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Our Repairs
Learn from my mistakes. Do your homework. Make sure your truck is acceptable before you enter any agreement to buy.
Pay a third party to do a full DOT level inspection in your presence, and perform a VIS-Check. It's the best money you'll
ever spend. If the seller won't let you do this, run, don't walk, away. If you'd like the full story of our saga, it is here and not for the faint of heart.
My first year repairs were excessive. The full accounting of those has been hashed and rehashed. At this point (Jan
2007) I think I'm finally over the hump and repairs should settle down into normal maintenance. Only time will tell.
Given what I know today, I would go about truck acquisition much differently. Of course hindsight is 20/20 and I
have learned a lot by owning the Volvo. Don't go down the same pathway I did, learn from my mistakes, buy your own truck,
contract the work out yourself.
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| 2002 Volvo 770 aka Optimus Prime |
There were a few repairs to the tow vehicle that surfaced on the drive home that had to be dealt with before I could
start on major mods. We have blown the budget completely at this point and I need to unretire for a year or two to fix it.
I have separated the repairs into four categories. Of these, the first two are dedicated to issues that should have been
taken care of prior to delivery. The third category are things that I have done to restore my wife's faith in the truck. Finally,
the fourth category are those things that any owner is going to have to do.
- Known at Delivery
- Unknown at Delivery
- Preventative/Peace Of Mind
- On-going Maintenance / Repairs
One of the "Known at Delivery" repairs needs a special notation: Front end shimmy. Major lesson moment here: When you
hear, "I had one of the front wheel bearings tightened, it was loose.", really loud bells should be ringing in your ears.
Wheel bearings on these trucks do not loosen, they wear out and are usually only the tip of the iceberg in a big pile of cash
kind of way. They should never need tightening and if they do, replace them don't tighten them. A front end shimmy, left
unfixed, can ruin a set of steer tires in under 1000 miles. Once one of these parts starts to fail, it takes quite a few other
with them. Shackle pins, front shocks, wheel bearings, and steer tires are all suspect at this point.
UPDATE (7/09): After 60,000 miles since the front end was fully rebuilt, the shimmy is starting to creep back in at 70+
mph bobtail. This means that the root cause has not yet been addressed. No money left to chase it, we'll just have to keep
our eyes open for it.
Known At Delivery
04/06 Correct Front End Shimmy (Scope unknown at Delivery though):
New wheel bearing, Four new shackle pins. $1590
New Steer Tires: $667
Balance Driveshaft, Fix Yoke Bearing, Replace Spline joint: $1135
05/06 Oil guage repair:
New Circuit board $680
Labor to Install: $184
05/06 Guage Lights: $79
05/06 Remove Password on Engine Computer: $119
Unknown at Delivery
05/06 Sleeper AC unit plugged. $19
06/06 Transmission Clutch Solenoid Failure: $568
06/06 Front Brakes: $83.40 sticky slack adjuster.
10/06 Brake system was bad from the start: ~$2290 Details Here
Preventative / Peace of Mind
04/06 New Drive Tires: $1230
05/06 ECM Programming to change shift points: $182 07/06 Engine Dyno and Blow-by test: $270
On-going Maintenance / Repairs
06/06 Leveling Valve Control Rod: $18
06/06 New Batteries, Bus Cables, and Tie Downs: $630
07/06 Engine position sensor, Input shaft Seal: $430
08/06 Fuel System failure, air leaks: $1982
10/06 Top End Tune-up, oil change, chassis lube: $822
03/07 Front Brake Overhaul: $2129
04/07 Replace Starter Motor: $625
10/07 "A" Service $340
07/08 "A" Service, Coolant flush, Replace heater hard lines under cab. $1587
08/09 "A" Service, Oil Leal $550
09/09 Throttle Position Sensor $142 (Didn't fix cruise control or engine brake)
09/09 Clutch Microswitch $35 (Still Didn't fix cruise control or engine brake)
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