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S/V/C 1998 S70 Good car?

NONHOG

equal opportunity car guy
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
Location
Tucson ish
Due to financial issues we might have to sell the Mrs. DD "Toyota Avalon" She has a client with a willed 98 S70. 130K. She wants $2200. My wife is excited about being in a Volvo.
I am skeptical.
Thoughts? Experience?
 
One good thing about the 98 model year is that it's the last year for a throttle cable. So your throttle control is in line with cost effectiveness. I don't have much experience with those otherwise. I'm sure if it has been well cared for you'll be fine.
 
I had a ‘98 C70 when I was in college and it was a hoot to drive.
Excellent vehicles in my opinion although no bricks.

Steering racks leak and the PCV plumbing needs to replaced every so often. Outside of that, make sure that on cold start up, the turbo doesn’t whine or blow out blue smoke. Oh also, the stupid heater cores fail every 50-60k miles or so (maybe more, but nonetheless frequent), but they are really easy to replace.

The HPT/2.3L is the engine I had and it was a hoot to drive. Hopefully that’s the engine on the S70 you’re looking for and bonus points if the headlight wipers work bonus points - I loved it on my C70.

Switchgear on those seemed to melt in the heat, but meh, nbd IMO. Good luck!
 
98 C70 here as well. Very nice car to drive. Quality is good, it will easily do 300k miles.

More complicated to work on than our bricks though.
 
It's a good car. Those are the last of the truly DIY friendly Volvo's IMHO.

There's not a whole lot to go wrong on in NA S70. Timing belt, tensioner and water-pump are very important maintenance items. Replace them at the proper intervals and it should run a long time.

The worst part of S/V70 ownership is the inner door panel glue that fails. Some of the switch gear develops a gooey feel to it as it ages.

I would check for any sign of coolant weeping from the tops of the plastic radiator end tanks. Also check the coolant overflow reservoir for cracks.
 
98 C70 here as well. Very nice car to drive. Quality is good, it will easily do 300k miles.

More complicated to work on than our bricks though.

Very true on the mileage. I got mine with 260k miles and ran it until about 313k miles and finally got rid of it. The turbo was starting to go and I didn?t see any financial sense keeping that car beyond that.
 
1998 was the last and only year of the "Non-Network" S70s, non-turbos are pretty solid. Keep up with maintenance. I've seen a few NA cars hit 400K and are still on the road. Not fast, not super fun to drive, but reliable. Expect interior bits to break and ware out, front suspension will probably need to be overhauled at one point in time.
 
1998 s70 T5 was my first car.
It's basically a reskinned 850. They're great cars, but aren't without their quirks.
If you put in the work upfront, they'll last years without complaint. I've had my 850 for 6 years now and have only had to do minor maintenance in the last 5. First year I replaced most of what's listed below.
Get your parts at FCP for the lifetime warranty.

Here's what is likely wrong / need replacement on this one now or in the next 15K:

CV axles
Heater core
Timing belt (do not prolong service interval)
Front Spring seat
Squeaky dash
Dirty ICV
Clogged PCV (do the oil cap test)
Bad oil cap seal leaking oil into spark plug cover, check under cover
Rear shock upper mounts (pull cover in trunk and look for rubber shavings)
That stupid ECU plastic cooling pipe
Intake pipe
Vacuum elbows
 
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