Seamus Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Here is a mystery for you. As most of you know, nearly three years ago, I put an M66 in my 98 V70R AWD. All was great but the clutch I chose was quite aggressive and lasted only 25 thousand miles. I am quite good on clutches but this one was made to race not park and sit in traffic in LA. So I replaced the clutch re-bled the system and off I went. The first time the car was driven in stop and go for over 30 minuets something crazy happened. The pedal started to get lots of free play and engage right at the floor. I limped the car home and parked it. In the morning after a few blockes the pedal came back up and worked just fine. I took the car to the shop and did a thorough re- bleed on it extracting lots of dark fluid. I figured the fluid was over heating and boiling up. Ok problem solved! So I thought! The thing worked fine for a few days (in the winter) and after sitting in stop and go with the AC on it went kaput.. WTF!!! This can’t be!! I looked at the thing closely and determined the clutch line is to close to the lower coolant hose. OK I will fix that. I was not so satisfied with the original routing of the line anyway. I did a few fancy bends, a few A&N clamps and “Good to go”! The funny thing is the M56 cars have the clutch line right up against the coolant hose and not a problem?? Well after months of intermittent “bad clutchness” and rising temps, I was paying close attention to when and where this would happen. Hey!! The thing worked just fine for two years before??? What the heck is different?? Last weekend it accrued to me…….. The fluid!!! When I swapped the trans, breaks etc.. I worked at a Volvo dealer and used the Volvo DOT 4+ fluid. The fluid I now have at my disposal is Castrol LMA DOT 4. I used LMA in all my other cars and never had a problem with brake fade or the clutch, even racing! I got some Volvo DOT 4+ and read right on the can that the “wet boil point” is 386F and the Castrol is 311F?? Well I know from the times it failed it did so only at the vary extreme high end of the temp range so 75 F would make quite a dramatic difference. I spent some time bleeding the system to get all the fluid out of the brake and clutch. Today I was able to torture test the car in high heat, traffic and the AC going….Not one sign of a problem the feel of the pedal is firmer as well……Mystery solved.. It’s about time!!!!! My brain hurts!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ultra_runner Posted July 8, 2006 Report Share Posted July 8, 2006 Wow - lessons learned and leave it to the Swedes to produce better fluids (uh... you know what I mean). Great post for anyone facing the same problems or who would like to avoid the same problems in the future!Thanks Seamus!Scott C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Wieler Posted July 13, 2006 Report Share Posted July 13, 2006 Seamus,Did you replace the clutch yourself? If so I'd love to talk to you as I'll be doing this repair this summer.ThanksJames Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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