V70 163 v's V70 185 - What should I look for when buying?

[Maty]

Out of interest what sort of costs (at an indy) would you be looking at for the following jobs on a facelift 185:

- Belts and tensioners
- Hand brake shoe replacement

I've pretty much set my mind on an S60 D5 and will be looking for one up to 7k with less than 70k on the clock but I want to budget for the above to be sorted sooner rather than later after purchase.

Also what are the things to look for in regards to DMF issues, are they noisey etc??

Thanks,

[Super Slo Mo]

Belts and tensioners around £200.

Don't know about brakes, I did my own.

[Maty]

Really?? Is that all for the belts, I was expecting something along the lines of £500 +!

I'm guessing hand brake is pretty much a DiY job, just looking on the Volvo forum for a guide. How much were the parts?

[Maty]

A lex said:

I paid £250 for a belt and tensioner change (the tensioners fail more often than the belts) and £150 for a rear disc and handbrake change at a good indy.

Thanks guys that's all going in the budget!

What about DMF issues, are they easy to spot? What sort of things would you look out for??

[Super Slo Mo]

Maty said:

Really?? Is that all for the belts, I was expecting something along the lines of £500 +!

I'm guessing hand brake is pretty much a DiY job, just looking on the Volvo forum for a guide. How much were the parts?

I paid £55 for 2 droplinks and a set of handbrake shoes, so something in the region of £20 for the handbrake shoes (from GSF, none genuine).

I remember the disks being a bit of a bugger to get off, but otherwise it's no more difficult than a 'normal' drum brake overhaul. Depending on the condition of the disks/pads, you might want to replace them while you're at it, since you're taking it all off the car anyway.

[Roger Woods]

Woody3 said:

Roger, is this an Auto or a manual?

How are you getting on with it so far?

I'm on the look out for one (54/05 reg), but can't find anything local at the moment - missed out on a corker last week as well grr!

All ok so far, mine is Auto and I intend on running it for a very long time, I want to double the miles to 1/4 million!

Be patient, it took an age to find one that was not the other end of the UK!

[Dog Star]

A lex said:

DJFish said:

Another newbie question if I may?

How do manuals vs autos compare on mpg?

About 5-10mpg (worse) average I think.

We have a 54 plate V70 2.4 SE petrol auto (170bhp) with about 124k on the clock. Over the time we've had it it's been hovering around 31mpg which I think is excellent for such a big car.

[Roger Woods]

People! - I park my car in a reasonable road in East Grinstead each day and I noticed when I got home today that some little tt had decided to scratch right down the side of the car, front to back, this is on top of someone catching the back bumper last week, I ask you is it worth having anything vaughley(SP?) nice now days

[Roger Woods]

By way of a short update, car has done 142,000 miles now and plodding along just fine, there are a couple of little bits I need to get sorted but nothing to much.

It generally gets used local doing only 14 miles a day to work and does not get a run out to often as the family XC90 shed does the longer runs but last Saturday I had a run from Crawley to Hull and back and did 540 miles and it returned 52.9 MPG, very pleased with that.

This one will be with me hopefully for a long while.

New tyres and a dam good clean later in the month

[BackPedal]

Great read this thread!

It's nice to know it's still plodding along, without too much drama.

I bought an 07 185 D5 recently, all seemed pretty good. A front coil spring snapped on me (luckily whilst the car was parked!) taking out the tyre.

They're nice places to be, very 'regal' and comfy! Also, you can dither along and no one bats an eyelid - they just think you're a myopic, lost OAP.

[csd19]

Looks good BackPedal, makes me miss my old one even more! It was an 06 reg (MY07) 2.4d SE in Magic Blue, looked ace. Basically the software detuned version of the 185 (so 163bhp and 250lbft vs 185bhp and 295lbft), EUIV compliant and all that.

Comfiest seats ever, and a perfect wafting machine. I did a couple of small mods to it, like adding OEM rear park assist, folding mirrors, 304mm front brake carriers and discs, and some police spec pads. I also had the B-pillar back tinted but not massively dark.

Picture from Knockhill below...




I'm now looking to get back into a Volvo again, this time I fancy a facelift S60 2.4 T5 SE manual, so I can fettle with it

Edited by csd19 on Thursday 25th June 21:00

[BackPedal]

Offfty that does look particularly nice!

How hard (expensive) was retro fitting factory park assist and folding mirrors?

Mine's only got 66,000 miles, so I'll be looking to keep it for as long as possible, therefore don't mind investing some money in it.

What made you sell yours?

[csd19]

BackPedal said:

Offfty that does look particularly nice!

How hard (expensive) was retro fitting factory park assist and folding mirrors?

Mine's only got 66,000 miles, so I'll be looking to keep it for as long as possible, therefore don't mind investing some money in it.

What made you sell yours?

