Repeat from another post, I'll try to figure out a link next time:

The coolant lines to the oil cooler are probably swollen because there is oil leaking through one of the seals that damages the rubber. The dealer "repaired" an oil leak there (in warranty) on our first S90 by basically smearing RTV on everything. I don't know where the idiots pick this up, but that is NEVER a long term fix. After the leak started again, I purchased the 3 Volvo seals, cleaned everything and put it back together with only a slight bit of oil on the seals with no leak later observed. In my other posts I've described my issues with a burned valve that resulting in getting a "new" S90 and making one good car out of parts from both. The "new" S90 had the same oil leak at the cooler, again signs of RTV, damaged coolant hoses (due to oil) and I did the same fix. The seals are 2 O-rings and one square section seal, cost is around $30 from a dealer. After fixing the oil leaks, I did not have any further issues with the coolant hoses.

In regards to performance, the S90 was smooth but not particularly quick when new. However, the "Sport" setting for the transmission does make some difference, at least in feel without having to keep the right pedal mashed. I have an old 960 road test from Road & Track and the 6 cylinder engine is slower than the 940 turbos, at something like 10+ sec to 60 vs something in the 8's. The 960 / S90 is also a bit heavier (even with the all aluminium engine), probably also somewhat due to the IRS that wasn't on the earlier 940 turbos. The turbo 4 cylinders were considered quick in their day (1980's), particularly with a manual gearbox.

The DVD is a good idea, FCP has sold them for $50 and that was much cheaper than the OEM paper manuals that went for that much per book at times. I purchased a few of the paper books in 1997, but never had the money for the full set. That said, the print function on the DVD version does degrade some of the page. Still usable, but irritating that they had to do that.

If groups of backlight lamps come on / off with bumps, you may have a cracked circuit board. Wit a little luck you might be able to solder flow the leads and fix it or solder a wire over the crack.

 

Thanks again Bob I was expecting it to be a little quicker knowing that the engine had 180 hp. 10-11 seconds to 60mph sounds close to what this car is doing, we'll time it and find out how far off we are. There is lots of torque in the low end and the car wants to cruise fast on the highway, but it does not rev up so quickly.

Will I need to disconnect the coolant lines on the oil cooler to get enough clearance to change the O-rings?

The "you pull" junkyard happened to run an ad about a sale so I went and found two 960's there. Fenders were 50% off so I got a nearly perfect right side for $27 in the same 031 black as our car. Ours is bashed in which is why we needed to replace the corner lamp. Also collected a door hinge because our door won't stay open, some interior bits because ours are cracked, and an airbox top because ours has a broken clip where it joins to the air flow meter. Getting the door hinge out was not fun and we may never attempt to replace it.

 

I would drain the coolant and remove the whole oil cooler assembly. That way it is also very easy to completely clean and reasemble everything, be sure to get any RTV off the assembly as RTV is not really very good for surfaces under significant pressure (although it can be great for many other uses). The coolant drain, part of the pipes on the side of the engine, allows you to attach a hose and cleanly capture most of any reasonably new coolant for reuse. On our "new" S90 I had just changed the oil, so I only used a new oil filter with a top-off.

The big screw that holds the oil cooler together uses a 42 mm socket, I found one at the local Sears for a reasonable price. It may take a bit of torque to remove the screw, if someone did the RTV trick and essentially glued things together. The installation torque is 30Nm / 22 ftlb, sounds low but remember that Volvo threads steel into aluminium a lot.

Finding the green Volvo book on the interior can be really helpful, I've seen a lot of cars where the various plastic interior fittings were destroyed when people trying to take them apart screwed up because they didn't know the exact order or procedure to get things apart. That said, expect to break a few things just becasue the plastic parts are no longer as flexible as they were 15 years ago.

