Hey all,

Thanks to tips on this site and volvospeed.com maintenance section, I just swapped out the timing belt, timing tensioner, serpentine belt, serpentine tensioner and did a spark plug job on the wife's S70.

If you parse through this site and print out the timing section from volvospeed, it isn't too bad at all.

I owe debt to both sites for the tips, so here are a few lessons learned:

1. On the outside of the timing belt cover, facing outboard, get all the numbers off of the white sticker if you have a 1998. One will be the engine number. Half of the 98's have manual tensioner, others have hydraulic...and you can't tell from VIN. Call the dealer with the numbers...it should be one of the 7-digit numbers.

2. My manual tensioner totally died (disintegrated) and I was lucky to catch it and do the swap before major head damage. I would replace this little guy at least every 70k miles.

3. Got parts from dealer and told him I was comparing with some online prices I pulled, he gave me 20% off based on size of order and request....nice.

4. Consider replacing the idler pulleys on both the timing belt and serp belt. I still need to do this, the dealer didn't carry them in stock. But both the tensioner pulleys I pulled off at 105k miles were dying....commons sense says the others will probably be similar and they aren't that expensive, but my dealer didn't carry them.

5. If you are going to do the timing belt, I used a white paint pen to put addional marks on cam wheels and crank wheel to double-certify that they were lined up. Helped with piece of mind...especially on crank where mark is very tough to spon on top of the wheel.

6. If you are going to pull the serpentine belt, you need a jig to detension the tensioner. The slot on the front is 3/4 inch square. You can get a short shank of 3/4 square steel tubing from a metal supplier or local hardware store and then use an open end wrench to turn it. I actually used a 1" long shank of 3/4" angle iron that wedged in tight and a 3/4" open end wrench...worked like a champ.

7. If you are doing the timing belt....do the spark plugs as well. A set of plugs is pretty cheap...and if you pull them out while you have the plug alley cover off to get the timing belt cover off, the engine turns over like butter when you are turning it for alignment or to check it when you are done. I would definitely do this again....

8. Independent mechanic had good advice that after you get the timing belt off, give the water pump a good inspection. He thought they were very reliable, but if the axle had any horizontal play, any leakage (obviously), or if you put a load on pulley and felt any binding, scraping, replace it...($120 ish OEM)

Spent:

Timing belt $45 (dealer)
Manual tensioner $73 (dealer)
Serp. belt $50ish (dealer)
Serp. belt tensioner/pulley assembly $110 (independent dealer, local)
Spark plug set $39 (dealer...probably could have done better here, but he was hooking me up)
Thermostat $20 (while I was in there...)

Oddball tools you will need:

30mm socket to turn crank $7 (OSH)
3/4" Square tubing shank to relax serpentine tensioner (freebie)
T-30 Torx bit
T-40 (?) Torx bit to do thermostat (I think)

standard stuff:
jackstands (front wheel needs to come off)
metric sockets, wrenches
lug nut wrench
spark plug socket
various extentions

I took multiple pix if anyone wants...not sure how to post them here. email me if desired. Ones on volvospeed are pretty solid, though.

-Squid