Discussion
Good work, some nice jobs ticked off.
Funnily enough, I made some similar upgrades when I picked up the XC70. I didn't trust my 30 year old weedy jack and very deformed and rusty axle stands. Upgrades were purchased!
Forgot to acknowledge the rolling resistance / tyre comment - they are pretty equally worn, about 2.5mm left all round. I think a full new set will go on this month (but disappointed to find the factory fit and currently fitted All Season Pirelli Scorpion Verdes have been discontinued and replaced by an Audi specific summer tyre Scorpion Verde
)
Funnily enough, I made some similar upgrades when I picked up the XC70. I didn't trust my 30 year old weedy jack and very deformed and rusty axle stands. Upgrades were purchased!
Forgot to acknowledge the rolling resistance / tyre comment - they are pretty equally worn, about 2.5mm left all round. I think a full new set will go on this month (but disappointed to find the factory fit and currently fitted All Season Pirelli Scorpion Verdes have been discontinued and replaced by an Audi specific summer tyre Scorpion Verde
)
Pretty sure the tyres are going to be more plug than tyre in a minute 
Came out yesterday morning to the third flat tyre in about 6 months, this time a woodscrew right through the centre of the tread. I suspect I picked that up when I went into the tip with some old engine oil the afternoon before.
Of course, now the propshaft is back on, we need to keep the biggest circumference on the front and the spare is virtually new, so:
Get the spare out (this is more complicated than it sounds as I have wedged a full size alloy in there instead of the special spare, and to get it in and out the boot floor has to be unbolted; a bit of a pain, but less of a pain than being stuck doing 50 max and/or burning out the VC) jack up front of car and remove front right wheel, spare on, drop front right.
Jack up rear of car, Flat off, front right in its place, drop car back down.
All done in 15 minutes - thenbig jack helped a lot!
Now I've got to do that all in reverse with the repaired tyre.
Came out yesterday morning to the third flat tyre in about 6 months, this time a woodscrew right through the centre of the tread. I suspect I picked that up when I went into the tip with some old engine oil the afternoon before.
Of course, now the propshaft is back on, we need to keep the biggest circumference on the front and the spare is virtually new, so:
Get the spare out (this is more complicated than it sounds as I have wedged a full size alloy in there instead of the special spare, and to get it in and out the boot floor has to be unbolted; a bit of a pain, but less of a pain than being stuck doing 50 max and/or burning out the VC) jack up front of car and remove front right wheel, spare on, drop front right.
Jack up rear of car, Flat off, front right in its place, drop car back down.
All done in 15 minutes - thenbig jack helped a lot!
Now I've got to do that all in reverse with the repaired tyre.
chris1roll said:
Pretty sure the tyres are going to be more plug than tyre in a minute
Came out yesterday morning to the third flat tyre in about 6 months, this time a woodscrew right through the centre of the tread. I suspect I picked that up when I went into the tip with some old engine oil the afternoon before.
Of course, now the propshaft is back on, we need to keep the biggest circumference on the front and the spare is virtually new, so:
Get the spare out (this is more complicated than it sounds as I have wedged a full size alloy in there instead of the special spare, and to get it in and out the boot floor has to be unbolted; a bit of a pain, but less of a pain than being stuck doing 50 max and/or burning out the VC) jack up front of car and remove front right wheel, spare on, drop front right.
Jack up rear of car, Flat off, front right in its place, drop car back down.
All done in 15 minutes - thenbig jack helped a lot!
Now I've got to do that all in reverse with the repaired tyre.
If only they made new tyres as tough as our old Volvos! Came out yesterday morning to the third flat tyre in about 6 months, this time a woodscrew right through the centre of the tread. I suspect I picked that up when I went into the tip with some old engine oil the afternoon before.
Of course, now the propshaft is back on, we need to keep the biggest circumference on the front and the spare is virtually new, so:
Get the spare out (this is more complicated than it sounds as I have wedged a full size alloy in there instead of the special spare, and to get it in and out the boot floor has to be unbolted; a bit of a pain, but less of a pain than being stuck doing 50 max and/or burning out the VC) jack up front of car and remove front right wheel, spare on, drop front right.
Jack up rear of car, Flat off, front right in its place, drop car back down.
All done in 15 minutes - thenbig jack helped a lot!
Now I've got to do that all in reverse with the repaired tyre.
ker off and having to go to the tyre centre Yesterday the weather didn't look too bad, so I decided to get on and replace the inner tie rod.
Once I had got the car up in the air and released the boot I found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYT8y8lxC68
All of the play is in the rack shaft bushing.