I'm home now and the R&T 960 test had a spec of 201 HP, 0-60 MPH in 10.1 sec and the quarter in 17.4 sec. I think that was about the performance of our car new, and to be fair it hadn't seemed to change much through 100+k miles. The Volvo brochure for 1997/8 had the engine at 181 HP, but the I think that is mostly due to the net vs "stripped" engine configuration for the measurement. The R&T tests noted that the 960 had taller gears (2050 RPM at 60 MPH vs 2400 RPM) and it was 125 lbs heavier than the 940 SE turbo that also had the IRS (but 450 lbs or 15% heavier than the 940 Turbo which had a live axle!). R&T had the 940 Turbo live axle at 0-60 MPH in 8.9 sec and the quarter in 16.8 sec.

 

Bob your library brings us great news I informally counted about 10-11 seconds to get to 60 mph. So, we aren't concerned about the engine's performance. I am confused about the horsepower figure. In the European autoparts catalogs (repxpert.com) there are two engines for the S90/V90, one with 181-182 hp (usually indicated B6304FS2) and the other with 202-204 hp (usually indicated B6304G).

I found a 41 mm socket that fits on the large hex nut. "VIDA" has an oil sump replacement procedure and it reads: So I put that socket on the wrench with a torque meter, set wrench to 48 ftlbs. Wrench clicked without any movement at all and meter says I applied 72 Nm. Is my document inaccurate, or did VCC revise the procedure, or give different values for this fastener in different procedures, or did I read it wrong?

 

I'm starting to hate this forum, I was dropped while drafting an earlier reply.

Not sure about the HP numbers, a Volvo "New Car Features" for the S90/V90 notes the engine is a B6304S, with engine code 96 for US/Canada and 180 HP using a control module with new software. There was a bit of variation back in that time frame, we have a Lexus where the HP spec values went from 290 to 278, but quoted performance actually improved.

I may have been in error on the 30 Nm/22 ftlb torque number, I got it from Volvo TP 31714/2 which apparently is for the fittings / lines associated with an earlier air-oil cooler and thermostat. Therefore, your number from VIDA may be more accurate. However, I just replaced the oil cooler (actually, probably more of a heater on our cars) seals and I'm pretty sure the large screw had essentially stopped moving before I got to 30 Nm on installation, so increased torque would actually do very little.

The reference to "a new oil ring" is confusing, since there are 3 seals involved.

 

I searched VIDA for 31714 and found references to that TP! But apparently it's too old to be included. The notice about using thread seal on certain engine fasteners is one thing that references it.

I found a note on Wikipedia that said the 180 HP figure comes after a change in the camshafts to favor emissions. It looks like engine code 96 has one set of camshafts (1275129, 1275130) and engines 95,98 have another (3531901, 3531900) and also the Motoronic is different as well.

Our most frequent clunk is now gone because of the new sway bar end links. We will be trying to identify the remaining ones, and I thought I heard one from the rear today.

I filled it up to about 3/4 tank and have driven 200 miles since then, along with a bunch of idling in the driveway, and it's got almost 1/4 tank left. I think the engine is OK and we are going to change the timing belt, water pump for our own sanity.

After so many miles I think that all of the OBD2 I/M should be ready. We still have the catalyst, ho2s, evap and secondary air not ready.

I think I have heard the air pump running before. It may not have come on this morning. I heard some exhaust note under the hood, something I heard on my other car when I unplugged hoses and connectors but I don't think it's normal.

The Evap might be a nightmare, and I found everything except the carbon canister. I came home and looked on the computer, to find it is under the car somewhere. I try and pump vacuum from the purge line and it feels like free air. This might have something to do with something I noticed today - set the climate to face, drove a little, parked, and the climate went to floor+defrost. Time to read more I guess.

 

The carbon canister on the 97 cars is below the drivers side headlight, it was moved in 98 because the fuel injection was changed to non-return. I think the 98 canister is somewhere back by the fuel tank. If you have a real 98 (W in the VIN is 98 and V is 97 model year) and need more info on the location, I'll dig up the info from the parts list figures.

