All,


I just managed to get involved with a situation that will probably try my patience when it comes to Volvos.

I'm friends with an elderly lady (85 years old) from my church who has a 1999 V70 XC , of which she's the original owner - I help maintain it for her when I can. The lady - I'll call her M.E. - had a neighbor who recently passed away at the age of 93. M.E.'s neighbor, also an elderly lady, had a 2001 V70 T5, of which she was also the original owner. The '01 is a very early-build P2 car, with a production date of 3/00.

So M.E. called me after I got out of work today because apparently, the neighbor's adult children are planning to give their mother's '01 V70 to an 18-year-old boy who helped the mom maintain her 2-acre property over the years. I went over there and met the boy's mother, who also grew up in M.E.'s neighborhood, so that I could see the car for myself. The boy's mom - I'll call her K.K. - told me that she was told by one of the lady's sons that he thinks the timing belt was done, with an extra emphasis on "thinks."

This V70 has 121k miles on it. The last time the car was out of the garage was in April of last year, when it went in for Virginia safety and emissions inspection at 120,264 miles. Shortly after the inspection was done, the owner became very ill and did not drive the car again. I looked under the hood. There is no evidence of a timing belt replacement because I don't see a sticker anywhere. It's been sitting for nearly a year, as I had to jump-start it with my own Volvo (1989 740) to get it going. The message in the DTC reads "Time For Regular Service," Check Engine light is on, and it seemed to be idling kinda funky upon its resurrection after nearly 11 months. I also noticed a bit of blue smoke coming out of the tailpipe as well.

What K.K. and I plan to do is to bring the V70 over to my independent Volvo mechanic on Saturday morning and have him do a complete, no-holds-barred inspection and on-rack assessment of the car. I have a feeling the old lady let a lot of things go on this car before her passing. Advice?

Find out where this car was serviced. Yes, the timing belt was most likely done at around 100K miles or 2010? Most service places will keep the records and let you know what was done when.

The check engine light could be a host of things, a scanner is required. Running rough could be a bad coil, fouled plugs, water in the gasoline, etc. If the battery was low, that could also cause problems with the computers. Have the owner put a trickle charger on it for a couple of days.

Getting a third opinion is a very good move. Remember that the 'service' light is not a 'problem' but a reminder for an oil change. This could be time dependent, not just miles.

Remember, the 5 speed auto was not the best thing ever offered by Volvo in 2001-2.

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Keeping it running is better than buying new

You are doing the right thing to have the car checked out. Chances are the timing belt hasn't been done. You could also remove the timing cover and look at the belt to see if it looks old/ cracked versus new. I would think one would also want to check/ change all fluids (oil, trans, brake, steering) and filters and drive the car a bit to see how it is running.