There's no point replacing the tie rod and having to pay £50 or whatever it costs these days to have the tracking reset so I put it back together and put the tie rod into the spares box. It was only about £15 for a Meyle one.
I literally can't feel it when driving, so I'll ask the tester what he would do if it were his. Probably nothing for a while, tbh.
2nd job of the day was to give it a damn good clean. I couldn't remember the last time I cleaned it, but remembered we had chucked it through the car wash 'a few months ago'. Turns out, having found the 'buy 4 washes get 5th free' card in the centre console, that was actually the 26th Feb last year
I think I might have borrowed the neighbours pressure washer a bit after that following an off-road excursion.
Silver doesn't really show dirt, but she was looking a little bit grubby:
Despite being driven regularly, being parked on the north side of the house meant that there was still moss growing in various places, so the first stage was to go round with a small brush and get all the filth out of the roof gutters, window seals, door handles rubbing strips and wheel arch trims.
It just kept coming!:
I then used a wheel brush to scrub the ingrained mud out of the plastic trims - a simple sponge or mitt never gets it off.
Once I had the rest of the car washed, the paint felt like sandpaper and there were tar spots everywhere, so I decided to try using the clay bar that I had originally bought to use on the 740 but bottled it as I heard you could make quite a mess with it.
With plenty of hot soapy water as lube I somewhat amateurishly passed it over the car folding it every so often.
I don't seem to have done any damage, and it was interesting to see it pick up and remove all the crap in/on the paint. Afterwards it felt almost like glass, so it seemed to work.
Then I started with the SRP, but it started to rain so I retreated indoors having polished half the bonnet.
This morning was dry so I could carry on, after drying the car off again. I think this is a big improvement:
It's the plastic bumpers and trim that let it down really, (and the corroded alloys, but thats not a cheap fix) I had been using autolgyms trim gel but it only ever lasted a couple weeks and turned them black rather than the blue they should be. Having not been done for over a year, I've left them as is so there won't be anything on there to react with whatever I try next. I've seen and heard very good things about Owatrol, so thats probably going to be the route I go down once I have a realistic prospect of it not getting rained on immediately.
The inside was minging. Somehow I didn't take any before pictures, but the boot was full of lurcher hair and dribble, and the footwells full of stones and mud from the clay ground and various excursions into field gateways after geocaches. I also vacuumed up a few smarties, what looked like a lump of cake, and something small and silver that Harry sucked up before I could stop him.
Amateur vacuum lines:
I used poorboys natural look on the interior. I'd bought this for the 740 but hadn't had time to use it yet so this was an opportunity to experiment. I was very impressed, does what it says on the tin (bottle) not horrible and shiny, not sticky or greasey and cleans really well too - the sill plates had mud ground into them and it cleaned that off and left it looking like new.
It did stain my fingers blue though, so I might use gloves next time.
So, after the best part of an entire day, the car is now a very nice place to be again:
As ready as it'll ever be for the MOT now....
Once I had got the car up in the air and released the boot I found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYT8y8lxC68
All of the play is in the rack shaft bushing.
There's no point replacing the tie rod and having to pay £50 or whatever it costs these days to have the tracking reset so I put it back together and put the tie rod into the spares box. It was only about £15 for a Meyle one.
I literally can't feel it when driving, so I'll ask the tester what he would do if it were his. Probably nothing for a while, tbh.
2nd job of the day was to give it a damn good clean. I couldn't remember the last time I cleaned it, but remembered we had chucked it through the car wash 'a few months ago'. Turns out, having found the 'buy 4 washes get 5th free' card in the centre console, that was actually the 26th Feb last year
I think I might have borrowed the neighbours pressure washer a bit after that following an off-road excursion.
Silver doesn't really show dirt, but she was looking a little bit grubby:
Despite being driven regularly, being parked on the north side of the house meant that there was still moss growing in various places, so the first stage was to go round with a small brush and get all the filth out of the roof gutters, window seals, door handles rubbing strips and wheel arch trims.
It just kept coming!:
I then used a wheel brush to scrub the ingrained mud out of the plastic trims - a simple sponge or mitt never gets it off.
Once I had the rest of the car washed, the paint felt like sandpaper and there were tar spots everywhere, so I decided to try using the clay bar that I had originally bought to use on the 740 but bottled it as I heard you could make quite a mess with it.
With plenty of hot soapy water as lube I somewhat amateurishly passed it over the car folding it every so often.
I don't seem to have done any damage, and it was interesting to see it pick up and remove all the crap in/on the paint. Afterwards it felt almost like glass, so it seemed to work.