For the air pump, try just sucking on a line to the valve near the exhaust manifold. It should obviously move with little vacuum, I helped on of mine by simply working on it with WD-40 type stuff and repeating the sucking on the line trick. The rubber fitting between the blue tubing and the valve frequently leaks, that actually prevents the valve from operating and it then also gets gummed up. The OBD monitors seem to run in order and an early test apparently involves the air injection. The air injection should run (audible burble) whenever the engine is started cold, it generally does not run on a warm start. I've helped a couple of people with this, where fixing the air injection either allowed the remaining tests to eventually complete or to allow some codes to actually show. The later is actually not bad, because then you know at least what the engine thinks is not working!

 

I checked the air pump today, it's running so I guess the sound is normal. My other car has the air pump plumbed into the exhaust manifold, not passages in the head. When the secondary air valve is closed, it's silent, so I'm counting this as working. The secondary air selftest might not run until the evap and ho2s tests pass. The rear o2 sensor is used to provide a baseline for the front. I should smell the exhaust after a long run to prove for myself the cat is doing something.

I got my eyes on the carbon canister. For 98 they made a new bracket for the fuel filter which also holds the carbon canister which is a large rectangular box. It's under the car beneath the driver's seat. I'll have to put the car on ramps to check it out. I did see that one of the fuel filter hoses (quick release to threaded nipple) has been damaged - rubber sheathing pried off with tool marks on the plastic tubing underneath - this makes me uncomfortable so it's on the list of things to buy.

I tested that the evap purge valve holds closed, and the vent valve is normally open. Then, I removed both the purge and vent lines under the hood, tried to pump down the purge line and was expecting to get suction on the vent line. No such luck.

We found the radio in the previous owner's things so we plugged it in and it works. Five more #23 lamps went into the radio. We have the CD changer, too, but he cut the ends off the DIN cable in the car so he could splice rca style ends on to feed his amp. Grrr! I had seen this in the dash, so while I was at pick n pull I removed a back seat and rear shelf to get this wire, and they charged me $6 for it. So, we can test the cd changer and decide if we want to reinstall it. But, I heard that this interface is similar to "alpine M-bus" so there should be an ipod adapter or something similar that will plug into the radio. I'd figured we'd be pulling the seats to repair the electric drives, and the console too to clean under everything. That will be a great opportunity to replace the cd-changer wire if we decide to use it.

I think that he replaced the stereo because he didn't have the radio code. This may not have been the case several years ago, but today, Volvo Cars USA website has an instant radio code lookup by VIN. They took my address and odometer reading, so maybe they will send me a high mileage badge. I think that this car is extremely sturdy, and by comparison my other cars are extremely fragile. Haven't found a bit of rust, and if it were not for all the plastic and electronics, all of these might run forever like Irv's.

 

Today we found that the climate vacuum actuator with two connections is leaky. The leaky side is the one with the yellow hose, which closes off the defroster. This one gets sucked on in every mode except defrost and floor+defrost.

Checking these were very easy with the mityvac, except for the recirculation door which I could not get my hose on. To check this one I had to hook the mityvac under the hood and pump it up, set the ECC to defrost+face and recirc off (no vacuum to any actuator). ECC would not try to move any door unless the engine was running. Pushed the recirc button, heard the door close on the power of the vacuum I pumped out and it held.

We could not find anything on hand to block this vac line that would be guaranteed to not damage the strange fitting on the end, so my partner will have to live with floor+def instead of floor+face this winter. I will consider buying the part to have on hand, since we will eventually take the cluster out to fix the intermittent backlighting, and that will be a good opportunity to replace this thing.

When I was replacing the heater valve, I noticed that the nipples on the heater core weren't round, as if someone had crushed them with pliers. Each nipple has a good dent in the underside, and miraculously they don't leak. If the airbox is taken apart to replace this vacuum thing then the heater core is not much further behind there. I can take it out and find some kind of tumbler or mandrel to round them again, to put my ocd to rest.

 

I replaced the three rings in the oil cooler and filter adapter. We ran the car for a bit and the leak seems to be fixed. After some driving we will check again.

Fitted the "uro parts" coolant hoses to the oil cooler. They are close but not exact match. Any way I tried to arrange them they rub each other or one rubs the engine block. They are definitely useful as spares with the understanding that their lifetime will be limited. I think I need to buy the originals.

