Volvo XC70- daily work commuter

So, my place of work can be a very dirty place at times with a parking lot that consists of stone fines and a lot of mud. Due to this a long time ago I started buying cheap cars to drive to work. This thread will introduce my latest which is a 2004 XC70 with 192k miles on it. I bought it from a co-worker after he bought a new car. I had been in it a few times and it seemed like a good running, solid car.  He had thrown it on CL and didn't get any bites at his asking price of $2000. I told him I was interested but wanted to know what his bottom line was. He wanted to see if CL would pan out and he dropped it to $1500 but still had no luck. Fast forward a couple of weeks and his wife really wants the car out of his driveway so we agree on $600. The known issues he told me about: leaking power steering and it needed rear tires. Here she is the first day after I got her all insured and registered:

The good- no rust which is great for a NY car, cold AC, HOT heat- like this car has the warmest heat and heated seats I've ever felt, everything on the interior works, and it's a wagon, I love wagons!!

Now, for the issues I didn't know she had: Rear wiper doesn't work- the motor does, the arm doesn't move, ABS/Traction light on- reading the codes it has three of four wheel speed sensors bad, top motor mount rubber bushing- ummm, what bushing, a small miss at idle, all wheel drive doesn't work, terrible positive camber at left rear, front lower control arms- bad bushings, front sway bar links- bad bushings, trip computer display works sometimes. Some other odds and ends like a few lights out and other small stuff.

I've pecked away at some of these issues already having purchased the car in late October. I tried replacing the stripped out rear wiper gear with a plastic ebay gear which promptly stripped out. So I replaced the entire motor assembly with a cheap ebay part which crapped out in two weeks. For now I'm leaving it alone and moving to other things.  I had the car aligned  which is when I discovered all of the front end bushings need replacements. Parts seem cheap enough and I will do this in the spring. I've replaced all for tires with snows, two I bought off of Facebook marketplace for $80 and two new ones. I did this after the first small snow storm I drove the car in and it was easily the worst vehicle I had ever driven in the snow. This storm is also where I discovered the AWD wasn't working because the crappy front tires meant and FWD meant I wasn't going anywhere. I should have know the AWD might not be working seeing as how I had the ABS/Traction light on. I've purchased new wheel speed sensors for all four corners and will do that at some point. With snow tires at all four corners the car is now great in snow so getting AWD working is no longer as critical as it once was. If the wheel speed sensors do not fix the AWD issue then I will dive into it further to see if it's the rear diff oil pump or something else. I threw new rear pads and rotors on it, new wiper blades for the windshield and headlights, and a new side marker lens. I think that's it for now. 

With my work commute being only 3 miles I am getting terrible gas mileage and due to this and the small misfire it has at idle I'll being throwing new plugs in it and maybe coils if it remains. I will try to take pictures as I knock things off on the list but updates will probably be slow to come. Nothing is really required right now so I've just been driving it. Even though I have heat in my garage I would still rather wait until it gets warmer to do some of the other items. 

Looks good to me. I'd put some 'trim black' on it and tint the windows because that's the way i am. I've put enough time into whiteblock volvos at this point that I've grown to like them, as long as they're acquired for the right money. This thing is definitely the right money considering the body looks good and the engine/trans aren't toast. The rest will come with time, as you said. Cool project!

Here's my last work commuter, after my driver in training daughter played Bo Duke with it. After this happened I drove it right up until getting the XC70 and now the Hyundai is with my daughter at college. 

This one has 185k miles on it and still runs and drives well. Even after taking flight. 

Oh, and that wrecker fee was 1.5x as much as I paid for the car. 

Interior:

engine bay with new top engine mount:

new side marker reflector for no reason other than I spent $9 on it and someone here will appreciate that. 

I like the small things like marker likes to go with the getting it reliable. 

In reply to Professor_Brap :

Thanks, it helps at least make me feel like some things are getting done. I've put about 1k miles on it so far without issue in the 3 months I've had it. Yeah, short commutes are great. 

Nice, whiteblock stuff.  I have a 2010 C30 T5 as a daily commuter.  It's great on gas and not short on power either.  Mine has only needed really minor stuff and I'm at 171k; however, I hear 200k is about where the fun usually begins.  Good luck!

In reply to V6Buicks :

Mine sucks on gas but my short 3 mile commute doesn't help that. 

