Sorry,

My newly purchased S70 turbo has brought a number of new questions. I took a ride down to the autoparts store today. Outside temps were in the high 40's. The route to the store is mostly all downhill. The engine temps stayed near the very bottom of the temp zone during the entire trip even though it was running for over 40 minutes. On the way home with plenty of uphill the temps were in the normal range. This is my first turbo, does the air on the intercooler work that well? Is the engine that much cooler or do I have a termostate stuck open? or maybe a bad mix of coolant?

Thanks,

Your temp gauge should start rising within the first mile. Even if it's -35F. I suggest you need a new thermostat. OEM, of course.

Klaus
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Proud owner of a 220S. If I had more room, I would have more Volvos.

This is about where mine sits usually. My car warms right up even when it's really cold outside in about 2 minutes, it's wonderful =).

This is after about 5 minutes of driving. Like I said earlier, if I'm doing in-town stop and go driving or working the engine hard, it usually hovers right around the middle, about 4 bars down from the red. When it's out on the highway, or just loafing along at higher speeds not working very hard, it stays about between 1/4 and 1/2 up like this.

[IMG]http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m214/bblackbr/1103091300a.jpg[/IMG]

I would question your thermostat, it appears to be open all of the time. When it is below zero up here in MN, it usually takes 3/4 mile before the heater blower automatically comes on. Then the temp gauge climbs to the middle and stays there.

The electronics provided by the factory cause the needle to be stationary, only moving if the coolant temp varies a lot, up or down.

Klaus
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Proud owner of a 220S. If I had more room, I would have more Volvos.

Hmm...if the thermostat was stuck open, wouldn't my car take forever to warm up in the morning? The heat comes up and gets hot after about 2 minutes in the morning once I get out on the road, even when it was 32 this morning. Maybe my thermostat opens sooner than most or something, before the gauge gets to halfway.

It is possible that someone stuck in a colder thermostat.

Klaus
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Proud owner of a 220S. If I had more room, I would have more Volvos.

I would be worried about this on some level. Things that come to mind:

- thermostat is not operating properly
- air lock in coolant
- not enough coolant
- temp sensor not operating propertly

As we've mentioned on this board before - the coolant needs to be changed/flushed every few years anyway. It would be a good time to do a real flush top to bottom, change all the old coolant out and use a new OEM thermostat and rubber gasket. This should be done every few years anyway, and it will help eliminate some variables.

Actually if you decide to do the flush it might be worth it to just get a new temp sensor and put it in while you're in there anyway - I think they're about $30-60.


http://www.fcpgroton.com/product-exec/product_id/11898/nm/Volvo_V70_Aftermarket_Temperature_Sensor_1998_/category_id/198

http://www.fcpgroton.com/product-exec/product_id/11885/nm/Volvo_V70_Genuine_Volvo_Temperature_Sensor_1998_/category_id/198

It's pretty much been that way since I bought the car. A few weeks after I bought it, I had the top radiator hose blow up on me...what a mess. At that time I replaced both the radiator hoses because the bottom one was looking iffy too. I changed out all the coolant then, but that was like 2 1/2 years ago, so it probably wouldn't hurt to do it again; I'll look into changing the thermostat when (IF) I ever get around to doing the heater core. I wonder if it is maybe just a bad temp sensor...it has unexplainably stumbled and died on me twice, which I figured was a bad ground connection, but from what I've heard the temp sensor can cause that kinda thing to happen too.

Mine runs pretty cool (1/4 way up the gauge) out on the highway during the cooler months. I just figured it's normal, a lot of air is blowing through the radiator at those speeds.

I have a 98 V70 T5. My temp gauge stays right in the center of the range year round in SE Virginia: 90s in the summer; 40s in winter.

The only time that it did not was when my engine coolant temp (ECT) sensor failed.