Bleed the clutch in your Volvo by filling an clean or new oil can with brake fluid and attach a hose to the slave. Suck some fluid out of the master cylinder and keep the cap off to avoid spilling fluid. Open the bleed screw and attach the hose and pump the oil can. You will see the master cylinder fill with fluid. Repeat this process a couple of times and you will have quickly removed any air from the system.

As in any FWD cars you drive, whether it is Honda Accord, Toyota Camry or Volvo 850/S70/V70 etc. etc., the single most important thing is to detect the OUTER Boot crack early in the game. This way you can save the CV Joint itself. Once the boot is torn open, debris, dirt, sand etc. get in the CV Joint and can damage it very quickly, within a week or so. So be proactive and replace the boots as soon as you see deep cracks (superficial crack is probably normal after some 50-80K miles). As long as the CV Joint itself is protected, it should easily last 200K miles.

A common issue on the V70R and S60R is the exhaust bracket being driven up into the driveshaft causing thousands of dollars of damage. By now most of the cars on the road should have had this recall done. If not, it is strongly suggested that you remove the bracket ASAP.  Start by locating the bracket highlighted below. It is held in place by two bolts. Remove these bolts and the bracket can be removed. Undercoating may be holding it in place. If this is the case a quick tap with a hammer will break it free.

To start, pry off the first outer circlip as shown below. With the clip removed you can slide off the washer and the split washer. Use care when removing these pieces as they will be reused. Inspect the pieces and replace them should any of them become damaged during removal. Remove the T shaped shifter piece. It will pop right out. If you have the shifter cables connected, remove the bottom one. You can do this by prying it off. What you are left with: (o-ring sits in the bottom of this circular groove). Clean all pieces very well and make sure you remove all signs of grease. Before putting everything back together, grease all of the moving parts. Then put the plastic ball seat onto the black ball. The ball seat just slides on to the black ball piece when it is removed from the assembly. For clarification, when the black ball T piece is removed and looks like this:

The bevel gear,angle gear,transfer case what ever you choose to call it on an AWD Volvo has no written service interval from the factory other than to check the level and adjust as needed. This quick and simple tutorial will show you how to make a drain hole in order to change the fluid on a V70 XC.

Start by removing the CV joint nut which is 36mm. I used air tools for this job but if they are unavailable break the nut loose with the tire on the ground and use a 1/2" breaker bar or equivalent.Next remove your 2-15mm caliper to spindle bolts. Then remove your lower balljoint pinch bolt. The bolt is 13mm and the nut on the back is 15mm from the factory.Now take your unbolted cailper and either bungee cord it to the spring or lay it around the backside of the rotor. It doesn't really matter how you support it, just don't leave it hanging/dangling by the hose.

Put a drain pan large enough to cover the whole pan under the transmission. Loosen the bolts on the rounded corner of the pan(LH side of picture) only take them about 1/2 way out. Then go to the rear of the pan (facing rear of vehicle) and do the same thing and now do the front bolts (all only 1/2 way out). Leave the right hand side bolts tight for now. As you can see it will start draining out the rounded corner. If not you may slightly loosen the RH side bolts but carefully. If you drop the full pan too quickly you will be soaked with ATF! After it has drained down enough, loosen the RH bolts slowly. Now remove all the bolts except a few on the RH side of the pan. I usually just leave 2 bolts in the RH side and work them out a little at a time to let it finish draining. Take one hand and push up on the pan then remove the final bolts on the RH side. Using both hands carefully lower the trans pan into your drain pan and dump it completly. It can be tricky!

The requirement to replace the PNP switch is usually prompted by the up arrow on your instrument cluster flashing, maybe the mode select switch flashing between modes and possibly the turning on of the check engine light. You might also notice that your car is stuck in 3rd gear. The first thing to do for a 313 code recovered from the A-1 diagnostic socket is to clear the code and then do what I call a ratchet cleaning. Move the shift lever from "P" to "L" rapidly 15-20 times, this can clean up the copper contacts on the inside of the PNP switch. Some shops will do the ratchet of the shifter without mention when doing a service, (I do). The changing of the weather from fall to winter also causes the fault to show up a lot. If you are doing the work yourself you will need to get the Volvo part from a dealer or other source. To start allow yourself at least half of a day if this is your first PNP switch replacement. The photos are using a non-turbo as an example, but it will be close enough to figure out the differences. You need to have your radio code handy because you are going to remove the battery. Understand there are many ways to accomplish the replacement, I may have you remove items that later you would decide didn't need removing, these instructions are intended to make it as easy as possible.

A lot of information concerning the changing of transmission fluid has been floating around. I would like to explain what I think is the best preventative maintenance and how often you should change the fluid. Older vehicles had a requirement to change the fluid every 20 thousand miles. The older RWD transmissions did not have lock up in the lower gears. Fluid needed changing every 20K miles. My experience with the newer FWD transmissions has been at a dealer that has a total flushing machine. I have found that between 20 and 25 thousand miles the fluid begins to turn brown and pick up a burnt smell. Although the newer FWD transmission should be gentler on transmission fluid, time has shown that the fluid still needs changing. Below is a photo sequence of what the flushing entails.