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FCP Euro

andyb5

Member Since 05 Dec 2009
Offline Last Active Today, 03:57 AM
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Topics I've Started

Overheated My R Today, Have Questions

05 May 2012 - 11:19 PM

This afternoon, I was auto-crossing my 1999 V70 R, and in the middle of a run, it turned itself off, after it apparently overheated.

As it was in the middle of a run, I was not focused on my gauges at the moment, but was looking at the course. There hadn't been any evidence of overheating earlier in the day, since I had already run 4 times without problems.

Immediately after the ECU cut power, I noticed light grey smoke coming from near my passenger headlight. I popped the hood and saw there was coolant coming out of the expansion tank, from around the cap.

I left the car to sit and cool off for about an hour, and then added water to the bring the coolant level back above the minimum level. I started the car, and it idled fine. The temperature gauge was at the bottom "peg" when I started the car, and it slowly but steadily climbed up towards the "normal" level. At this point I had to go work the course, and turned the car off. I haven't started it since then.

I should add that it doesn't appear that any of the radiator lines are leaking, but I haven't had time to crawl under the car and really take a good look at the lower radiator hose. The hoses are original, but in reasonably good shape.

I'm really confused as to what (if anything) happened, so if anyone has some suggestions as to what might have caused it, I'd really appreciate it!

Andy's 1999 V70 R

07 April 2012 - 05:06 AM

Here's the story behind my new-to-me 1999 V70 R. Its gonna be a long post, and picture heavy too!

After wanting a Gen. 1 V70 R for a couple years, and finally being able to graduate from driving my parents old 98 V70 NA, I started looking for an R last May. I managed to convince my parents that a 12 year old turbo, AWD Volvo was the best car for me, and after nearly 8 months of searching, I finally picked my 1999 V70 R this past December. It had 149,022 miles on it, 2 previous owners and a decent maintenance log on its Carfax. In the last ~20k, it had a new master window switch, new front control arms, brake pads and rotors, and new front calipers, and a nice, matching set of Toyo all-season tires.

The first day I was home for winter break, my dad and I drove up to Massachusetts to pick it up. I get in, and even after sitting for a few days, it fired right up. After 4 years of driving a non-turbo V70, the first time I got into boost was beyond exciting.

On the way home, shortly before we got on I95, I hit a small pothole and then heard a very loud "clunk" followed immediately by a horrible grinding sound. :o I freaked out and dumped the car in neutral and pulled over. As it turns out, the center driveshaft support plate was extremely corroded, and the pothole was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, and the plate basically disintegrated into a pile of rust! The driveshaft was rubbing against the exhaust, and making a terrifying sound.

Thankfully, no damage occurred, (well, it sure tested my nerves!) but I was now stuck 35 miles from home with a car I couldn't drive. I got a tow from AAA to Tasca Volvo in Cranston RI, where they replaced the driveshaft support and my car passed RI inspection.

I left the dealership and headed up to my uncle's house to change the timing belt and serpentine belt, which were both about 7 years old, and not in the best of shape. My uncle is a Volvo Master Tech, and walked me through how to do both jobs. Even though I doubt he'll see this thread, I owe him a huge thank you for all his help these past few years.

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Here it is the first night I got it home to my parent's house:
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Man I love the R seats, much better than standard leather seats
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Bought a box of Stage 0 goodies from FCP
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Rear license plate bracket, both front door warning lights, fuel filter, oil filters, spark plugs, a filler neck gasket, a cabin filter, and an air filter for the 98 so I could put my K&N panel in the R

Mid-sparkplug change, and in the process of cleaning all the oil off the head. Leaky filler cap gaskets suck.
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I replaced my SC901 with a Pioneer AVIC-F700BT
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When I bought it, my drivers visor was broken. Total pain in the ass to deal with. That's been replaced, so much better.
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In an attempt to fix a small oil leak, and since it needed to be done anyways, I replaced my PCV system. I dove into removing parts late Friday night, bought parts on Saturday and spent the morning cleaning 12 years of grime out of my engine bay, degreasing the ETM, cleaning the IC piping, etc. Saturday afternoon I installed the new PCV system--hardline around the block and all.

