I thought I'd post this up so that you guys could laugh at my pain and mock my misery. But also to shed light on what it looks like to own a 15 y/o European car that we all regularly mock as being ridiculously unreliable and expensive to maintain. I'm pretty handy and can tackle most minor repairs including fluid changes (think stuff that takes less than 3 hours for an amateur: brakes, suspension, engine bay sensors, etc.) but I don't touch certain things as I have limited experience with them including: clutch, trans, diff, drive train, timing belt, etc.

I've owned my V70R for a little over 4 months now and it's been eventful already. I bought the car back in May and have been enjoying it. It's a fun car to drive if not an order of magnitude more complicated than the 07 WRX that it replaced.

I had a wonderful 2 week honeymoon before the problems began...

Not sure how updated I'll keep this, we'll see how it goes.

June 4 - my left fog light decided it no longer wanted to live and promptly detached itself and hurled itself across an intersection. As I pulled over and waited for a chance to retrieve it, a dually "thump thumped" right over it. I bought a pair of HIDs and upon installing them, realized that the right side fog light was barely fastened to the bumper (missing 3 of 4 fasteners). I bought the fasteners and buttoned the HID ones in. Problem solved. $150 spent.

September 18 - Yesterday was a fun day. Coming off of a stoplight I hit the gas (read: pedal to metal) and got up to 3rd gear before entering I-45 via an onramp. A warning light along with a message popped up on my dash reading "engine coolant low, come to a safe stop". Rolling my eyes thinking it was a faulty sensor (this car has eleventy billion sensors) I nevertheless take it seriously and quickly come to a stop in a strip mall and kill the engine. I pop the hood and immediately see coolant sprayed all over the inside of the engine bay and my upper rad hose sitting off to the side, detached from the radiator. Many expletives were shouted in my head before regaining my composure. The engine temp hadn't risen at all, less than a minute had passed since the message had popped up, the car had mostly coasted to the parking lot. I grabbed an Uber and ran to a local HEB to grab some distilled water, got back to the car, tightened up the rad hose (glad I have tools in the car!), dumped in 6 quarts of water (capacity is 7.4 quarts, just about all gone). Then slowly limped the car to a Volvo indy shop that was miraculously less than a half mile away. A coolant flush, engine inspection and rad hose tightening later and I was on my way. No lasting damage. Thank you Jesus. Apparently water pump cavitation is not uncommon in these cars at higher RPM leading to rapid expansion (boiling) of coolant into the air at which point your cooling system finds the weakest link for the pressure to escape. I think I need a blow-off valve for my coolant tank!

$46 in Uber fares, $4 of water, $108 for the shop work = $158 + 1 year cut from my life

In

Dill-Ag13 said:

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I think I need a blow-off valve for my coolant tank!

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That green thing is a blow off valve. May be time for a replacement

neutics said:

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Is this legal? I'm assuming this was an option on the original that you added after the fact, but wondering what IIHS would have to say about this and perhaps there is a reason there are not more rear-facing seats in modern cars?

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Perfectly legal, was a $1500 option on my car and everything bolted into existing holes and mounts like legos. Pretty cool actually.

Tesla Model S is the most modern car I know that has rear-facing 3rd row seats.

Station wagons are all but dead in the US now

Riding in rear facing seats were a highlight of my childhood.

will.mcg said:

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Riding in rear facing seats were a highlight of my childhood.

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We didn't even have seats, we rode on the steel deck in back of the 1972 Ford Grand Torino station wagon. It was fun sliding from side to side on a turn.

will.mcg said:

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Riding in rear facing seats were a highlight of my childhood.

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My dad was an Oldsmobile man. I begged him not to buy the 1977 Custom Cruiser, but it was not in the cards.

We took a road trip to California from Tennessee. This was my seat for 3 days of pure misery.



'

You gotta love the fake wood panels. Sidenote: a few years later, this car made its way to The Steak and Ale for my first car date. I still haven't fully forgave him for this.

*pictures are off the internet, not the real aggiedata mobile, but it's the same darn car.

I want a B-body wagon with an LT1 way more than I should

The message screen in the VR