Volvo XC90 D5 | Shed of the Week
The XC90 was a tank-like solution to family motoring 20 years ago. Respectable Shed, now
Tough decision this week between two very similar cars, the XC90 that Shed eventually picked and a Smart Cabriolet. Sub-£1,500 XC90s aren't common. We've only had one other on here, back in September 2019. Like this week's XC, that one was a 2004 2.4 D5 five-cylinder turbodiesel. Unlike this week's XC, that 2019 shed ran out of MOT last October, and that was with a six-month Covid extension too, so it looks like it's been permanently parked up somewhere and forgotten about.
Although you'd never guess it by looking at it, today's XC has a few miles on it. Over 201,000 of them in fact when the last MOT was done in March, at which point the tester noted thinning rear brake pads but nothing else really other than the underbody corrosion that has been put down on the report for every year since 2016. It's had plenty of suspension corrosion and play issues prior to that, and a lot more stuff besides, but previous owners seem to have gone to a lot of trouble and expense keeping it all up together. Inside and out it appears to be in remarkably good nick for the mileage. The seats have reached that pillowy Cinderella state between too new and flat and too old and worn. The dash is practically unmarked.
Shed remembers driving a test XC90 for the first time back when they were new in 2002. He had a load of Lunchtime O'Booze types in the car at the time. They wer making the interior look and smell bad and demanding to be taken to the Tide End Cottage in Teddington for their daily noon to 3pm session. The pub was less than half a mile from the office but walking was out of the question.
In an attempt at humour Shed thought he would try to get one or more of them out of the second row of seats and into the third by the time-honoured method of an unannounced application of maximum throttle in first gear. This always generated plenty of laughs, from him anyway. The plan backfired however because when the hammer was dropped very little seemed to happen. Shed thought he had jammed his size ten onto the brake pedal by mistake.
After what seemed like an age the Volvo eventually completed the half-mile trip down to the pub, taking even longer to get back from it, groaning all the while like a dyspeptic hippo under the weight of five lard-bellied journos. To find out why it was so slow, Shed consulted the press release, normally the last refuge of a scoundrel but necessary in this case. He discovered to his horror that the XC90 weighed more than 2.1 tonnes. That's a commonplace figure now of course when you're talking about anything much larger than a Golf, but it was a staggering amount back then for anything non-military. Even though it didn't have a proper mechanical all-wheel drive system, once you paired that weight up with 163hp and Volvo's syrup-filled 5-speed Geartronic auto transmission you had the perfect cure for motoring insomnia.
Still, if you weren't bothered about overtaking cyclists or horses there was some merit in all that bulk. Many buyers in those days made a direct correlation between weight and safety, and in fairness it wasn't a bad shout where the XC was concerned. By 2018 not a single XC90 occupant had perished in car-to-car accidents in the UK. Urban parents with essential 300-yard school runs to do were practically queuing up outside Volvo dealerships to slap their cash down. The third row of seats was perfectly useable but the sat nav wasn't easy to use, which could be a problem on those long school runs.
Today, the 2.4 D5 five-cylinder diesel engine has a decent rep for reliability. This is an Oct 2005 car, which should make it a phase two 185hp rather than a 163hp, but the downside of the 185hp cars was that they had the potentially troublesome particulate filter and swirl flaps. Injectors and alternators could fail, too. Belts and pumps were on a 60,000 mile/4 year change schedule. The old D5 would do 40mpg all day in something like an S60 but it will be nearer to 30mpg in this 185hp lump.
Check the functionality of the Haldex unit by getting someone stupid to crawl under the car with instructions to manually turn the propshaft. If they manage to do it, the Haldex is bust and that's an MOT fail these days. Warning lights for electronic problems are common. Anti-skid systems failed but weren't always expensive to put right: sometimes a £2 reluctor ring or a bit of tape around the sensor wire would do it.
Probably the riskiest area in any purchase of an XC90 was the Geartronic transmission. This had a clever sounding modular oil cooler system whereby you were meant to add extra modules for towing and the like. Unsurprisingly however few owners could be bothered to pay for extra oily bits so the assumption is that many if not most XC90s will have been run under duress, transmission wise. At £1,449, are you brave enough to take a chance? If you are, skol!
We had an early one, family owned, came to us with less than 60k miles on it. It’d already had £1800 spent on a broken 4WD coupling, and proceeded to eat more money with electrical faults that caused the headlights to stay on while it was parked etc. Front struts and other bits would creak arthritically. Finally it sprang a terminal oil leak around 75k.
