So was on the way home the two days ago. Did a full power acceleration on an uphill onramp and spun the motor up to 5500 rpm. Nothing huge. A couple of miles later I notice that the heater is blowing cold. After a moments confusion, I look at the temperature gauge and its hovering in the mid-high range. I pull over at the next off ramp and find that I'm a gallon down on coolant. The heater hose that I replaced with another used hose (last time) had a small split in it. Funny thing is that it didn't leak unless I revved it up above 2500 rpm. Refilled it and limped home.

Next day I spend an hour and a half replacing both heater hoses with new Volvo units. I'm always surprised just how difficult it is to replace those damn hoses.

So that was successfully accomplished and I started the car to check for leaks. I happened to notice that the alternator was flopping like a dying fish. Nuts. The bracket was loose, the hanger had lost a bolt and was loose and so on. After locktiting the base plate bolts back down and cranking down on everything, it was running smooth. One fun note was that the new Contitech belts were a matched set!! I can't believe it, that never happens these days.

On my walk around after starting it, I looked under the car and see.... drip, drip, drip, drip coming from....... the water pump. Sigh. Closed up the car and went to bed. Next day, put in a new water pump from my local Napa coupled with a new Volvo lower hose.

No more leaks and the alternator is running straight and true :)