I might be wrong. There are other things that might give the symptom described. I might be right, too.

In my own cars and in customers' cars I've seen a number of instances in which a worn throwout bearing makes noise - usually a muffled, cyclical rattling - as the parts get sloppy and no longer fit together nice and snug. When you push the clutch pedal toward the floor, the rattling loose throwout bearing is compressed, and it quits rattling. It gets quiet. The opposite of what you describe, Dave.

If you try a search here on the Brickboard you'll find references to exactly this. Or you can try google or bing and find videos that demonstrate it pretty well. I haven't seen any Volvos in those videos, but clutches are pretty standard things that tend to degrade in similar ways regardless of the brand.

You might be right about that input shaft thing, though when I've had trans bearings go south on my own 122, the bearing noise changed pitch as road speed changed.

Did I piss you off or something? The tone of your note comes off a little hostile.

Anyway - maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not. We can't make any assertions about that just yet. The throwout bearing isn't a bad guess, is easy to evaluate as soon as the transmission is out of the car, is cheap to buy and simple to replace, and is certainly the first thing I'd check.

Best,

Cameron
Rose City