Then I started with the SRP, but it started to rain so I retreated indoors having polished half the bonnet.
This morning was dry so I could carry on, after drying the car off again. I think this is a big improvement:
It's the plastic bumpers and trim that let it down really, (and the corroded alloys, but thats not a cheap fix) I had been using autolgyms trim gel but it only ever lasted a couple weeks and turned them black rather than the blue they should be. Having not been done for over a year, I've left them as is so there won't be anything on there to react with whatever I try next. I've seen and heard very good things about Owatrol, so thats probably going to be the route I go down once I have a realistic prospect of it not getting rained on immediately.
The inside was minging. Somehow I didn't take any before pictures, but the boot was full of lurcher hair and dribble, and the footwells full of stones and mud from the clay ground and various excursions into field gateways after geocaches. I also vacuumed up a few smarties, what looked like a lump of cake, and something small and silver that Harry sucked up before I could stop him.
Amateur vacuum lines:
I used poorboys natural look on the interior. I'd bought this for the 740 but hadn't had time to use it yet so this was an opportunity to experiment. I was very impressed, does what it says on the tin (bottle) not horrible and shiny, not sticky or greasey and cleans really well too - the sill plates had mud ground into them and it cleaned that off and left it looking like new.
It did stain my fingers blue though, so I might use gloves next time.
So, after the best part of an entire day, the car is now a very nice place to be again:
As ready as it'll ever be for the MOT now....
Straight through, no advisories.
Play in the rack was assessed as "minimal".
It then blotted its copy book a bit by the battery running flat while in the bay.
I may have to get the battery (and probably alternator) sorted before we take it on holiday in April.
Biggest bosch battery that will fit in the space incoming.
chris1roll said:
Straight through, no advisories.
Play in the rack was assessed as "minimal".
It then blotted its copy book a bit by the battery running flat while in the bay.
I may have to get the battery (and probably alternator) sorted before we take it on holiday in April.
Biggest bosch battery that will fit in the space incoming.
I fitted a 020 in the space normally occupied by a 096 in our Scirocco. Massive in comparison but it will never go flat!
47p2 said:
019 is the biggest battery that will fit in the space
Loving the carpet stripes
Loving the carpet stripes
Bosch S5 or Varta Silver 100Ah 830A £116 from tayna, sounds fine to me.
mercedeslimos said:
And if it doesn't fit...
I fitted a 020 in the space normally occupied by a 096 in our Scirocco. Massive in comparison but it will never go flat!
Our previous V70 ended up with the genuine Mercedes battery out of my Dads old E320 CDI. Weighed about 5 tonnes. It carried a dead/dying alternator for a couple of days until that was fixed, then did another year or so before then doing a stint in my brothers S80. Finally died in 2022, at we think, the age of 21!I fitted a 020 in the space normally occupied by a 096 in our Scirocco. Massive in comparison but it will never go flat!
The current battery is genuine Volvo but tiny.
It has run down a few times when I've been working on the car if I've needed to keep it in neutral (can't take the key out if not in park
) and if you sit with the radio on for more than a couple minutes you get the low battery warning on the dash. Ignore at your peril.Last time it did it to me the car threw an utter fit (much like Hammonds aston on the latest grand tour).
Time for replacement.
Occasional pulsing of the lights too, so alternator proabably a good bet. 47p2 already reccommended a good supplier on his thread.
My V70 had a newish Halfords 027 battery fitted when I bought the car. It worked but was way too small for the car electrics and could possibly have failed in the dark of the winter in the middle of nowhere so I fitted a new 096 Bosch S5 . I did contemplate an 019 but it isn't required for petrol engines and the extra weight doesn't help the already greedy fuel consumption.
Old 027 Halfords battery
New Bosch S5 096 battery
Old 027 Halfords battery
New Bosch S5 096 battery
chris1roll said:
Our previous V70 ended up with the genuine Mercedes battery out of my Dads old E320 CDI. Weighed about 5 tonnes. It carried a dead/dying alternator for a couple of days until that was fixed, then did another year or so before then doing a stint in my brothers S80. Finally died in 2022, at we think, the age of 21!
There is a German bus battery manufacturer who was OEM supplier to Merc and they had legendary longevity. And by luck, the Volvo OEM batteries came out of the same manufacturer - not sure of period, but marked made in Germany (certainly 2005 to 2012ish).I've got one in the XC70 and it's now 14 years old - battery health still allegedly brilliant according to my charger and keeps chugging on.
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