Volvo XC70 D5 - yet more comfy bargeness
Discussion
TurboRob said:
Faust66 said:
Been looking at this thread for a while... I was after a comfy long distance cruiser that would give decent mpg (I do a fair bit of hiking around the UK) and as I'm a bit of Volvo fan I thought I'd go for an XC70 to go with my missus's 1999 V70 and my Amazon.
Took a fair bit of finding - lot of overpriced and/or dodgy cars out there - but just over a month ago I picked up a 2007 P2 manual D5 185bhp model.
Fair bit of history with new clutch and DMF at 178k miles (now on 221k), recent rear 4CS dampers and lots of other stuff. Air con is ice cold and it's got heated seats. Quite a lot of car for 2 grand.
Fitting new front discs, pads and calipers this weekend and it needs a front vacuum engine mount which I'll do soon.
So, thanks for the inspiration OP!
Nice work! And you're welcome.Took a fair bit of finding - lot of overpriced and/or dodgy cars out there - but just over a month ago I picked up a 2007 P2 manual D5 185bhp model.
Fair bit of history with new clutch and DMF at 178k miles (now on 221k), recent rear 4CS dampers and lots of other stuff. Air con is ice cold and it's got heated seats. Quite a lot of car for 2 grand.
Fitting new front discs, pads and calipers this weekend and it needs a front vacuum engine mount which I'll do soon.
So, thanks for the inspiration OP!
If you're long distance cruising in these - the tyres make a big difference. The first set I had on were (arguably budget spec) Avon ZV7s - these gave better MPG and were quieter than the Michelin CrossClimate+ I have on now. However the Michelin's give a much nicer ride and are all-season so a piece of mid for the winter weather. Pirelli Scorpion Verde's are apparently the original fit/go to tyre for these - might try them next.
Envious of your A/C
Castleton last weekend (gratuitous pic time):
Edited by Faust66 on Tuesday 23 August 23:06
That looks great in silver - gives all the plastic bits some contrast.
It's MOT time this week and with an unexpected day of pleasant weather - and not the forecast rain - a chance to give it a once over.
I like to get in the wheel arches to give everything a look, checking bushes, brakes, hoses, bearings, etc.
Whilst doing so I remembered that I didn't grab pics of the new springs and dampers I fitted back in Feb. These have done 8k miles and still look great after a rinse off. At the time I gave them a quick coat of BIlthamber, today I repeated this in prep for the winter salt.
Whilst the wheels are off an opportunity to give them a good scrub and check over the tread and inner sidewalls on the tyres:
And finally a wipe down of the engine bay. The chap I take my cars to for MOTs really appreciates a clean one, so I'm happy to make the small amount of effort for some MOT brownie points.
It's MOT time this week and with an unexpected day of pleasant weather - and not the forecast rain - a chance to give it a once over.
I like to get in the wheel arches to give everything a look, checking bushes, brakes, hoses, bearings, etc.
Whilst doing so I remembered that I didn't grab pics of the new springs and dampers I fitted back in Feb. These have done 8k miles and still look great after a rinse off. At the time I gave them a quick coat of BIlthamber, today I repeated this in prep for the winter salt.
Whilst the wheels are off an opportunity to give them a good scrub and check over the tread and inner sidewalls on the tyres:
And finally a wipe down of the engine bay. The chap I take my cars to for MOTs really appreciates a clean one, so I'm happy to make the small amount of effort for some MOT brownie points.
Excellent work!
Missus's 1999 V70 passed its MOT today with no advisories: she's very happy.
Tested my Cross Climate 2s on a very, very wet drive back from Scotland (Kinclochleven) earlier this week. I'm very impressed with them, and with my XC: did the 400 ish miles in one go and got approx 50mpg.
Missus's 1999 V70 passed its MOT today with no advisories: she's very happy.
Tested my Cross Climate 2s on a very, very wet drive back from Scotland (Kinclochleven) earlier this week. I'm very impressed with them, and with my XC: did the 400 ish miles in one go and got approx 50mpg.
An oil change at 194k miles today - 7k miles since the last in May:
Hengst filter from GSF and Halfords branded (Comma) 5W40 Fully Synthetic was the order of the day. The filter is about £5 and 7L of oil is just over £35.