Yeah, that needed replacing :rolleyes:
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ETM looks much better after cleaning; and there's no sign of it acting up so far.
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I started to put things back together, and called it a night. Sunday morning I tried to wrap things up, and ended up spending 2+ hours attempting to get the banjo fitting on the underside of the intake manifold :monkey: I finally got everything put back together, and top off my coolant, only to find it slowly leaking out of the banjo fitting on the drivers side of the block :monkey: :monkey:
It turned out that I forgot to replace 1 of the crush washers, and had to wait until Monday morning to get the washer and finish everything up. I may have set a VS record for longest PCV replacement :lol: :idiot:

Once I got back to school in January, I went to change the oil, and had some "issues." The filter housing was on so tight that I couldn't break it free. Pissed the fuck off didn't even begin to describe how I was feeling at this point. So I grabbed a drill, punched a nice big hole through it, and jammed a long screwdriver through the housing for more leverage. Lots of swearing later, it finally came off. I got a ride to the dealership and bought a new filter housing.

Unfortunately, the car started leaking lots of oil after that. I was not happy, and basically let it sit for a couple weeks, leaking more oil than the BP's Deepwater Horizon. D S50R was nice enough to lend a hand and fix my car. It turns out I nicked the oil pan with the drill bit, and the scratch was preventing the rubber gasket from fully sealing against the oil pan. This caused massive (2+ quarts a week) oil leak! He used some JB Weld to fill the scratch, and it's still good till this day. He was even nice enough to sell me an IPD front sway bar :D Thanks again man!

Anyways, here's a couple halfway decent pictures of my car earlier this winter.
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We finally got some snow, and I used that opportunity to verify that my AWD was 100% functional... Posted Image
Turns out it works very well, and does donuts quite nicely :D Power-on oversteer is infinitely fun. I love AWD!

During spring break, I Plasti-dipped my grille and repainted my lower grilles satin black. I also started to install a 5 channel amp, subwoofer, and component speakers.
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Pictures of the stereo will come once its finished :rolleyes:

Thats where I'm at so far. I'll be installing my projector retrofit this summer, and have accumulated a decent pile of parts that are waiting to be installed. I have plenty of mods planed, I just need more free time <_<

Thanks for reading!

Amp Install Questions

12 March 2012 - 06:04 AM

I'll be installing my amp this week, and had a few questions before I go ahead and begin. The amp in question is a Polk Audio PA1100.5, a 5 channel amp. I will be running it at 85 watts x4 channels RMS @ 4 ohms and 600 watts x 1 channel RMS @ 1 ohm, for a combined total of 940 watts RMS.

1) I plan on using only oxygen-free copper (OFC) wires, 1/0 gauge for power and ground. I'm trying to make up my mind as to which brand to buy for power cables. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or input in regards to wire selection.

I've installed Rockford Fosgate wires in the past, and have been impressed by their quality. Very nice, high strand count and very flexible. I've done 3 installs with Rockford wires, and no complaints so far, even years later.
Current plans are for KnuKonceptz Kolossus Fleks cables as I've heard a lot of good reviews, and the price is appealing. It claims to offer the highest strand count, for what its worth. Are there any downsides I'm not seeing?
I've also heard about Stinger wires, which are excellent quality, but they're definitely pricey. I don't mind paying for quality, but it seems I'd be overpaying compared to the competition.

2) In the past I've just used the RCA cables included in the amp install kit, and bought matching ones if more are needed, but since I'm assembling individual components, I want to select good quality cables. I know shielded, twisted pair RCA cables are recommended, but anything to consider beyond that?

3) What size speaker wire is recommended for each channel? 4 channels will be run from the trunk of my wagon directly to the speakers, so no more than 13' run per channel at 85W RMS amp output. The 5 channel (sub) will be on the opposite side of the trunk, so call it a 5' run at 600W RMS amp output.

And last but not least, a couple other more generic questions:
4) What is the best way to cut and strip wires this size?
5) Are crimped-on ring terminals sufficient for battery and ground connections, or is there a better way of doing things?

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