Thanks

It was about 5/6 years ago when I did the park assist etc, I think it was about £150 at the time for the park assist kit, plus £10-odd for the software at the time. The kit comes with a hole cutting tool so you make a perfectly neat hole, and the kit integrates completely with the car. So you have the park assist button on the dashboard and it mutes the radio when you select reverse.

Folding mirrors were (I think) £180, you get the powered bases so need to swap over the guts of your existing mirrors. Again you get the button on the dash. These prices are from memory so it's possibly a wee bit more than that now - I got the bits from FRF Volvo in Swansea as mail order.

It was a bit of a crap time that made me get rid of it - I had my Leon Cupra alongside this, and I split from my ex-fiancee. Luckily both cars were in my name but the flat I moved to only had parking for one car. At the time the Leon was more fun so it stayed... Sometimes I wish I'd done it the other way round!

Technically I didn't completely lose the car as my folks now have it, it's sitting on 124k iirc. I gave the car a suspension refresh last May (new front topmounts, droplinks and dampers all round) and it still feels tight, from what I'm told anyway! I do still really like how it looks after a wash and polish, and I've been lucky enough to borrow it now and again for transporting furniture etc.

[George111]

csd19 said:

I gave the car a suspension refresh last May (new front topmounts, droplinks and dampers all round) and it still feels tight, from what I'm told anyway!

I was thinking of doing this to my S80 - at 150k it's lost some of the compliance it once had and can judder on pot holes etc. Did you also change front wishbones ?

[BackPedal]

csd19 said:

Thanks

It was about 5/6 years ago when I did the park assist etc, I think it was about £150 at the time for the park assist kit, plus £10-odd for the software at the time. The kit comes with a hole cutting tool so you make a perfectly neat hole, and the kit integrates completely with the car. So you have the park assist button on the dashboard and it mutes the radio when you select reverse.

Folding mirrors were (I think) £180, you get the powered bases so need to swap over the guts of your existing mirrors. Again you get the button on the dash. These prices are from memory so it's possibly a wee bit more than that now - I got the bits from FRF Volvo in Swansea as mail order.

It was a bit of a crap time that made me get rid of it - I had my Leon Cupra alongside this, and I split from my ex-fiancee. Luckily both cars were in my name but the flat I moved to only had parking for one car. At the time the Leon was more fun so it stayed... Sometimes I wish I'd done it the other way round!

Technically I didn't completely lose the car as my folks now have it, it's sitting on 124k iirc. I gave the car a suspension refresh last May (new front topmounts, droplinks and dampers all round) and it still feels tight, from what I'm told anyway! I do still really like how it looks after a wash and polish, and I've been lucky enough to borrow it now and again for transporting furniture etc.

Mmm, I'd imagine it'll probably cost a bit more than that now.

Parking sensors are the thing I miss the most, although with the back if the car being so square you don't really need them unless there's a low lying object.

Yeah, lovely cars. Shame you had to move yours on to your parents. I'll definitely be keeping mine for a while!

[Dog Star]

Dog Star said:

A lex said:

DJFish said:

Another newbie question if I may?

How do manuals vs autos compare on mpg?

About 5-10mpg (worse) average I think.

We have a 54 plate V70 2.4 SE petrol auto (170bhp) with about 124k on the clock. Over the time we've had it it's been hovering around 31mpg which I think is excellent for such a big car.

And just for balance in reply to myself above.... we changed the 54 plate above for a 2004 '53' plate 2.5 turbo AWD auto. However the OH now works from home so it spends most of it's time going to the shops and rarely gets a long run. Computer is showing a really quite dreadful 21.9 average now. It does make a rather good noise though - woooooOOOOOF!

[Roger Woods]

Mot time tomorrow, had a dam good clean today, almost a year's dirt on the car fingers crossed almost 146000 miles I'm thinking that it's not far off wheels off and down to lepsons for polishing and maybe getting the dents sorted etc, I can't see me parting with this one when a new toy comes along hopefully next year sometime. Anyone have an idea what dent master kind of companies charge per panel to sort dents ?

Edited by Roger Woods on Wednesday 6th January 19:10

[tjk123]

A bit off topic, but does anyone know of a decent way to get Bluetooth and iPod integration in one of these? I've heard the Parrot solutions interfere with the Dolby stereo setup. Mine's a 55 plate 2.4d SE

[Roger Woods]

Just a wee update, sitting at 157000 miles now and still going well, drove to Loughborough to pick a caravan up yesterday and it towed really well coming back, doing plenty of miles again and I think it would have done a good 20000 this year by new MOT. As a by the by the fuel calculator said 55 mpg to get the van and 36 coming back!

[Alex C2]

Good to see some autos ticking along well....I've just brought a 6 speed geartronic 'Lux' spec on 87K - I paid a bit over the odds but wanted a low mileage auto so I could get on top of fluid change very early (and then once per year ~25K) to hope it goes well past 150K.