Victory! 

"Alfalfa" (alfalfa-romeo) 01/29/2015 at 08:02 • Filed to: alfalfa's volvo

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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! I drove it to work today for the first time in about 2 weeks.

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GTI Sprinks > Alfalfa 01/29/2015 at 09:27

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Nice! I'm battling the PCV breather system in the girlfriend's volvo currently. Replaced system and buttoned it back up, but now have rough idle and a check engine light that wasn't there previously. Never ending battle.

twochevrons > Alfalfa 01/29/2015 at 09:28

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Hooray!

I'm going to have to check the glovebox light on mine, now. I commute by bus, so I don't drive all that often, and sometimes I've come back to a flat battery after leaving the car sitting for a week or two. It's been better since I replaced the battery and disabled the tailgate light that sometimes came on of its own accord, but I'm pretty sure that there's still something sapping power that shouldn't be.

Some nice easyish electrical work will come as a breath of fresh air after having spent nearly all of last weekend lying under the car trying to remove (and then re-fit) the oil pan. The engine bay might not look all that tightly packed, but ye gods, did they make some things horrendously inaccessible! We're talking multiple extension bars and universal joint drives, a deep socket AND a stubby ratchet to get to some of the bolts. Not fun.

Alfalfa > twochevrons 01/29/2015 at 09:33

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It really is kind of ridiculous. It's like they decided to make it look roomier by utilizing as much vertical space as opposed to horizontal space. There's what, a 12 inch gap between the block and the firewall?

Alfalfa > GTI Sprinks 01/29/2015 at 09:54

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That's something I need to check out. There was something on a service record that made it sound like it may have been rebuilt, but I'm not 100%.

twochevrons > Alfalfa 01/29/2015 at 09:55

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I suppose that it is a rather tall and long engine – the mind boggles at how they shoehorn a transverse inline-6 into the V60. I gather that the AWD models made it even worse, with the angle gear and rear driveshaft making it near-impossible to access the rear of the engine from underneath. The problem that I was running into was with the front subframe – even after jacking the engine up, there were some very unusual gymnastics that needed to be made to get to some of the oil pan bolts. Trying to get the pan detached after removing the bolts was even more frustrating – the subframe, power steering lines, transmission case, oil pickup tube, and even the engine mounts themselves were all getting in the way. It's like one of those puzzles where you have to separate interlocking metal pieces, except they're covered in oil and filth, four inches away from your face, and you can't see what it's getting hung up on. I still don't entirely understand how I ended up getting it on and off.

Still, I think I'd prefer the 850's accessibility issues to what Citroën did on the BX 16v, tilting an inline-4 waaaaaaay back, like the rear bank of a transverse V8. Makes for fantastic weight distribution (it's one of the most well-balanced FWD cars I've driven), but with the engine right up against the firewall and those ridiculously long intake runners right up against the radiator, working on anything at all is an exercise in swearing and skinned knuckles. Case in point: unless you have tiny hands, removing the oil filter requires taking the AC compressor off its mounting bracket. Lovely.

twochevrons > GTI Sprinks 01/29/2015 at 09:58

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Vacuum leak? Got to love all those rubber hoses that have gone all crumbly.

It's things like that that make me curse in the general direction of Göteborg. The fact that I haven't pushed my 850R over a cliff yet is testament to how much I like it. Never-ending battle indeed.

GTI Sprinks > twochevrons 01/29/2015 at 11:58

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More than likely. Finished up the whole thing at 7pm last night and haven't begun troubleshooting. Will likely postpone until weekend. Plugging in via OBD later tonight.