Fred,

My 1999 V70R had a similar problem 2 months ago. It had a ticking valve lifter due to lack of oil supply. Rich Kelly/Bay13 at volvospeed.com helped me diagnose the problem. He told me that the o rings in the oil pan probably needed to be replaced. He said that it is a common problem with all front wheel drive Volvos. Using his instructions, I removed the oil pan and replaced the o rings myself. I did not have to remove the subframe as mentioned in the post prior to yours on this site. It fixed the problem. No more ticking lifter. When the engine is running and I remove the oil cap, there is a lot more oil sloshing around on the camshaft than before.

The only sound my engine makes now when at idle is a soft ticking sound from the fuel injectors working. The ticking valve lifter was a harder clacking sound.

I tried to cut and paste the o ring instructions from volvospeed.com, but no luck. That site is having a problem retrieving archived posts right now.

Hope this helps,

Bill