[ASt85]

The short answer is yes........and a thundering pain it is.

I asked my friendly mechanic to do the same repair in early December, he had the car for a few hours from 8am, as well as my Haines and the VIDA "how to": I just didn't have the time or any suitable jack/gearbox stand to support the tank.

At 10.30 am he phoned me to tell me that in his opinion given that you not only had to remove/drop the rear subframe and the suspension crossbeam & etc and at least partially dislocate the ageing exhaust system it would have taken him a at least a day to do and I might then have to replace the exhaust system as well if it fractured.

He told me that given the age of my V70 (Sept 2001) it wasn't worth spending 6 to 8 hours of his labour on something that wouldn't be found on an MOT.

He only charges around £150 a day so I thought that if he was willing to forgo what was relatively easy work for him that his common sense advice was probably correct. From a safety point of view he wondered just how many V70's involved in accidents turned over allowing the tube to leak fuel - he had a point.

In the US this particular part was subject to a recall for replacement..........I just wonder if as a group we put a little pressure on Volvo UK whether or not they might reconsider their previous decisions re this safety/life threatening issue.......after all it only took 150 or so Ford fires to correct a similar issue!