Never messed with any Volvos but XC70s keeping popping up for sale in my budget.  I've read to stay away from anything before 2004.

I'll be following this one! 

Shoulda just pulled the Hyundai the rest of the way down for that cost lol 

Volvo looks good! I've always wanted a whiteblock to throw all of the boost at but it hasn't happened yet. 

Shoulda just pulled the Hyundai the rest of the way down for that cost lol 

Sure, but most people don't realize how expensive a 'tow bill'  (at some point it's better to call it 'vehicle recovery') can get, and probably find out the hard way.   I was talking to one of the guys who tows customer cars to me and he once pulled an f150 out of a riverbed for $14,000 (insurance paid).  

I don't own a whiteblock other than a bent-valves parts car for my mom's S80 but I'm about to put some 18s on my mom's car and I'm half-expecting to stare adoringly at it for at least an hour or two afterwards. Lol. Will post pics somewhere. 

They told me how expensive it would be to get the tow truck out there($750) but I wanted to try to save the car and felt this was the best option. Trust me though, I thought about it. If the front wasn't buried so much into the grass I might have hooked it to my truck and yanked it out. I'm glad I didn't because that was two years ago and the car is still trucking along.  

Nothing too exciting to report. Swapped the sparks plugs today as an easy attempt to remedy a random miss I get occasionally. The old plugs were Autolites and I bought some Bosch Platinums as the replacements. The job went well without any issues which isn't always the case on a 16 year old car. Here's a few pictures to make it more interesting because overall it's a pretty boring update. 

It's funny how when something just works you leave it alone. I've been daily driving the car without issue all this time and haven't done anything to it until this weekend. 
The exhaust split right at the after cat connection so a couple of friends helped weld it up this past weekend. I'm on vacation this week so I decided to do the wheel speed sensors, that I said I would do in the spring, today. While doing the front I discovered the right front sway bar end link was broken free of the strut and was now U shaped instead of straight. Checked the front brakes and they were about done as are the tie rod end links and top strut mounts. So new pads, rotors, all in one struts, tie rod ends, and sway bar links are all ordered. Next week I'll swap it all out and will take some pictures. 
Unfortunately, the new wheel speed sensors did not get the AWD working but did clear the abs light. So partial win there. The rear sensors were a pain as the wires pass through an access panel in the floor that is bolted down with four nuts. Two you access from the rear cargo area, two you access from the rear seat area. The wire comes through in the cargo area but the connection is in the rear seat area. Hop in, hop out, go to back, hop on, hop out. Back and forth, back and forth until completed. 
Did an oil change but didn't have the right filter wrench to get the oil filter access open. And , yes, sometimes I'm that guy. It was raining and I had just washed my truck so I didn't bother getting it dirty to run out for the proper wrench. So that will get done when I get the proper wrench. 

I guess that's it for now, one year in and it's been a dependable transportation device. Couldn't ask for anything more. Oh, and a year for me commenting to work means about 4K miles, the car now sits at 196,164 miles. 

I've been DD'ing a 2004 XC70 that was being sold for parts for 3 years now. It was some weird electronic issues that made the previous owner quit. Depending on when your 2004 was build, it may have some of the remaining electrical weirdness from the earlier models.

Yours has a lot of the common issues. The rear wiper is the plastic gears that have stripped between the motor and the wiper. That's why used units are very hard to find. The AWD not working is almost certainly the AWD pump that's toast. It used to be expensive, but the prices have really gone down. I may fix it on mine. Be prepared to struggle a bit when you get to removing the two front strut bolts that go through the knuckles. Since the knuckles are made of aluminum, there tends to be a lot of galvanic corrosion in the area. If they were never removed, you'll be swearing.

They aren't very reliable cars, but they simply don't get used. The interior on mine looks almost new and the rust has just started despite having lived most of its life on a dirt road with its last owners. Mine has let me down twice because of stupid issues and every time I swore I was getting rid of it and yet I still own it. 

I don't know why I find these terrible (nowadays) cars so compelling but I've been eyeing them on and off for a year now. There are currently two 2007's in PGH for sale not running.

Always see them selling on the cheap and think they look like decent cars

We had an 03 from 2014-2018 and it was maybe the best overall car I've ever owned.

Which reminds me, I have a never mounted iPD skid plate and never used transmission flush kit to sell, plus some other odds and ends.  Will list up sep.