I could only get about 1.5 gallons of cooling water out of the radiator and "block drain" so refilled again with the evil Prestone. I guess this means I won't be able to rinse it completely unless I have the thermostat and water pump removed.

 

I did not have any problem with the URO oil cooler hoses, but they are close together. Volvo had several spacers to keep the hoses from rubbing, but I've seen cars where these are missing.

See attached for some info on OBD monitors, they can be a pain to get the "complete" state. In my experience, any vacuum leaks makes it very difficult to deal with the monitors.

 

Thank you for the text Bob. The trip instructions in VIDA and VADIS are not this detailed. Those tersely say to drive at 1500-2000 rpm for x minutes, then stop for y seconds, repeat several times. Looks like I am buying the DVD

I do not have the DICE or VCT2000 vehicle interfaces but I think that I can see what these versions of VADIS and VIDA would do with the ECU in this car. My VIDA has no coverage at all, but the older version may do something. VADIS is incomplete, and refers "component activation" and status reading to the handheld scantool. A project for later will be to try the older version of VIDA to see if 'vehicle communication' lights up.

So for now I am limited to the information that comes over the obd2 application. I did a datalogging run and the Catalyst I/M went ready after about 20 miles on the highway. Rear o2 sensor is always 0 and the computer does take this one into account for fuel trim (some earlier ones didn't) so this needs to be looked at - the o2 sensors don't look that old, and it looks like the p/o replaced them, but I should inspect the wiring and check that they are "Bosch", and will consider trying to swap the connectors to prove that this channel is working on the ecu itself. Also, the SAE fuel status pid changed from "closed loop with fault" to "closed loop." I am going to do some more datalogging runs to learn how these are behaving.

So, of the I/M's, O2S, HO2S, and Catalyst turned "ready" last night and I am waiting on Secondary Air and Evap. According to the text in the previous message I expect the secondary air to turn ready first.

 

Sec air turned ready and then evap went. So I got them all ready! Clearing fault codes (had a PNP error this morning) sets the ones I was waiting on back to not ready. Looks like I can replace the PNP without removing exhaust or transmission lines. I got my hand on it, felt the attaching screw and the shaft locknut, and it feels like there is plenty of room. Bonus, no oil around here.

The OBD2 "Fuel system status" bounces between CL and CL-fault, it switches back and forth quickly, possibly depending on engine load. I think that the integrator/trimmer for this sensor is acting crazy - it's jumping around to high - and + percentages - and under some condition it "made sense" to the ecu.

However the lambda regulation seems to be mostly working properly with only the front sensor, and the long term fuel trim is 2 to 5 percent as we drive the car.

The O2 sensor connectors look like they are keyed, and you can't plug the blue one into the black one. The front (working) o2s is a bosch one, may be factory original; and the rear one looks like a bosch and has the proper connector but the sensor body is unmarked. I didn't figure out how to decouple the o2 sensor connectors, it looks like a locking plug must be pried out of the side of the connector but I didn't try this.

I'll probably replace the o2 sensor but before I wrench on it I might connect it without installing it to let it heat up and see if something besides zero comes out of it. If the rear sensor is replaced then I think the front one should be too.

Today I took the fan out so that I could turn the crank and verify the engine timing. It's spot on but the timing belt might be worn: as the smooth face of the belt rides over the tensioner roller, I see some very tiny cracks at the base of the heel and toe of the driving teeth. The belt is an original volvo and I might be able to determine the manufacturing date from the numbers on the belt. Since I don't need the timing set jigs I just bought some mega-torx drivers.

I've also found the breaker bar from my 3/4 inch drive socket set fits on the accessory belt tensioner. The idler roller is dry and noisy but the tensioner roller feels nice. It seemed kind of easy to push against the tensioner with my tool. The belt on there seems to have more wear on the smooth side than the ribbed side. The grooves between the ribs are not as deep as on the new belt but on my other cars the flat side of the belt does not get worn like this.

 

The rear O#2 sensor always reads zero on my OBD diagnostic PC based system and apparently on many others, Volvo did not implement it in the normal OBD format. A mechanic with the Volvo OBD tool indicated that he got valid readings. When the whole system is running in closed loop, you will see that the O#2 based fuel trim does vary.

