1999 v70 Cross Country Transmission Help

Hello all, I test drove a 1999 V70 Cross Country over the weekend with
100k miles on the car. THe car is being sold through a used car
dealer. The dealer is going to rebuild the transmission before selling
it because he said that the transmissions start to break down after
100k miles. I have owned a 2000 S70 for 5 years and I noticed a
difference in the way this cars transmission sounds. On the Cross
Country, the transmissions seems to make a louder "vroom" (for lack of
a better word) sound than the S70 sedan that I have. THe dealer claims
that the all wheel drive trannies make a louder sound because it is
doing more work. Does anyone know if this is the case?
Also the car was started in a chilly New York enviornment. I heard a
loud sound coming from under the hood. THe dealer said that is common
in those cars. He claimed that it is a fan that it recycling the heat
from the exhaust and back to the egine to warm it up. I never heard of
a car that did this. Does it sound like he is just making up excuses?
THe guy actually seems like an honest guy and he is going to do a lot
of work on the car before the sale is final. Besides the noises, the
car looks and drives great.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
John

 

The transfer box is a very well known weakspot on these cars. I assume it
was a manual gearbox?

The manual box itself is strong (but would benefit from fresh oil at this
stage)

The transfer box- which is the only part that fails can have the updated
pinion and crown gears fitted- it is roughly a 500UKP job (whatever that
equates to in dollars)

Yes, the secondary air pump is common to Volvo's and will run for upto about
a minnute the car is started from cold. It will sound like a small vaccuum
cleaner.

If it is making alot of noise / shreeking / squealing, then its about to
fail, and they often do. They fill up with water because of a failed
checkvalve then seize. The ECU will then put the MIL lamp on and you will
fail your emissions test.

If its shreeking but still working then it is fixable, but only if you do it
soon.

Tim..

 

Thanks for the detailed response tim. In answer to your first
question, it is a manual gearbox and the dealer is going to do a lot of
work on the tranny before the actual sale. In terms of the secondary
air pump, it was making a bit of a shreeking noise and it didn't stop
after a minute or so, in fact after the car was completely warmed up,
the shreeking just got a little less loud. I suppose I should tell him
to fix that as well.

John

 

Before going too far with this car, have you compared the price to
local resales as well as Edmunds? Also, does this used car dealer
have a repair shop that can handle repairs on the awd transmission? If
he has to "do a lot of work on the car before the deal is final", I
would be worried unless the price was quite low.

Finally, since the car is from NY, are there any signs of rusting?

 

Well, the price is actually pretty good considering the car is in great
shape. He is only asking $7,900 for the car. The dealer is also the
mechanic and he used to work for Volvo for many years as a mechanic.
The car was imported recently from Canada so it's not technically a New
York car. I also checked the Carfax history of the car with the dealer
and it had no major problems in it's history.

 

Is this an independent dealer, i.e. one without a sales lot?

 

Yes, the air pumps themsevles are pretty expensive from Volvo- Mike F will
be along shortly to detail the swap and the one-way valve swap soon i am
sure...

Tim..

 

Yes, he's a dealer with a sales lot.

 

OK, that sounds a little better. I'm still not getting a very good
feeling about this car if your statement is true about him "doing a lot
of work on the car before the sale is final".

 

That's my fault, I didn't mean to say that he is doing a lot of work
becuase it needs it, I only mean that the dealer is going to go through
the car and get it tip top for the sale. That's what I meant about
doing a lot of work.