New owner - MY2003 XC70 - minor snags.

[Oli S]

Managed to get 5 mins to check the PS fluid. It was bright translucent green and looked new, perhaps someone has tried to rectify the problem this way before, or maybe it was part of the service it had earlier in the year.

So that leaves me with swapping out the pump which doesn't look too bad a job, especially if I were to be changing the belts at the same time, or even a new rack? Hopefully not the latter.

The timing and aux belt job seems to be covered several times on YouTube so when there's not a baby hanging off me I'll watch a few.

[S60D5-185]

It is possible to change the timing belt on a D5 without removing the crankshaft pulley.

[Simon Jones]

Re: the twitching steering, have you checked whether it happens when stationary with the engine running? If it does, then you can rule out any suspension-related components. My old XC70 did this and it was the rack that was at fault. In the 110,000 miles I had the car, it never got any worse so never bothered to fix it.

[Oli S]

It doesn't seem to pull by itself while stationary, only when maneuvering around corners, roundabouts & parking etc. So I guess something in the geometry could be worn rather than the rack giving issues.

Temperature wise it did it again in town after parking. The fan came on for a good few minutes and the plastic nose moulding felt particularly hot so I've gone and bought a new thermostat (inc housing), 10l of blue premixed antifreeze and a new temp sensor. However just before I went to pull the undertray I saw that the lower water pipe had a significant bulge in it, so now I need to source a new one of those too.

It might well be worth doing all this and installing a new water pump with the belts etc, but I'd rather swap out the thermostat now, just in case.

Has anyone used an alternative to the GROM unit? Such as one of these perhaps - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261320687384

[S60D5-185]

General consensus on the waterpump is that the original Volvo one is bombproof and if there is no evidence of leakage or worn bearings do not change it when you do the belt.

Mine is original with 178 k on it.

[Oli S]

Excellent! Glad to hear that - I'll download a workshop manual as the next job.

[Oli S]

Originally Posted by Oli S

It doesn't seem to pull by itself while stationary, only when maneuvering around corners, roundabouts & parking etc. So I guess something in the geometry could be worn rather than the rack giving issues.

Temperature wise it did it again in town after parking. The fan came on for a good few minutes and the plastic nose moulding felt particularly hot so I've gone and bought a new thermostat (inc housing), 10l of blue premixed antifreeze and a new temp sensor. However just before I went to pull the undertray I saw that the lower water pipe had a significant bulge in it, so now I need to source a new one of those too.

It might well be worth doing all this and installing a new water pump with the belts etc, but I'd rather swap out the thermostat now, just in case.

Has anyone used an alternative to the GROM unit? Such as one of these perhaps - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261320687384

Just to tidy this up, the steering issue has been fixed miraculously by changing the crappy Chinese tyres to top spec Michelin all terrain tyres. I was sure it was the rack but there you go... tyres sorted it out - result.

[jgjones095]

Welcome to xc ownership!