I am finalizing the purchase of a '98 V70 T5 w/ 84k, but have a few questions about the car and some of its quirks. While test-driving it (and what a great ride it was!) I noticed a squeak in the front driver's side. It seemd like it was in the wheel well area, but it was tough to say where exactly. It would come and go, and didn't seem to be related to speed or road condition. I would describe the sound as a chirp or cricket-like squeak. When I got back to the owner and asked him about it, he said it stumped Volvo techs for years at his normal service visits, until finally at the 75k service they diagnosed a bad air pump. I've seen lots of posts on this failure trend with 850s and V/S/C70s, but it seems to be a different noise (more of a high pitched rumble) and more regular in duration (at cold start and about 2min in length while pump runs). Good news is he came down in price by $600 (what the dealer would have charged him for air pump and valve), bad news is that I don't think we're talking about the same squeak.

I've owned Volvo 240s for years, and understand that Volvo's are known to rattle and squeak, but if this is a common issue I'd love to fix it.

On an unrelated note, when braking the pedal seems to shudder and the whole car rumbles a bit. He blamed this on worn front rotors, which are visibly worn down with ~3/16" of lip on the outer edge. He recently did front pads and the serviceman told him those rotors wouldn't make it as long as the new pads.

Thanks!