All done and dusted inside of 20mins using the vacuum method.
Hengst filter from GSF and Halfords branded (Comma) 5W40 Fully Synthetic was the order of the day. The filter is about £5 and 7L of oil is just over £35.
All done and dusted inside of 20mins using the vacuum method.
Faust66 said:
Tested my Cross Climate 2s on a very, very wet drive back from Scotland (Kinclochleven) earlier this week. I'm very impressed with them, and with my XC
A small amount of snow last weekend turned in to a week of frozen local B-roads - the Michelin CrossClimates and the XC system dealt with it all with minimal fuss. I'm very impressed with them too.How do you fund it runs on 5-30 oil?
I only ask as I use 0-30 as recommended by Volvo... I know some people use the thicker grade on higher mileage engines to allow for wear etc. Mine is now on 224k miles, so I was thinking about thicker oil on the next change which I'll be doing in the next couple thousand miles..
Had my XC up in the Peak District today - they certainly handle icy roads well (first time I've driven it on ice and snow).
I only ask as I use 0-30 as recommended by Volvo... I know some people use the thicker grade on higher mileage engines to allow for wear etc. Mine is now on 224k miles, so I was thinking about thicker oil on the next change which I'll be doing in the next couple thousand miles..
Had my XC up in the Peak District today - they certainly handle icy roads well (first time I've driven it on ice and snow).
Faust66 said:
How do you fund it runs on 5-30 oil?
I only ask as I use 0-30 as recommended by Volvo... I know some people use the thicker grade on higher mileage engines to allow for wear etc. Mine is now on 224k miles, so I was thinking about thicker oil on the next change which I'll be doing in the next couple thousand miles..
This is a very good point you've made here - I'm using 5W40 and have been since getting the car. I can't remember the reason why I choose this grade at the time, but you're right, Volvo now recommend 0W30 not just for the later twin-turbo D5s, but also the earlier single turbo units too.I only ask as I use 0-30 as recommended by Volvo... I know some people use the thicker grade on higher mileage engines to allow for wear etc. Mine is now on 224k miles, so I was thinking about thicker oil on the next change which I'll be doing in the next couple thousand miles..
On the next oil change I'll give 0W30 or 5W30 a go and report back any notable differences!
Three Years In
As January passed it marked three years of having the car in the house.
Carrying on from January 2022...
Servicing (parts required/worn out/at end of life)
Oil and filter change £40
N/S/R caliper (that's all four done!) £73
Rear tyres (pair) £195
Servicing (optional bits; could've left if just running as shed)
An optional oil and filter change £40
Rear springs and shocks £179
Car stood on 194k miles in January, meaning we'd covered 34,000 miles in the three years.
Total = £60/month or 9p/mile in maintenance.
A very cheap car to own/run, and a particularly cheap third year of ownership.
The start of the fourth year isn't looking as cheap...
As January passed it marked three years of having the car in the house.
Carrying on from January 2022...
TurboRob said:
Two Years In
All these are parts cost only as I do the work myself.
Servicing (parts required/worn out/at end of life)
2 x 'basic' services (oil changes, filters, etc) - it's about £80 a time for the bits, so £160 total.
Aux belt and tensioner, £80
Rear brakes, £90
Front brakes, £80
Rr droplinks, £40
O/S/F wheel bearing, £35
3 x brake calipers, £190
Tyres, £430
Total ~£1100
Servicing (optional bits; could've left if just running as shed)
2 x 'additional' services (oil changes, filters, etc) - it's about £80 a time for the bits, so £160 total.
Front suspension, £340
3 x engine mounts, £140
Front undertray, £45
Upgrades/tarting up, about £100
Total ~£800
Divide the above by the miles it's done in that time, or months owned, and it's cost buttons to run.
...I did another tot up of costs on the XC70. Add the below to the above for total ownership costs:All these are parts cost only as I do the work myself.
Servicing (parts required/worn out/at end of life)
2 x 'basic' services (oil changes, filters, etc) - it's about £80 a time for the bits, so £160 total.
Aux belt and tensioner, £80
Rear brakes, £90
Front brakes, £80
Rr droplinks, £40
O/S/F wheel bearing, £35
3 x brake calipers, £190
Tyres, £430
Total ~£1100
Servicing (optional bits; could've left if just running as shed)
2 x 'additional' services (oil changes, filters, etc) - it's about £80 a time for the bits, so £160 total.
