The Swedish Fish - 2000 Volvo V70XC

2 minute(s) of a 12 minute read

Fast forward about a month of driving, and I got a code for o2 sensors. I honestly wasn't surprised. The car didn't seem well cared for, the sensors were probably original, so who knows. They're easy enough to change right? Wrong. I could not get the upstream one out. It's a tight area to work in, and I did not have a long enough breaker bar to give me the proper leverage. I tried heat, I tried penetrating oil, different sockets and wrenches, and I couldn't get it. I ended up getting some help from a local Volvo guru, and all it took was his much longer breaker bar to crack it loose. Not a huge deal, but still another struggle with this car! 

The o2 sensors were bad, but the catalytic converter also ended up being clogged. By using an infrared thermometer I took temps before and after the converter and they were the same, meaning it's not doing it's job. The temp should be higher after the converter because of what's happening inside. After a quick google search, exhaust parts for the Volvo are very expensive, so I put that on hold. The whole system is pretty rusted and looks to have been patched multiple times, so I should do a whole replacement, but it wasn't something I wanted to do at the time. I ended up getting an o2 spacer for the rear o2 sensor and that took it out of the stream enough to turn the check engine light off.