Comfy Volvo Content
Discussion
dandam said:
How’s the Volvo been since it’s big bath ?
Seems fine thank you. It's covered a few miles up and down to Carfest last weekend (it was rather useful getting out of the field) plus have been out and about with family this week and it's seemed fine. Only thing that may or may not be connected is that its reluctant to start in the morning. It seems to just take a few extra seconds to turn over and you can hear the battery starting to drain. I thought this might have been the battery on its way, but a test shows it to be "great"
Next to check is the earth strap as they have a tendancy to corrode, which would tie in with it getting wet a few weeks back. After that, it's injectors I guess.
Ignoring the occasional slower start, and the fact the shonky Impreza is still on my driveway I decided to give the headlamps some love. It's a common problem on the later Volvos, as the headlamps are plastic rather than glass thanks to Ford cost cutting circa 2004 iirc.
Anyway. I spent £15 on a Turtle Wax headlamp restoration kit. It was s
t. This is how they looked afterwards.
I've lived with it for a few weeks, but they really did need some love. New units are £hundreds, so I thought I'd give the local bodyshop a chance. He only wanted £30 so I let him have a go. It didn't take him long, he used a few grades of paper and then some compound on a rotary polisher. Whilst the results are not perfect they are significantly better than before. I can live with that. I also took the opportunity to replace a bulb which blew the other day.
T-6 weeks till Paris
Anyway. I spent £15 on a Turtle Wax headlamp restoration kit. It was s
t. This is how they looked afterwards.I've lived with it for a few weeks, but they really did need some love. New units are £hundreds, so I thought I'd give the local bodyshop a chance. He only wanted £30 so I let him have a go. It didn't take him long, he used a few grades of paper and then some compound on a rotary polisher. Whilst the results are not perfect they are significantly better than before. I can live with that. I also took the opportunity to replace a bulb which blew the other day.
T-6 weeks till Paris
Great read and must admit, have been debating one for a while now too and should a face-lift manual with the 163bhp D5 appear in a good colour combo, it will probably happen. My current V70 D5 is all of the above, minus the slightly improved off road prowess and whilst I've tried to tell myself it's as capable 90% of the time... it grounds out on the track abd wife has managed to bog it in the paddock at her mother's place twice. Would also be rather unstoppable during winter on the right tyres, which is a factor as we're a good few miles from the nearest treated roads with a baby... that and an XC90 is just a bit too massive. Good work, good read.
Davie said:
Great read and must admit, have been debating one for a while now too and should a face-lift manual with the 163bhp D5 appear in a good colour combo, it will probably happen. My current V70 D5 is all of the above, minus the slightly improved off road prowess and whilst I've tried to tell myself it's as capable 90% of the time... it grounds out on the track abd wife has managed to bog it in the paddock at her mother's place twice. Would also be rather unstoppable during winter on the right tyres, which is a factor as we're a good few miles from the nearest treated roads with a baby... that and an XC90 is just a bit too massive. Good work, good read.
Thanks. We seem to have a very similar taste in cars. I look forward to reading about your new purchase soon... S100HP said:
Thanks. We seem to have a very similar taste in cars. I look forward to reading about your new purchase soon...
Indeed! I've always been a "quick / Volvo / estate" man and current position if life dictates I need a reasonably modern, large, substantially built estate car that isn't that dear to buy or run and the P2 V70 model on the whole does the whole estate thing rather well... and the upside is, there's plenty variations on the theme to appeal to the ever changing needs. My D5 has been a fantastic tool but there have been a few occasions where I've found myself thinking that an XC would do everything it currently does, plus that wee bit more... and would probably sit well alongside the R, which continues to be brilliant at emptying my bank account.
Davie said:
Indeed!
I've always been a "quick / Volvo / estate" man and current position if life dictates I need a reasonably modern, large, substantially built estate car that isn't that dear to buy or run and the P2 V70 model on the whole does the whole estate thing rather well... and the upside is, there's plenty variations on the theme to appeal to the ever changing needs. My D5 has been a fantastic tool but there have been a few occasions where I've found myself thinking that an XC would do everything it currently does, plus that wee bit more... and would probably sit well alongside the R, which continues to be brilliant at emptying my bank account.
It's nice to know you can, even if you don't need to I've always been a "quick / Volvo / estate" man and current position if life dictates I need a reasonably modern, large, substantially built estate car that isn't that dear to buy or run and the P2 V70 model on the whole does the whole estate thing rather well... and the upside is, there's plenty variations on the theme to appeal to the ever changing needs. My D5 has been a fantastic tool but there have been a few occasions where I've found myself thinking that an XC would do everything it currently does, plus that wee bit more... and would probably sit well alongside the R, which continues to be brilliant at emptying my bank account.
Can't send you a PM, but might be worth joining here https://www.facebook.com/groups/1604736183145051/
BugLebowski said:
Ah the fabled picnic table and booster seats. I had mine for about 6 months before discovering them 
That's quite impressive!I gave these a good clean and feed and fitted this evening. So easy to do, just unclipped the two red clips and out they pop. Probably took 5 mins in total, and that includes refitting the isofix seats (btw, I retro fitted the isofix brackets earlier in the year, don't think I mentioned that)
So out with the old
And in with the new (which are actually older)
Kids will be chuffed they've somewhere to put their stuff on the way to Paris
Another small job ticked off the list. Replacement rear light as old had a small crack, water ingress and the led strip that you can see from side on didn't work. The only replacement I found was £95 on eBay, but a post on the XC70 owners club yielded a replacement unit for £15, including postage!
A pig of a job to fit with trim being removed left right and centre but happy now it's back together.
Before
After
A pig of a job to fit with trim being removed left right and centre but happy now it's back together.
