well as some 1/4mile eta's.. and ill try and remember to get some picks of the timing cover and tensioner cog that could have been the death of my car..

 

Nice save there man... I dealt with that T-belt job before anything risky would happen., just around the 102,000 mile mark or so..

 

Man you bettter play the lotto you are sooooo lucky!!

 

yeah.. i know.. u wonder why things work out. mines got right at 103500. i was gonna do it around 105...i had already looked at the belt condition when i did the spark plugs abouta thousand miles ago.. so i thought i would be good because there where no stress cracks or any signs of problems...but geez....

 

I still i cannot find it in writing but I have seen it somewhere that the tensioner and idler interval is at 80k and the belt is at 105k go figure!!

 

well.. its twice that ive seen the belt do its best to hang on, while its other components that actually fail. i owe it to the belt for saving the engine in this one. thank god it wasnt a cheap advance dayco belt or something..lol.... say.. tech. i went with volvo components reinstalling all of this.. is there a stronger aftermarket component out there that you know of?

 

Not that I have seen as of yet.

 

I actually checked up to see if there were any t-belts that were stronger than the OEM, but after talking to tech about it decided to stick with the continental, i'm sure itl hold up better than the gates and dayco etc...
I trust goodyear and bando on my accord but only the best for my Volvo...


Looks like I have another problem to dodge... Tropical storm/hurrican fay is heading directly at west florida... expected to hit tampa probably on Tuesday... The complication here is that i'm not in Tampa and I left my car in the care of some friends.... I don't think they have garage space for it and It would be wrong to demand it considering that their cars should take priority...
I'm really wondering where to tell them to put the car, probably in the most open space I can think of.. and then secure the car cover over it so flying leaves etc dont get stick all over it...
Ideally I would want to leave it in one of the huge carparks on campus, but I'm not sure how well the campus police will sit with that suggestion of mine..
Any ideas of any indoor car storage services? eg public storage etc? I need to act REALLY quickly on this... i'm also considering upgrading my insurance policy on the car just for the month as a precautionary measure

Its odd, i'm from the caribbean so everyone assumes i'm accustomed to these kind of things, but Trinidad is so far south that we never really get affected by hurricanes (thank God) so this is all new to me..

 

Not really here I always leave mine in the driveway and hope for the best.

 

Well, I just found a simple, cheap , creative solution... theres a public storage place nearby to where my car is parked and they offer a 22 x 10 storage space for $24 a month on special, so I told the friend who has my s80 in his driveway that he can park mine and his there and il cover the cost... better arrangement for both of us... and I guess il just pick up the car there on Saturday when I get back to Tampa...

Also made a point of just renewing my auto insurance policy in case of anything...
I know it has nothing to do with the prior post, but is the fuel filter change on the 02 s80 a DIY job? Think I can manage that one?
Remember I had the wrong length filter (courtesy www.rockauto.com) so I think il just get the correct size from FCP and do that as soon as I get back...

 

well good luck with all your weather dodging issues. one more question tech, with my cel on will the car not hit full boost like it should? it seems as though ever since i had straight pipes installed on my volvo, the turbos spool up quicker, but the boost does not hit as hard. for a while it was at like 18 psi and now its rare that i see that, and then when it does hit 18psi it seems to bleed off and not pull as hard. i didnt know if it was like a honda vtec and not operate properly due to a check engine light on... or does it have to do with no backpressure period? youd think that would help the car.. hrm.. well.. im installing some extenders on my post cat o2 sensors that fool them into reading right.ill see if this makes the problem go away... it seems as though the problem was apparent when the check engine light came on.. so.. well see..

 

You should be able to do it. Glad you found a place to protect the car.

 

If the codes are emissions related then I do believe so that it will limit boost.