Front suspension, £340
3 x engine mounts, £140
Front undertray, £45
Upgrades/tarting up, about £100
Total ~£800
Divide the above by the miles it's done in that time, or months owned, and it's cost buttons to run.
Servicing (parts required/worn out/at end of life)
Oil and filter change £40
N/S/R caliper (that's all four done!) £73
Rear tyres (pair) £195
Servicing (optional bits; could've left if just running as shed)
An optional oil and filter change £40
Rear springs and shocks £179
Car stood on 194k miles in January, meaning we'd covered 34,000 miles in the three years.
Total = £60/month or 9p/mile in maintenance.
A very cheap car to own/run, and a particularly cheap third year of ownership.
The start of the fourth year isn't looking as cheap...
Are you going to do the clutch yourself? I assume you are, but it's big job on one of these (mine had a clutch and flywheel done at 177k miles, I bought it with 221 showing).
Would be interested in seeing pics etc. That said, I would'tn DIY mine if I had to replace it: I'm getting a bit old to be changing clutches at the side of the road!
Would be interested in seeing pics etc. That said, I would'tn DIY mine if I had to replace it: I'm getting a bit old to be changing clutches at the side of the road!
One weekend in late Feb, the girlfriend mentioned that "something weird had happened to the clutch pedal" on the Volvo whilst reversing the car on to the drive a few days before. I had a look, to find the clutch pedal on the floor with no amount of pumping bringing it back. A quick bleed of the slave cylinder revealed this had failed - brake fluid was running from the telltale on the bellhousing every time the pedal was pressed.
The slave cylinder is a concentric type that sits over the input shaft of the gearbox - so it's a gearbox off job to replace. Gearbox off is not the work of a moment on these - a 5cyl engine with a six speed manual gearbox and the front diff/bevel gear assy on the back makes everything a squeeze - it's subframe off, along with engine mounts, coolant pipes off and steering rack out the way then lots of wiggling. With no evidence of a replacement clutch in the car's life, and a moderately noisy DMF at idle, I decided to replace both of these at the same time. A quick look around revealed this to be an expensive kit of bits - in the end a Volvo dealership with an online parts shop came up trumps with the kit, at £600 delivered. This was around £200 cheaper that sourcing aftermarket parts, separately.
It's a very comprehensive kit - with new flywheel and clutch bolts and 1L of brake fluid included too.
The kit arrived and sat in the boot of the car whilst I waited for the opportunity to do the job. The opportunity never arose and with no free weekends in the calendar we elected to get a local mechanic to do the job - he's well known locally and I've used him previously on another car for a smaller job. He initially thought he could do the job on the drive in a day, but in the end took two days at his unit. I think he put himself under a lot of pressure to finish the job - perhaps not wanting to annoy other customers who had jobs booked in - as upon returning the car he said he wasn't 100% happy with the job and wanted to spend more time checking and completing. He knows that I do a lot of my own work so he just billed me for what he'd done (the hard bit!) and I finished the job a couple of days later:
This was fine by me as I would have put the car on stands and done a spanner check for my own piece of mind anyway.
Inspection of the old bits showed a clutch plate with plenty of material left on it, and a clutch cover and flywheel in not too bad nick either:
Nice to see Volvo bits in there, and confirm they are all LUK made parts:
However the release bearing on the end of the slave cylinder had failed catastrophically - the ball bearings were loose, some jammed in the DMF and clutch cover, others rolling around the bottom of the bellhousing. The steel and plastic cage around the balls had more or less disintegrated:
This was marked Volvo and FTE, with a date stamp of 2008, so not original and clearly replaced at some point in the car's life. I suspect this ultimately failed quite quickly, but I wonder if something else exacerbated the failure such as clutch judder and/or lack of mechanical sympathy using the clutch.
