(oi-V-io) 1998 C70 Hard Top Restoration Progress (oi-V-io)

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I found out i need about $5000 to get the c 70 fixed up right. The diagnostic was worse than I thought. 

I'm just going to list the diagnostic issues. $5000 is a good amount of money. Is it worth it? Maybe if i do one job at a time maybe.. this is what they said

Engine oil - "there are a few leaks on this vehicle. The major leak is from the engine oil cooler lines, start there."

Drivability- "Air pump is inoperative, visual inspection shows multiple disconnected vacuum hoses, inter cooler piping is loose."

Brake hoses - "Break hoses are cracking"

CV Joints/Half shafts - " passenger side cv axle is ripped, drivers side is close to ripping- Replace cv axles"

shocks/struts "right front strut mount is bad, there is a severe clunk from that corner everytime you go over a bump- may or may not be caused by the mount"

these are the severe needed to be fixed issues they found during their diagnostic.

I have already put about $2000 into this car. What should i do? Sell the c70 and start fresh with an s70? please let me know.

edit: Maybe this page takes too long to load for some so I made another thread in misc. 

I'm going to fix it. I have an appointment tomorrow to fix the oil leak ($500). Then I'll think about having the struts done. One of the mechanics said the biggest pain will be the air pump and replacing the lines. I had some time to think and i'd rather pay around $5000 in repairs than 10-20 years of payments on a junk new car. I guess this will be an ongoing project. 

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Going to the mechanic was a huge waist of time. I did get a cool digital inspection showed here.

 https://xoxocar.com/inspection.aspx?inspectionid=7c804955-49fe-4c81-ada1-a67d8fed2d03&sb=def&b=1 

Talking with fellow VS members helped me realize the mechanics were trying to take advantage of my good nature by over charging me like crazy.  VS talked me down and I'm going to just fix the ol' beast at my leisure.

My mirror was like this when I bought the Volvo months ago. Its hard to see at night because these mirrors have an Manuel dimming feature that malfunctioned most likely during the wreck the previous owner was in. I looked on tasca parts but the mirror was over $200. Checked Ebay and found one for $40. Should be here around the 23rd. A buddy on VS helped me locate the way to replace the mirror and I'll make a guide when it arrives. Also got the head lamp wipers for around $8 on Ebay. 

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Wondering about the PCV system I was watching a video on Robert DIY on youtube and he has a cool guide on how to test your PCV system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIRoc0VxLd4  <------ Link to the video

Any who, The clogged PCV will start to Smoke out of the Dip stick hole When the car is warmed up and running. 

 

Not an ounce of smoke. So the next test is the glove test which The ol' beast passed with flying colors.  Sometimes the pcv gets so clogged that it builds up pressure in the engine. So you tie a rubber glove to the open oil cap with a rubber band and wait to see if the glove starts to fill with air. (warmed and running)

In neutral just tap the gas a bit to see what the glove does. When I pressed the gas the glove did bounce a tiny bit but it did not fill with air. 

This leads me to believe my PCV system is fine as is, no need to worry. 

Bought a fuel filter I'm going to install on my next days off. (wonder how long its been since it was replaced) Hopefully my new rear view mirror arrives soon too. 

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The mirror I got was not the oem mirror for the c70. The ad said it had manual dimming but its just a plain rear view mirror. I'll prob just keep it and install it. 

 

I found some time to get my fuel filter replaced. It Was fun. The scariest part for me is raising the car onto jack stands. I feel like the car will fall off the hydraulic jack and it freaks me out a bit. Being some what under the car is not as anxiety inducing for me. Once on jack stands you can push and nudge  the car and see if it will fall. If you can rock the car and nothing happens you are prob fine.  Found a WIX fuel filter at Auto Zone recommended by RobertDIY on Youtube.

The bolt that is wet from WD40 is the bolt that holds the fuel filter in place. The bolt just connected to a bracket so you do not need to hold two wrenches to tighten it. The fuel filter on these cars are very easy to replace. 

I don't think this fuel filter has been replaced in years. How many years I'm not sure. It says VOLVO on it so my guess is after the dealer warranty ran out they never replaced it.

 

I could not find the rear jacking point and I'm disappointed in myself for not waiting to do it safely. I was running out of time before work.  Making sure I was safe took three times as long as the job its self.  I did however rock the crap out of the car on two wheels and one jack stand. I felt safe after trying to make the jack fail. No failure so I just did the job and got out of there. The beast was dirty because it's raining now over here until winter snow arrives. 

 

I noticed gas was pouring out of the old filter when I took it off the connection points. I had the idea of draining the fuel into a water bottle. You can see a bit of debris in the gas when it settled.

 

 

My coolant was leaking when I had the car up on one side. Dripping onto the ground slowly, I have my eye on it.

 

My window on the driver hand side is not out of place. My whole door needs to be adjusted and raised up about a quarter inch so the windows don't hit each other when I shut the door. 

I have a few fails to speak of that I'm not proud of. I found out I was putting the wrong octane level gasoline into the old beast for months. I took some time to really read the owners manual and found it needs 91 octane or higher. I now run full premium only and the beast is happier. I have a bad habit of Thinking the car is fixed when it isn't fixed after I brag on the forum. But THIS time I'm pretty sure. I had a bit of a rough idle before some of the work got done on the c70 and I haven't seen another rough idle since changing to premium gas. 

I have been researching ways to diagnose major problems using signs from your car and how it runs. A good example is the rubber glove PCV test seen above. So far all signs point to "yes" The car is just fine. No smoke out the tail pipe, no gas leaking out the tail pipe, no smoke in the dip stick hole.