Early morning commuter car hunting..Volvo S60 D5?

Early morning commuter car hunting..Volvo S60 D5?

Author
Discussion

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
quotequote all
The old girl received a major service last week including a wheel bearing, cost me a tad under £400 which I didn't think was too shabby.

Did a monster drive the other night and it coped admirably





Looked a bit grotty the day after mind!


The OBC got all excited when I filled it up after it's long run.




Still stand by the fact these are unbeatable for a cheap motorway muncher

bungz

1,960 posts

120 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
quotequote all
Whats a D5 of this vintage like for reliability?

Plenty of these around with sub 100K on which seems odd for its class.

Are the pre facelift ones far less desirable for any reason?

GrantB5

572 posts

88 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
quotequote all
Sticking some miles on that!

Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Interesting to see how high you can get the mileage

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Friday 23rd December 2016
quotequote all
I'm also intrigued in regards to the mileage achievable.

I had the chance to move this on last week as the wife was struggling with our a4 so one of them had to go.

Reality was the d5 is better for its purpose (as the a4 was immaculate)... and worth a lot less.

Picked up a rattle last night that sounds like a loose drop link or something

GrantB5

572 posts

88 months

Friday 23rd December 2016
quotequote all
Always fun chasing down a rattle!

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Thursday 26th January 2017
quotequote all
Big day today for the old girl...



So that's the value of it gone in the eyes of the general public (not that it actually had any to begin).

Fortunately Volvo beards know this is barely run in.

So how does she look?



In the dark not so bad (and yes I needed a taxi to the pavement!)

In the light of day ... dirty... very very dirty! She's not seen the clean side of a polish car washes sponge since from memory probably October. Which was something like 5000 very salty/grubby/cold miles ago!

The rattle continues and I imagine will be droplinks as that's very common, the aircon sounds like an escaped budgie beat boxing, and I , in trying to park too close, managed to do some bumper kissing with my 940. (Two immovable objects cause no damage to each other it seems!)

I still stand by it being an absolutely immense bit of kit for the money. An equivalent crossover model v70 would be probably 4-5k and whilst offering a bigger load space and possibly a more acceptable version of the car in my eyes would be a waste of money!

Realistically I could afford to replace it now with something a lot newer, a lot flasher, and a lot less boring... but why when it does what it needs to do so bloody well. It laps up my daily 100mile round commute; regardless of weather, in absolute comfort , with a great stereo, at a decent lick whilst returning a good mpg.

The wife doesn't get my obsession with wanting to stick a cheeky map on, but then again she doesn't have to!

Roger Woods

643 posts

211 months

Tuesday 31st January 2017
quotequote all
You know what, I understand this view exactly, I'm just coming up to 165,000 on my old 05 V70 and I just cant bring myself to get rid, I seem to have an obsession to get it to 250,000.00 which currently seems to be about 4.5 years down the line so just before my 55th birthday and hopefully shorter days and semi-retirement............

Barchettaman

6,312 posts

132 months

Wednesday 1st February 2017
quotequote all
Yep, as long as the thing remains reliable there´s little reason to spunk a huge amount every month on a lease for something that probably won´t even do as good a job. Throw in a little light home maintenance to further bring the coasts down and you´re laughing all the way to the bank.

We´re in a similar situation with our E90 320d work hack. Just approaching 195,000km, still reliable, no DPF so one less thing to worry about, great fuel economy, home oil/filter changes are a piece of piss, plenty of part worn wheel/tyre sets for sale locally, etc etc. It´s doing its job very nicely and we´ll keep it as long as it´s still allowed into cities.

With all the modern emissions gubbins on Diesel engines it seems they´re not even that economical on fuel any more.

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Wednesday 1st February 2017
quotequote all
whilst I'm happy to have a crack at most things mechanics ,despite being something id love to be able to do, escapes me massively!

I'm hoping with minimal input from my friendly mechanic and seeing onto of minor issues she'll keep plodding along indefinitely.

Sadly with a 92 mile round trip commute every day that i have to fund anything more fun would be detrimental to by outgoings!

Long live the Volvo!

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Thursday 16th March 2017
quotequote all
Update time!

It's rapidly approaching MOT day for the old bus so I've now had to start looking for solutions to the knocking and clunking I'm currently suffering.

I've ordered some powerflex inserts for the wishbones, HD drop links front and rear and some new springs.

The springs are a two part solution.
1) they're over 100k and I always tend to look at a refresh, dampers were replaced at some point in the past 4 years.
2) I've got some new wheels so a cheeky 35mm drop should make it all the better.

So the wheels are these





They're a rare option that came on the xc90 executive models and are an 18" two piece split rim made by BBS.

I've bought them cheap but they need a refurb as they all seem to corrode on the outer dish.

I've ordered the necessary hardware to bolt them up and found a picture online showing they will fit...



I fully intend to avoid the leaning forward look.

Still tempted by a cheeky remap

We shall see how this progresses!

Edited by croakey on Thursday 16th March 16:20

Ahbefive

11,657 posts

172 months

Thursday 16th March 2017
quotequote all
You sure they wont rub like a bugger when steering at slow speeds? Both my s60s have rubbed on full lock with the standard wheels and tyres let alone something that needs extra hardware to make fit and then lowering.

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Thursday 16th March 2017
quotequote all
They're a stock size and offset, it's only the centre bore that is marginally off.

They offered this setup from factory.

We shall see!

Ahbefive

11,657 posts

172 months

Thursday 16th March 2017
quotequote all
Ah ok, maybe not such an issue if its a standard offset. Just seems to be abregular occurance with wheels rubbing on S60s.

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Wednesday 29th March 2017
quotequote all
Now with 12 months mot and...

Today she got a bit lower



Also has the droplinks done and the lower arms poly bushed

Drives like a different car now... one where the wheels are connected and point in the same direction.

Wheels are ready for their budget tidy up


croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Wednesday 5th April 2017
quotequote all
The budget refurb of the wheels is well under way..







Sprayed in Halfords finest ford starburst silver paint.. I had no idea what the right colour was so chose one by name.

Need a last wet and dry and polish but looking a lot better



They won't win awards but should look decent enough.

... and today I bought some s60r xenons, they might work, they might not. I'm not at all sure but figure it was worth a punt as they're quite sought after





croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Saturday 13th May 2017
quotequote all
It is done.

XC90 18's bolted up spot on.

Not bad for £100 worth of alloys












I can't not fiddle with cars but wanted to keep this subtle so OEM+ was the key.

Still toying with a remap and then maybe some 306mm brakes

Shadow R1

3,800 posts

176 months

Saturday 13th May 2017
quotequote all
Great job with the wheels.

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

188 months

Saturday 13th May 2017
quotequote all
I don't think they're bad for what they cost, up close they're a tad scruffy.

Forgot to say I sold the xenons for a decent turn as it was looking like too much hard work

Barchettaman

6,312 posts

132 months

Saturday 13th May 2017
quotequote all
Those new wheels look the business, particularly at that price! Bloody well done OP.

GrantD5

572 posts

88 months

Sunday 14th May 2017
quotequote all
GrantB5 said:
Sticking some miles on that!

Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Interesting to see how high you can get the mileage
Never thought I would end up buying one, I love it.