If the timing belt is marked Volvo, I'd bet it is the original from 16 years ago. The 1998 S90 we just purchased had all original hoses and the timing / serpentine belts, it was low mileage and many folks just never replace stuff due to age (bad idea!!). I like the Continental replacements, just noting that the serpentine belt illustration in the owners manual is incorrect (it works only for the shorter belt used on earlier 960s).

The driving instructions were in a pdf off this site and not from the DVD (although it might be on there), it is Volvo Tech Note No. 25-19 for the 1996-98 cars. The site would not let me upload the pdf, over the tiny size that they allow.

I've had good luck with the generic Bosch repalcement ox sensors, just splicing them in near the cats. However, I note that we don't have really severe weather here and that the exhaust system on our orignal car looks nearly new at 130+k miles. It is coming off to be stored as spare parts.

I think some of the sites just sell the roller for the serpentine belt tensioner. The fixed idler pulley that I bought wasn't an exact match and I had to cut a hole in the cover to clear the bolt.

 

Bob, so are you saying that you just basically cut the wire for the O2 sensor, and splice in the new one? Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding this. I was/am planning on replacing the O2 sensors on my 1996 960 (preventive maintenance) and upon initial inspection I didn't find where the wire disconnects, it just continues, "unbroken", disappearing somewhere inside the car, so yeah, I was contemplating doing that but was concerned about what effect that would have on voltages etc, etc...

 

Bob thank you for the tidbit about the O2S #2 reading 0 all the time. I think it's wonky because I can see the integrator for #2 trimming wildly, between -50% and +99%. But because of this information, I didn't buy anything and I am going to try and probe it via the A3 connector in the fuse/relay box. I think that I can remove the top cap from the connector and shove in my fluke meter probes.

The rear sensor wiring was installed "haphazardly" by the PO, none of the factory wire holders were removed and the cable was simply zip tied to the front sensor's cable. This makes me think that the front sensor is factory original and I should renew it for faster response and better lambda regulation.

The fact that the replaced sensor has no Bosch marking and the proper connector makes me wonder if it is a Bosch sensor. I found out that the Bosch ignition transistor unit I bought is really made by Standard Motor Products in Florida. The same factory makes oxygen sensors, and if they are making old Bosch parts now, their output may not be marked the same as the original Bosch manufactured ones. I think that Bosch is not interested in manufacturing old parts. On the other hand, it looks like the proper connector is not difficult to buy, despite the fact that most aftermarket sensors are shown with a white connector with no keying.

We had a volvo sticker under the hood saying the timing belt was replaced at 72k, we have 182k now Thankfully it's replaced. On Thursday I realized the sticker meant the Volvo kit with rollers was purchased. After getting the belt off I saw the computer printed date of 2002. I am glad that it did not give us trouble, and feel silly for believing that "someone had to change it before 150k"

Gearhead the bosch universal sensor comes with a splice kit. It looks to be well sealed, also. Using crimps and seals should give a factory quality connection - no soldering to break. On my car the wires on the o2 sensors are standard bosch colours so you should probably be able to perform this by matching wire insulation colours.

I would suggest that, when cutting the harness off the old sensor, to cut close to the sensor itself. This way you have a longer tail from the factory sensor to splice to, in case the pigtail on the replacement is not long enough. When you get the sensor out you can lay the parts down and make cuts to result in the exact same length. Despite the seal packing in the splice kit I would try to place the splice somewhere besides the lowest point on the car. Before cut off and removal, try to use masking tape to mark the limits of acceptable splice placement. That way you won't have to fit it back up to the car to figure the best position.

On my S90 the o2 sensor connectors are visible when looking at the trans dipstick. They are forward of the firewall, above the left hand side of the bellhousing (intake side) Each one has 4 contacts arranged in one row; one has a blue housing and the other has a black housing. There is a plastic tab that holds the connectors to their mounting brackets - push it in and the connector can be pulled off the bracket. Then the connector can be separated somehow, I think by pulling the cap out of the side.