Before
After
Not sure anyone is reading about my trusty Volvo, but it's worth posting to keep a record.
Anyway, today was an expensive day. Given how much I messed up with the shonky Impreza I'm now banned from buying new cars. This works for me as I'm actually quite happy with the XC70 in hindsight, so I might as well spend a bit of cash on it.
Today was the turn of the engine mounts to be replaced. You may know that the two main mounts under the car are vacuum mounts. I don't confess to understand how they work, but ever since I've had the car I had a feeling they needed replacing. Idle would make the car shake, as would reverse. I'd nothing to compare it to, but I just wasn't convinced they were overly happy. Well it turns out they weren't. Unfortunately the mounts are £100 each, plus fitting etc. I also had fuel filter changed at the same time. £400 later it was like a different car. Those mounts were utterly shagged. Gone are the vibrations throughout the car, replaced with a much smoother feel to the whole drivetrain.
Anyone with one of these cars should really check the engine mounts. They usually last around 100k apparently.
Anyway, today was an expensive day. Given how much I messed up with the shonky Impreza I'm now banned from buying new cars. This works for me as I'm actually quite happy with the XC70 in hindsight, so I might as well spend a bit of cash on it.
Today was the turn of the engine mounts to be replaced. You may know that the two main mounts under the car are vacuum mounts. I don't confess to understand how they work, but ever since I've had the car I had a feeling they needed replacing. Idle would make the car shake, as would reverse. I'd nothing to compare it to, but I just wasn't convinced they were overly happy. Well it turns out they weren't. Unfortunately the mounts are £100 each, plus fitting etc. I also had fuel filter changed at the same time. £400 later it was like a different car. Those mounts were utterly shagged. Gone are the vibrations throughout the car, replaced with a much smoother feel to the whole drivetrain.
Anyone with one of these cars should really check the engine mounts. They usually last around 100k apparently.
Edited by S100HP on Wednesday 10th October 07:55
Well that turned out to be an expensive 10 days! Having had the mounts replaced last week for £400 the general feel of the car was much better. Gone was the really clattering vibrations throughout the car, replaced with a very annoying metal on metal rattle between 1500 and 1800rpm, which was nice.
It went back to the garage who'd original done the work and they checked their work over and confirmed that all was right and they asked me to bring it back after the weekend for another look. Over the weekend, apart from being driven up the wall by the noise I had a poke around, which included removing part of the trim from the door as it was loose. The noise was still there. I then poked around the top engine mount and saw it moved side to side fairly freely.
On Monday I took it back to the garage and suggested they look at the top mount. They poked around the car again and when I collect they thought they'd found the issue. A power steering pipe was knocking against the body. They clamped it up and sent me on my way. The noise was still there....
Monday evening I chopped up a bit of rubber and stuffed it around the top mount to see if the noise went. It did so I jumped on ECP, ordered a new mount for £48 and fitted it on Tuesday evening via head torch. Noise was gone. Delightful. It appears that lifting the engine in the new mounts made the top one show how buggered it was.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6pJrR9zM51K87nYu6
Whilst it was in the garage they did note that the Alternator clutch pulley was seized, which was causing another type of noise. It also made the engine feel more lumpy than it should. Back into the garage today and I now have a new OAP (as it's apparently known). Upon starting the car, it feels totally different. The combination of the above works has made it feel much smoother and much quieter, so much so you can hardly hear it running when stood at the front of the car. The bloke commented that it feels like a totally different car now. I'm also pleased to report that the slow starting issue has gone away after replacing the fuel filter, so worth doing too. That was another £138 making best part of £600 in the last few weeks, eeek!
One last thing to do before our trip to Paris tomorrow and that was to try to reattach the trim panel I pulled off earlier (and broke the clips). New clips wouldn't work as they're integrated with the trim, so I resorted to adhesive.
And back in place. How well? We'll find out tomorrow, as our trip to Paris is finally here! It's going to have a 350 mile test!
It went back to the garage who'd original done the work and they checked their work over and confirmed that all was right and they asked me to bring it back after the weekend for another look. Over the weekend, apart from being driven up the wall by the noise I had a poke around, which included removing part of the trim from the door as it was loose. The noise was still there. I then poked around the top engine mount and saw it moved side to side fairly freely.
On Monday I took it back to the garage and suggested they look at the top mount. They poked around the car again and when I collect they thought they'd found the issue. A power steering pipe was knocking against the body. They clamped it up and sent me on my way. The noise was still there....
Monday evening I chopped up a bit of rubber and stuffed it around the top mount to see if the noise went. It did so I jumped on ECP, ordered a new mount for £48 and fitted it on Tuesday evening via head torch. Noise was gone. Delightful. It appears that lifting the engine in the new mounts made the top one show how buggered it was.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6pJrR9zM51K87nYu6
Whilst it was in the garage they did note that the Alternator clutch pulley was seized, which was causing another type of noise. It also made the engine feel more lumpy than it should. Back into the garage today and I now have a new OAP (as it's apparently known). Upon starting the car, it feels totally different. The combination of the above works has made it feel much smoother and much quieter, so much so you can hardly hear it running when stood at the front of the car. The bloke commented that it feels like a totally different car now. I'm also pleased to report that the slow starting issue has gone away after replacing the fuel filter, so worth doing too. That was another £138 making best part of £600 in the last few weeks, eeek!
One last thing to do before our trip to Paris tomorrow and that was to try to reattach the trim panel I pulled off earlier (and broke the clips). New clips wouldn't work as they're integrated with the trim, so I resorted to adhesive.
And back in place. How well? We'll find out tomorrow, as our trip to Paris is finally here! It's going to have a 350 mile test!
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