I Bought A Unicorn..Kinda

Hey gang of miscreants, I'm a long time lurker/subscriber and a sometime (rare) poster. My recent acquisition of a 2001 Volvo V70 T5 with a stick has caused me to add to incessant noise of the interwebs because :

A) I want to brag to someone who actually knows why this might be cool.

B) I want to solicit advice from like minded nuts over the age of consent (Tommy excepted).

Details: 2001, Silver outside, black inside, 5 speed, 129,000 miles, 2 sets of wheels (17" alloys and black steelies with blizzaks), one owner, all regular maintenance performed and documented, new clutch at 90,000 along with cam belt, water pump, etc.

Questions: It's due for a good going over (plugs, filters, fluids, etc.) so:

1) What is the consensus on Sea-Foaming these? Any issues besides respiratory?

2) Anything I should check for while I'm familiarizing myself with it's dangley bits?

3) Any thoughts on brakes? Everything is well within spec and should be good for another 20,000, but I find that the pedal travel isn't linear, i.e. there's travel with light braking that instead of ramping up gradually suddenly reaches a point where you're stopping NOW! I can adjust my technique, but is this indicative of any issue/s? This also makes heel and toeing a pta.

4) I think someone dumped a milkshake on the carpet at some point...what have folks had success with for carpet cleaning and general interior freshening. I'll probably ditch the removable carpet/mats for some weather techs or some such, but there's still acres of carpet to clean.

I'm off to regions without connectivity for the day, so have at it. I'll read your thoughts late tonight with cold and frosty.

Cheers and Thanks, Gladly

Welcome - I always have had a thing for boxes with turbos on them. Especially with a stick!

On the seafoam - I did my 98 Explorer a year or so ago. I didn't hurt but I don't think it helped much either. Then again - I don't use crap gas and I take care of my stuff. If you have something all full of carbon it might be different.

Not too shabby.......best question of the day. Did they ever build V70r's with the manual.....

Any time you get a new car is time for a quick tune up. Plugs, wires, check brakes, etc.

And when the engine goes, you can drop a 302 in it!

yamaha wrote: Not too shabby.......best question of the day. Did they ever build V70r's with the manual.....

Yes.

4) I have never had much luck completely cleaning large stains from carpet while still in the car. I look at carpet in a used vehicle as a replaceable item. I usually replace it instead of cleaning it. New, molded oem type carpet hasn't been expensive for the vehicles I have replaced in the past. Not sure on this Volvo though. The best way I have found to clean auto carpet though is to remove the carpet, take it to a quarter car wash with the wand, soap it up, and blast if off with water.

In reply to m4ff3w:

might have to start looking again

@GladlyTheTooLongHandle: On the seafoam, I have an 850 T5 and it did seem to clean out the PCV system. I ended up replacing the lines and separator down the road anyway but when I checked it was a lot less clogged than the junkyard one I looked at with comparable mileage. Hard to say how much of it was the seafoam though.

@yamaha: 2001+ V70r had a manual available. Pre-2001 no stick. Some people may have swapped in a stick though I'm not sure. The FWD models are easy stick swaps but on the AWD models everything is harder. ;-)

In reply to N Sperlo:

FWD. No Bueno for 302 goodness.

Nice ride though for a FWD ride. V70 is the wagon right? I demand pictures!

Thanks, everybody! I'll have a chance to post pics this weekend. Time to take the reader's rides plunge as well, I guess. Last question, any good boards for bricks? The thing I've always liked about this board is the low signal to noise ratio. It'd be nice to find a similar Volvo board.

And @dculberson snort, that's a good one!

I have a bissel green machine. It is quite small and heats the cleaning solution. I always use it in the spring and fall on my cars. It works very well at keeping clean. IDK about getting old stuff out though.

Chris

In reply to dculberson:

I'll eventually have a v70r 6sp........sounds like amusement at an autox...

I thought i had a unicorn when i bought my bmw x5. It was the only one i had ever seen with a 5 speed. I now know where 3 others are close by. I also want to ipgrade to a 04-06 which has the 6 speed. good luck with your find though.

Chris

In reply to GladlyTheCrossEyedBear:

I've got an 850 wagon and live on these two boards:

http://volvospeed.com/

and

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/

Congrats on the purchase!!

Oh, and windex works wonders on 24hr-old protein stains, red kool aid, etc. Spray it on. let it sit for a few minutes, and scrub it out w/ a clean damp rag.

In reply to mrwillie:

Windex?! You been watchin' My Big Fat Greek Wedding again? Thanks for the tips!