Eyeballing a 98 as a replacement for the subaru.
Eyeballing a 98 as a replacement for the subaru.
It's the only car model ever built that has three V's and an R in it's name.
You will constantly be turning off traction control, hitting boost in second gear and giggling as the passenger side of the car disappears in tire smoke. *
They dribble some fluids, chew up cv boots and front control arms occasionally but seem to do ok otherwise. It will need more maintenance than a similar vintage subaru but the driving experience is worth the expense.
*Unless the R's are only all wheel drive which would completely ruin the power understeering fun.
I love Volvos, and have owned too many to recount. The 98-2000 v70r and v70 awd are MaGyvered together from the FWD and the RWD parts bin with a big fat weak link in the middle, the failure prone and not so cheap angle gear.
The RWD stuff is good for 300hp, fully Independent, comes with a limited slip diff, and will give very little trouble. Too bad it only sees 10% ish of the power. A viscous coupling sees to that.
The FWD stuff is all reliable. The seats are fabulious, the 5 banger makes a nice growl and pumps out lots of tourques and will pump out lots more with minimal tweaking.
RMS go, front suspension bits go (no biggie), the AC evaporator goes (a nightmare wrapped in a dash, buried in cash, a riddle to fix), and the aforementioned angle gear.
Since they are optioned to the hilt, there are lots of things like seat heaters, temp sendors for the dual zone climate control, sunroof bits, yada yada yada to fix.
If you keep fixing things, the superb undercoating, rock solid bosch auxiallries, tough as nails 5 banger, unfairly accused of failure toyota tranny will keep racking up the miles in long legged GT comfort.
The 2000 is the one to get. biggest turbo (mitsu 19t), bigger rods, bigger injectors, next generation motor, 260 hp 260 torques very easily upped to 300 plus in both departments. But then the angle gear blows.
I personally would not get one. Most the good stuff without most of the bad can be had with the FWD V70 T5
AWD V70 with a different tune than the others, if it's a manual it got an 18T Mitsu turbo, auto got the 16T and a little less power. Some other slight trim and styling changes from the V70 T5 and/or XC.
Interference engines, keep up with the timing belt water pump and associated bits. Engine will last for ever.
Bevel gear on the trans that drives the rear drive shaft are known to be finicky. If the tires are worn unevenly, or if it's ran on mix matched sized tires/spare for any length of time, and you want to keep AWD run away.
just a random curious comment: how difficult would it be to convert the AWD verson to a straight RWD setup?
irish44j wrote: just a random curious comment: how difficult would it be to convert the AWD verson to a straight RWD setup?
very easy. pull the drive shaft. Some smart people also pull the diff and axles to get rid of the weight and parasitic losses. Broken worthless AWD volvos can be insta FWD bargains.
edit- oops- misread that. Rumor has it that they can be made RWD but the angle gear is gonna melt in 5 minutes. I have never seen one on the interwebs.
irish44j wrote: just a random curious comment: how difficult would it be to convert the AWD verson to a straight RWD setup?
The engine is mounted transversely like most FWD cars, and uses a bevel/angle gear on the passenger side C/V output of the trans to power the rear wheels. I wouldn't want to rely on the bevel gear for all of my power, it's notorious for failing if you look at it funny. Viscous coupler is integrated into the front of the rear diff, so you'd need to do something to replace it/make it solid.
A lot of folks have ditched the rear drive shaft and gone solely FWD.
Anything is possible. 
I wouldn't attempt with transverse engine and stock rear axle assembly.
I've seen an 850 with the engine mounted longitudinally, and a manual trans (I think an M90) and made RWD, however it was obviously SIGNIFICANTLY modified.
Shaun wrote:irish44j wrote: just a random curious comment: how difficult would it be to convert the AWD verson to a straight RWD setup?very easy. pull the drive shaft. Some smart people also pull the diff and axles to get rid of the weight and parasitic losses. Broken worthless AWD volvos can be insta FWD bargains. edit- oops- misread that. Rumor has it that they can be made RWD but the angle gear is gonna melt in 5 minutes. I have never seen one on the interwebs.
hmmm.. maybe rearend from one of the rwd volvos with a driveshaft from one also (or a custom one if it wont fit?) I think that'd be pretty cool.
sight unseen, similar to doing a rwd rb26? just block off plates?
Shaun wrote: ...the AC evaporator goes (a nightmare wrapped in a dash, buried in cash, a riddle to fix)
Here is the 23 page, full color, DIY guide to AC evaporator replacement.
http://www.woodjoiner.com/volvo/VolvoEvapReplace.pdf
I loved my '95 Volvo 850 wagon.
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