 

I'm trying to get the "VOL FCR" software to work using an interface I have laying around for another car. It can supposedly read live data including the o2 sensor voltages using the volvo protocols.

I also received a PNP switch from the aftermarket. It has a matsu****a logo on the casting (square M) and it has the blue sticker numbered 30A060 and a black mark with scribe line to show you where it should be aligned. This seems to be one of two types commonly shown in photos in parts catalogs (sometimes the blue sticker is retouched away.) The other type shown in photos doesn't have the black mark, is usually shown with a white sticker, but the giveaway seems to be the length of the corrugated tubing covering the wires. The one I got which I think is real has about 2 inches of larger diameter tubing coming from the switch body before it's taped and reduced to smaller tubing. The "other" one has a much longer length of fat tubing. You can see this difference in the tubing in fcp's photos.

I paid $120 for the part shipped, I found it can be bought elsewhere for $99.25 but the particular 'brand name' from that source is one that's known to be good at some things and poor at others. The weather is turning cold, and while my partner knows how to "jack" the pnp switch and make the arrow go away this takes a few minutes and she can't sit in the cold for long.

Edit: whoops it looks like a japanese name got censored. The "M" word censored above is the parent of Panasonic. You probably know the name already.

 

Bob thank you again for the tip about the OBD2 application not reporting the rear o2s values properly. Vol-fcr shows it works (voltages look like an o2s) and I didn't have to take any connector apart to find out.

I found a document about Bosch date codes, so I'll look at the front o2s on the car and the old rear o2s that the PO left in the trunk, to see if I can learn their history.

 

Glad I could help, when I first found the O2 values reading zero I used a pin to probe the sense wire on the connector hear the dipsticks and found a good non-zero reading. When I got good voltage there I almost went to swap out the Motronic computer wondering if an internal mux leading to the A/D had crapped. However, I had the car in a Volvo specialty shop for some other work and he got a good reading (unfortunately he is now closed/retired, one of the few good mechanics around).

I used the generic Bosch replacement ox sensors a while back because the Volvo versions with the long harness were much more expensive and wire doesn't often go bad. The "Bosch" versions with full harness are now much cheaper, probably the made in Florida stuff you mentioned.

 

I bought Bosch sensor #15098, from my vendor this was $20 more than the universal one. It comes marked with the volvo number and is now made in the USA. The rear sensor the PO installed turns out to be a Bosch also, I could not see the markings until I got a nice lamp and a mirror.

Up on ramps the sensor came out easily with the 97177 socket from hft. I like to remove parts without cutting them After about a half hour the pipe was cool enough to work on and mounting the long wires was the longest part of the job.

From the date code I believe this sensor was factory original (180k miles old.) The data link shows it looks like it is flapping back and forth much more often at idle.

We spent the rest of the daylight - about 2 hours worth - replacing the PNP. And I learned more about the car history. This PNP that I removed is a replacement, but the PO did not install it so it was done sometime before 150 k miles (The PO bought the car at this time and had PNP trouble almost immediately.) The flange on the tranny oil pan was dented from the last person to be here prying the switch out between the pan and exhaust. Also the tubing from the original PNP's wire pigtail was still fastened to the oil temperature sensor wire. I managed to get the PNP out and in from the front, between the oil pipes where they come up into the engine bay. I am not very large so I was able to get my arms over top of the tranny to bring the wire over and do it up properly with the original reusable ties.

I tried to eyeball the PNP adjustment from under the car, while I'd like to think I did this right I think that I got it close enough due to dumb luck. I tightened the screw down and used vol-fcr to display live data from the trans so I could see the shifter position. I did not get any invalid readings and it seemed to be pretty accurate as far as showing the correct selection until the shifter really tried to move over the detent into the next range. However my partner thinks the shifter is acting different but couldn't explain how. We'll see.

With the old PNP I got a reliable invalid reading in park depending on the exact position of the shifter. Invalid would also show up in other ranges depending on its mood. We also had reliable trouble with the reversing lights and starter. I checked the starter engagement moving the shifter from D-N, R-N and R-P and the adjustment "seems ok."