Breaking the student stereotype again (Volvo S60)
Discussion
So after the Audi unexpectedly expired 3 weeks ago I needed to find another car. Got back down to Loughborough where I'm at university and started searching. Found this S60 for sale in London, and with a spare week before terms started, I got on the train and went for a look. Drove it back the same day 
Needs a wash, but apart from that, she's lovely. She's a 2.4T with 89,0000 miles on the clock, 2 previous owners who seem to have looked after it well. Spotless inside, seats are holding up well, no real signs of wear at all.
Got the 803 stereo, which sounds amazing, love the fact I have Dolby Pro-logic in my car
On top of that, there's cruise control and a sunroof which I've not had before, and can't stop playing with
Parked outside our student house for this year, along with PHer McSam's 328i. We're not typical studnets when it comes to our cars
Needs a wash, but apart from that, she's lovely. She's a 2.4T with 89,0000 miles on the clock, 2 previous owners who seem to have looked after it well. Spotless inside, seats are holding up well, no real signs of wear at all.
Got the 803 stereo, which sounds amazing, love the fact I have Dolby Pro-logic in my car
On top of that, there's cruise control and a sunroof which I've not had before, and can't stop playing with Parked outside our student house for this year, along with PHer McSam's 328i. We're not typical studnets when it comes to our cars
Thanks for all the comments guys!
Pixel-Snapper said:
Just out of interest how many clicks of the handbrake are you pulling up on to get it to bite?
Looks to me as the level is coming up a bit high. This can be one of two things, it needs adjusting or that the rear handbrake shoes are on the way out - if they go they can take the hub with them and cost a fortune!
I know about the issue regarding the hubs, and I'm also aware that there's a lot of travel in the handbrake, how many clicks I'm not sure, as I tend to hold the button in when applying it. I'll be servicing the car in the very near future so will have a look at the shoes and see what they're like.Looks to me as the level is coming up a bit high. This can be one of two things, it needs adjusting or that the rear handbrake shoes are on the way out - if they go they can take the hub with them and cost a fortune!
Not had much chance to drive yet as term has started. Went out last night for a bit though. A summary of my thoughts so far...
- Cruise control and sunroofs are awesome (this may fade as the novelty wears off)
- The fuel tank is huge, and while that means you don't have to fill it often, when you do, the numbers will be scary (£92 to fill it just after purchase)
- The 2.4T, while obviously not as fast as a T5, has sufficient poke and I haven't felt the need for it to be quicker (yet)
- Got some longer journeys coming up later in the month, this thing's going to just eat the miles
Been wet and miserable ever since but had a pair of Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas fitted to the rear about a week ago. Interested to see how they perform, will probably go for another pair when it comes to changing the fronts.
Are there any drain holes under the bonnet that are prone to clogging up easily with leaves and general autumnal crap? I ask as when washing the car on Friday I noticed a small damp patch at the front of the passenger foot well, seems like its running from under the glovebox, where the cabin filter is located. A quick look online suggests I'm not only one that's come across this, general consensus is an AC hose that is blocked due either a drain hole below the windscreen in the engine bay or the sunroof drain lines becoming blocked.
Obviously with winter coming along I'd like to get this sorted as the car seems to steam up in the back quite easily at the minute.
Are there any drain holes under the bonnet that are prone to clogging up easily with leaves and general autumnal crap? I ask as when washing the car on Friday I noticed a small damp patch at the front of the passenger foot well, seems like its running from under the glovebox, where the cabin filter is located. A quick look online suggests I'm not only one that's come across this, general consensus is an AC hose that is blocked due either a drain hole below the windscreen in the engine bay or the sunroof drain lines becoming blocked.
Obviously with winter coming along I'd like to get this sorted as the car seems to steam up in the back quite easily at the minute.
Edited by 722Adam on Wednesday 24th October 22:16
Stokemon said:
What year are you two in? I'm studying the same course at lboro :-). Sadly no car to speak of.
Decent lurking there!We're both in our 3rd year of the masters course, looking for placements for 2013/2014 in between the mountains of work we have got at the minute. How about yourself?
Stokemon said:
Lovely cars by the way. What is the insurance like on them?
Just realised I never did reply to this, my bad!My premium is ~£1k fully comp, hopefully that'll drop when it's up for renewal (end of Feb) as I'll be 21 with another year's no claims.
Quick update, not much has changed, just piling on the miles, at 92500 now. No real news apart from fixing the small water leak. Turned out it was caused by the exterior trim running down the A-pillar coming loose. Fitted new clips after breaking the old ones trying to put it back on and it seems to have dried out. Will change the cabin filter soon as it's probably damp from pulling the moisture through.
Looking forward to some nicer weather so I can give her a proper clean, wash, wax, coat of polish.
Had another pair of Vredesteins fitted to the front so I now have 4 matching tyres.
Had the tracking set while I was there and had a good chance to have a look underneath, all looked very clean.
caiss4 said:
Good on you but why didn't you go for the S60R?
Basically I was without a car after the Audi ate itself so needed something pretty quick. Budget ruled out S60Rs and at that point in time also the decent looking T5s. It doesn't bother me though to be honest; while they would be quicker and more exciting, the 2.4T is certainly quick enough, still sounds great and also seems quite rare.Not far off a year to the day and I thought I'd update this again
The S60 is still going strong, with just under 105k on the clock. Been an eventful year in all. Had the dreaded DIM failure in the summer, but had my existing unit repaired so wasn't too much of a wallet burn. Also replace the front wishbones as the bushes had gone.