In hindsight I wonder if that was the ex-wife’s doing. It was a manual and had a foot-operated handbrake. She was more a living embodiment of Mrs Shed than I’ve ever previously given her credit for, and would hold the car on hills by slipping the clutch until it was practically on fire. The D5 engine (with a manual) was supposed to be the dependable bit of the car, but I wonder if all that heat cooked a crank seal. To be fair, there wasn’t much she couldn’t break with ease.
You’ll be very brave indeed to take this on. In its first MOT with us 3 years ago the steering was reported as faulty. A bill for £1950 included a new steering pump, a Bosch servotronic (?) steering rack and lots of Labour. Then before I’d got over the shock of that we received the dreaded “anti skid disabled” message. It was some time before I plucked up enough courage to get that checked out. I bought the Vida software hoping it was the steering angle switch, but no such luck. Haldex DEM reported some fault. It needed to be fixed before the MOT due to warning lights. A new Haldex unit and burnt out pump was required, £1200. In April of this year I replaced rear callipers , pads and disks at £800. The reason: it had been sat outside the house for months over covid whilst we used other cars. Then the Mrs drove it, came back informing me that it felt slow and there was a burning smell, after she had completed her 60 mile round trip. Rear callipers had stuck on, removing any pads we had left and making massive grooves in the disk making them glow orange.....
Before we purchased it , the previous owner had replaced lights units, an electrical harness or two and spent a fair bit chasing an air bag light warning light. I used ours with Michellin Cross Climates which seemed to wear really well even with its massive weight.
She still look in really good condition but will be leaving us soon because Bristol doesn’t like old diesels and looking at old estates to replace it. Was put off 320 and 318 BMWs and will get another volvo which isn’t a awd. We used it for towing horses but having moved to a lorry for those duties it’s been sat doing very little recently and at £600 a year VED it was time to get rid of it.... we’ve grown attached to it to be honest.
No bother with the engine, other than I couldn’t get it over 26mpg regardless of how I was driving it.
I replaced a wheel bearing and a top mount in my ownership.
Biggest downside was the ponderous gearbox.
Stationary… press accelerator, wait. Wait a bit more. Wait for gap to start getting too small to go, then the car moves. You actually had to factor this into your driving and press the go pedal about a second before you wanted to move.
That said for family duties it was superb. It ate my four kids and associated item with ease. On a motorway run it was flawless.
I’d love a new gen XC90 as apparently they’re leaps and bounds ahead. Would I have another Mk1, even at this price, probably not.
I prefer engines to have some guts and I did enjoy the 2200kg/360bhp combo that I had in my X5 4.8iS...but the fuel economy was horrific though in fairness.
Other than the performance there is a lot to like about this shed I reckon. I also really liked the 2019 XC90 that I had as a loan car once(apart from the puny 250bhp 2.0 petrol 4 cylinder engine though for something so big and heavy).
Biggest downside was the ponderous gearbox.
Stationary… press accelerator, wait. Wait a bit more. Wait for gap to start getting too small to go, then the car moves. You actually had to factor this into your driving and press the go pedal about a second before you wanted to move.
We had an early one, family owned, came to us with less than 60k miles on it. It’d already had £1800 spent on a broken 4WD coupling, and proceeded to eat more money with electrical faults that caused the headlights to stay on while it was parked etc. Front struts and other bits would creak arthritically. Finally it sprang a terminal oil leak around 75k.
In hindsight I wonder if that was the ex-wife’s doing. It was a manual and had a foot-operated handbrake. She was more a living embodiment of Mrs Shed than I’ve ever previously given her credit for, and would hold the car on hills by slipping the clutch until it was practically on fire. The D5 engine (with a manual) was supposed to be the dependable bit of the car, but I wonder if all that heat cooked a crank seal. To be fair, there wasn’t much she couldn’t break with ease.
* I do accept that some are bought for genuine reasons of towing, farming etc, but as someone else said - most of these seem to be school run taxis.
It had a super solid feel that I havent found on other 4x4s - a proper tank and sat very well at high speeds on the motorway but cornering wasnt so great as expected. If you arent bothered about much speed or urgency it gave a super comfortable ride with the plump but supportive seats and most other stuff got out of your way as a precaution. Also 'felt' quite low tech / basic in a good way and that you could throw alot at it.
* I do accept that some are bought for genuine reasons of towing, farming etc, but as someone else said - most of these seem to be school run taxis.
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