1998 Volvo V70 T5 from North America - Comments

ABS Computer.

2 Wheel Sensors.

Engine going south - rod knock.

A real clunker for the cash I spent on it.

Only 75k and the engine is on it's way out. That'll be cheap! = (

I agree with you Steve the car is a piece of junk and will never own a single Volvo ever again. The service representatives at Volvo are rated poor according to my standards.

I'm sorry to hear you're having such poor service from your Volvo. I'd be ticked off too in your case. I've had excellent service from all 3 of my Volvos. Any high performance turbocharged car is going to be more problematic, more costly to keep up, and not last as long. Your's must have been beat though because I've never heard of the 5cyl. engine failing THAT early, especially a rod knock. Usually it's the head gasket that fails prematurely with the turbo 5cyl. engine. Otherwise these cars last well over 200k miles if drive and maintained respectably. A friend's '95 850 (same motor, but not turbo) has about 250k miles on his original engine/transmision.

It seems that most of the people (practically all!) unhappy with Volvo V70 are Americans. The V70 is built in Sweden, Belgium or Canada. Perhaps they just don't put them together right in Canada?

I live in Malaysia and am a great fan of the 'original' 850 and v70 T5.

My car is 10 years old with 170000km on the clock. Others from the local club have older cars with even more mileage, but never once have I heard of their engines going south (maybe us club drivers pussy-foot our cars more, LOL).

In our climate (average 30+degrees C daytime) we do see the interior plastics (Volvo like many European auto maker have chosen to use bio-degradable stuff) coming apart (but why can't it bio-degrade only when it's junked???) and the intense ambient temps get to some of the electrics as well (again, housed or en-wrapped in plastic) but the engines and even turbos last like crazy.

Here, guys who changed their engines and turbos (we also get lots of supply from written-off cuts from good old Japan) do it cos they want the bigger units, LOL.

Volvo for life!

I own three Volvo's of this vintage; a V70XC (272K), S70 (165K), and S70GLT (138K). All now are approaching rather high mileage. None have had motor or transmission work, none burn or leak oil, and all perform close to when they were new. I agree the repairs can be costly if you don't react to noises quickly and use high quality lubricants. Most of the electronic issues affected most products manufactured in this era, and these Volvos have had their share. The good thing is there are excellent work-a-rounds in after-market or remanufactured / enhanced parts available.

In the end these are a small price to pay when you review the crash records of those in Volvos and how they "walked away". Keep this in mind when you're driving whatever you're driving today and see a large SUV near you. How would you fare if you tangled with it, and I'm quit sure the Volvo would keep you safer.

My 95 850 has 302,000 Km; original motor, transmission, water pump, alternator, powersteering pump and rack and all all but one wheel bearing. (Even outer tie rods!)

My 98 V70 XC has 260,000. It too has all original parts except for maintainable ones like shocks.

I have NEVER seen original parts last this long on ANY car. Hands down! NEVER!

The T5 and R model have high compression engines and lets face it... People who drive them aren't driving them like Cadillacs on a Sunday cruise. These are fast cars, and they are treated accordingly.

This is actually the FIRST instance I have ever heard of rod knock in a Volvo, and I have been playing with these cars for the last 15 years. I would say it is just bad luck and perhaps a bit of neglect and abuse by a previous owner.

Rod knock is not the end of the world, and can be fixed by ANY local engine builder. If they know what they are doing, they don't even have to take the top of the motor apart to re-grind the crank.