Got round to doing a few little jobs today. I sadly had a minor collision in Milton Keynes a while ago which resulted in a cracked number plate and dislodged grille. Finally sorted the grille and just need to get a set of plates, which I was going to do at some point anyway (with Euro GB bits on).
I was having a water ingress issue which was diagnosed as a drain hole under the scuttle panel, sorted that by cleaning several years worth of crap out of the end, hopefully that'll sort it.
Worked out which parking sensor is broken and found a replacement for a reasonable price, so that'll be ordered soon, not looking forward to fitting it though, bumper off job...
The issue I'm not looking forward to is the sunroof. The sunshade is stuck closed, but does move with the glass if you operate the sunroof, so you can at least open it, but the tilt function is obviously pointless and I like the extra daylight it lets in when it's open. The problem is the accordian like windbreak on one side which has moved (and split). There is a small (maybe one inch) amount of movement in the shade which moves with this windbreak. So I need to work out how it comes apart to set everything free and replace what I need to.
Now to the bits I have photos for, these are still on the "to-source" list:
Stereo knobs
Cupholder lid
I'm also following a thread on volvoforums.co.uk in which a guy is trying to fashion an auto-open boot lid, by basically adding springs to the struts. That way, once the latch is popped by the remote, the springs will take over and push the boot lid. Completely unnecessary, but pretty cool nevertheless.
Will get some more photos when the car is in a clean and photogenic condition
The S60 is still going strong, with just under 105k on the clock. Been an eventful year in all. Had the dreaded DIM failure in the summer, but had my existing unit repaired so wasn't too much of a wallet burn. Also replace the front wishbones as the bushes had gone.
Got round to doing a few little jobs today. I sadly had a minor collision in Milton Keynes a while ago which resulted in a cracked number plate and dislodged grille. Finally sorted the grille and just need to get a set of plates, which I was going to do at some point anyway (with Euro GB bits on).
I was having a water ingress issue which was diagnosed as a drain hole under the scuttle panel, sorted that by cleaning several years worth of crap out of the end, hopefully that'll sort it.
Worked out which parking sensor is broken and found a replacement for a reasonable price, so that'll be ordered soon, not looking forward to fitting it though, bumper off job...
The issue I'm not looking forward to is the sunroof. The sunshade is stuck closed, but does move with the glass if you operate the sunroof, so you can at least open it, but the tilt function is obviously pointless and I like the extra daylight it lets in when it's open. The problem is the accordian like windbreak on one side which has moved (and split). There is a small (maybe one inch) amount of movement in the shade which moves with this windbreak. So I need to work out how it comes apart to set everything free and replace what I need to.
Now to the bits I have photos for, these are still on the "to-source" list:
Stereo knobs
Cupholder lid
I'm also following a thread on volvoforums.co.uk in which a guy is trying to fashion an auto-open boot lid, by basically adding springs to the struts. That way, once the latch is popped by the remote, the springs will take over and push the boot lid. Completely unnecessary, but pretty cool nevertheless.
Will get some more photos when the car is in a clean and photogenic condition
Edited by 722Adam on Sunday 5th January 15:43
Another update
Got an engine service done this weekend, plugs came out in rather good condition, not sure how long they'd been in there, first time I've changed them (so over 16k). The ports the plugs sit in were in a shocking state, that's shockingly clean! Took a pic, but it didn't really come out well, but you can still see the machine marks on the surface, signs of a healthy engine?
Found this on the underside of the engine cover:
Blue with emblem? Tempting...
Also had a look at the sunroof again, and pulled some bits off...
Broken...
...broken...
...and, broken
However, I can now manually open my sunshade again independently of the sunroof itself, so I've accomplished something
Will update again when I have more progress.
Got an engine service done this weekend, plugs came out in rather good condition, not sure how long they'd been in there, first time I've changed them (so over 16k). The ports the plugs sit in were in a shocking state, that's shockingly clean! Took a pic, but it didn't really come out well, but you can still see the machine marks on the surface, signs of a healthy engine?
Found this on the underside of the engine cover:
Blue with emblem? Tempting...
Also had a look at the sunroof again, and pulled some bits off...
Broken...
...broken...
...and, broken
However, I can now manually open my sunshade again independently of the sunroof itself, so I've accomplished something
Will update again when I have more progress.
Remember that water ingress problem? It's been coming and going depending how hard the rain falls when I'm driving. I'd dismissed it from being an urgent problem as it would always dry out after a short period of time. However, Monday morning I was giving McSam a lift to work and, well, he got his feet wet
Yup, the passenger footwell carpet was soaked, this time the ingress had happened while the car was not running, which is rather worrying. I've managed to clean round the AC inlet and plan to make up a new gasket for the housing soon. I then turned my attention to the interior to see if I could trace the leak backwards. It wasn't long before I had the carpet out and half the trim around it. Nice to see the carpet is in several pieces, unlike some other cars I've come across...
The carpet may take a while to dry as the insulation is rather thick...
Now I just need to keep digging for the source of this poxy leak. More to follow soon (hopefully!)...
Yup, the passenger footwell carpet was soaked, this time the ingress had happened while the car was not running, which is rather worrying. I've managed to clean round the AC inlet and plan to make up a new gasket for the housing soon. I then turned my attention to the interior to see if I could trace the leak backwards. It wasn't long before I had the carpet out and half the trim around it. Nice to see the carpet is in several pieces, unlike some other cars I've come across...
The carpet may take a while to dry as the insulation is rather thick...
Now I just need to keep digging for the source of this poxy leak. More to follow soon (hopefully!)...
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