My V70 (non-turbo) is a FWD! I bought the car a month ago, and while tinkering around with the exhaust I noticed that the rear drive shaft is missing. Previous owner had no idea about this.

I'm curious as to why someone would remove the driveshaft for this car? Perhaps something failed and it would have been more costly to repair versus just cutting the shaft out? Seems like a very strange thing to do.

What kind of effects would be produced from removing the rear driveshaft? Better mileage perhaps? The car seems a little sluggish when accelerating, perhaps thats why. It's gonna be way worse in the snow, that's for sure.

I'm asking if anyone has any experience with this, in case I want to have a driveshaft put back in. Bad idea?

 

What year model is this? Can you see the end of the cutoff shaft? Do you know for a fact that this V70 was originally built as AWD?


Most V70s are FWD. My 2004 V70 non-turbo is definitely FWD.


Go to an online VIN decoder and see what your VIN tells about the features of this vehicle as built.

 

It's a 1998 V70, definitely originally built as an AWD; it has the AWD insignia on the back, VIN number lookup shows it was manufactured as AWD. I can indeed see the cutoff shaft.

My best guess is that the carrier pinion bearing went bad and a previous owner just decided to do away with it. I heard bearings on the driveshaft can't be replaced, that a while new pre-assembled kit has to get purchased.

Is there anything else that could have failed making them get rid of the driveshaft? I'm not super familiar with AWD cars (my other volvo is a RWD 1990 240).

 

I am not familiar with how AWD is implemented on top of FWD except that of course there would be right and left rear drive axles and a transfer case between them and a longitudinally oriented drive shaft between the rear transfer case and the transaxle in the front.


It's not clear to me where on your V70 these links are cut. Presumably your rear drive axles are intact and the drive shaft is removed. But why would it be cut? Aren't there U-joints at each end which can be disconnected allowing removal of the drive shaft without cutting the shaft?


I know of only one case where a drive shaft was cut, and that was in a RWD Toyota Tundra. The shaft was cut to insert an electrically controlled disconnection link to be inserted. The owner would tow this Tundra behind his giant motorhome with all 4 wheels on the ground and disconnecting the rear wheels from the transmission is either recommended or absolutely necessary. Could it be that your vehicle at one time had such a link?


Where is this cut in the drive shaft? at the rear or up near the transaxle? Is it a really clean cut or rough? Does it look like a saw cut or a cutting torch?

 

Poor choice of words on my part, when I said "cut out" I meant removed. Sorry. After some more digging, it is just the propeller shaft that is missing. Everything else is there. Apparently, a bad propeller shaft can cause some nasty noises at high speeds, so the previous owner (rather than shell out to replace it) just removed it.

So, my question is, does anyone have any experience with propeller shafts?