Really Volvo? (rant)

[sjonnie]

Wife gets the typical plethora of DIM alerts, low voltage, low performance, ABS faults etc . Amazingly, she makes it home but I can't restart the car - dead battery. Charge battery, start car, measure voltage 12.0. Remove alternator - yeah.... Seriously, Volvo, whenever the instructions for servicing the alternator start with "remove intake" you know your design is ****ing stupid. Okay, intake off, alternator out. Run around town for an hour trying to find a decent auto shop that can test it. Turns out alternator is fine. WTF? A bolt. Yes, a bolt connecting the alternator drive to the accessory cam shaft is loose. A whole effing day written off because Volvo can't put some Loctite on a bolt! Put the darn thing back in with an impact wrench and red Loctite! Ha! And of course the car runs fine. Only good thing to come out of it is my wife thinks I'm a genius (not the small-handed kind ) for fixing her car without spending a dime.

[hoonk]

a bolt connecting the alternator drive to the accessory cam shaft is loose. A whole effing day written off because Volvo can't put some Loctite on a bolt! Put the darn thing back in with an impact wrench and red Loctite!

If this is the 6 cylinder Volvo/FoMoCo/Land Rover engine - Your alternator drive pulley (overrun pulley) with the one way clutch in it is bad. When the clutch fails to slip and allow the alternator to keep spinning when the engine slows down rapidly the alternator will spin that fixed drive pulley loose, damage the mating surfaces and undo the bolt. Have had to replace several overrun pulleys because of that problem. (and did the job twice on the first failure due to not noticing the bad clutch!) Note the fixed drive pulley has no key way or device to keep it from spinning on the shaft and is simply installed on a tapered shaft. It takes a special tool to replace the overrun clutch on the alternator.

While you are there make sure the overrun clutch on the ac/waterpump/ps belt is working correctly also. You should be able to push the ac pulley with your hand and spin the belt freely in one direction. (with the engine off)

[sjonnie]

Ahhh crap, not going to look so smart when I have to take the whole thing apart again am I? At least a new OAP is only $55 on eBay. Gates # 37019P

[sjonnie]

Well, finally found time to get this job done. Apparently Gates recommend you replace the OAP with every belt change! Given how much trouble it is to change the darn belt on this engine I can't wait to do both jobs at the same time!

[sjonnie]

In case anybody else cares to do this crappy job.

[pbierre]

In retrospect, could you have fixed the loose bolt problem without removing the intake manifold? Would an endoscope examination have helped?

[RyanR]

Welcome to the world of owning a newer car. Having serviced Volvo's previous 6-cylinder XC90, I think the new 6-cyl is a doddle to work on.

-Ryan