The slave cylinder is a concentric type that sits over the input shaft of the gearbox - so it's a gearbox off job to replace. Gearbox off is not the work of a moment on these - a 5cyl engine with a six speed manual gearbox and the front diff/bevel gear assy on the back makes everything a squeeze - it's subframe off, along with engine mounts, coolant pipes off and steering rack out the way then lots of wiggling. With no evidence of a replacement clutch in the car's life, and a moderately noisy DMF at idle, I decided to replace both of these at the same time. A quick look around revealed this to be an expensive kit of bits - in the end a Volvo dealership with an online parts shop came up trumps with the kit, at £600 delivered. This was around £200 cheaper that sourcing aftermarket parts, separately.
It's a very comprehensive kit - with new flywheel and clutch bolts and 1L of brake fluid included too.
The kit arrived and sat in the boot of the car whilst I waited for the opportunity to do the job. The opportunity never arose and with no free weekends in the calendar we elected to get a local mechanic to do the job - he's well known locally and I've used him previously on another car for a smaller job. He initially thought he could do the job on the drive in a day, but in the end took two days at his unit. I think he put himself under a lot of pressure to finish the job - perhaps not wanting to annoy other customers who had jobs booked in - as upon returning the car he said he wasn't 100% happy with the job and wanted to spend more time checking and completing. He knows that I do a lot of my own work so he just billed me for what he'd done (the hard bit!) and I finished the job a couple of days later:
This was fine by me as I would have put the car on stands and done a spanner check for my own piece of mind anyway.
Inspection of the old bits showed a clutch plate with plenty of material left on it, and a clutch cover and flywheel in not too bad nick either:
Nice to see Volvo bits in there, and confirm they are all LUK made parts:
However the release bearing on the end of the slave cylinder had failed catastrophically - the ball bearings were loose, some jammed in the DMF and clutch cover, others rolling around the bottom of the bellhousing. The steel and plastic cage around the balls had more or less disintegrated:
This was marked Volvo and FTE, with a date stamp of 2008, so not original and clearly replaced at some point in the car's life. I suspect this ultimately failed quite quickly, but I wonder if something else exacerbated the failure such as clutch judder and/or lack of mechanical sympathy using the clutch.
Faust66 said:
Are you going to do the clutch yourself? I assume you are, but it's big job on one of these (mine had a clutch and flywheel done at 177k miles, I bought it with 221 showing).
Would be interested in seeing pics etc. That said, I would'tn DIY mine if I had to replace it: I'm getting a bit old to be changing clutches at the side of the road!
A big job with expensive part prices - easy to see why this job is generally quoted as £1500-2000 by garages. Would be interested in seeing pics etc. That said, I would'tn DIY mine if I had to replace it: I'm getting a bit old to be changing clutches at the side of the road!
Glad it's all sorted now.
How many miles do you reckon the original clutch lasted? My missus got 220k miles from her factory fitted clutch (she's had the car - 1999 V70 - for 19 years!).
I've just had a quick look on Clickmechanic: they quoted 893 quid for a clutch and DMF replacement on my 2007 P2 D5 XC70. Not as bad as I was expecting to be honest.
Forgot to mention: got a clean pass with no advisories when I MOT'd my car back in March. Very happy with that on a 2 grand car.
How many miles do you reckon the original clutch lasted? My missus got 220k miles from her factory fitted clutch (she's had the car - 1999 V70 - for 19 years!).
I've just had a quick look on Clickmechanic: they quoted 893 quid for a clutch and DMF replacement on my 2007 P2 D5 XC70. Not as bad as I was expecting to be honest.
Forgot to mention: got a clean pass with no advisories when I MOT'd my car back in March. Very happy with that on a 2 grand car.
TurboRob said:
Faust66 said:
How do you fund it runs on 5-30 oil?
I only ask as I use 0-30 as recommended by Volvo... I know some people use the thicker grade on higher mileage engines to allow for wear etc. Mine is now on 224k miles, so I was thinking about thicker oil on the next change which I'll be doing in the next couple thousand miles..
This is a very good point you've made here - I'm using 5W40 and have been since getting the car. I can't remember the reason why I choose this grade at the time, but you're right, Volvo now recommend 0W30 not just for the later twin-turbo D5s, but also the earlier single turbo units too.I only ask as I use 0-30 as recommended by Volvo... I know some people use the thicker grade on higher mileage engines to allow for wear etc. Mine is now on 224k miles, so I was thinking about thicker oil on the next change which I'll be doing in the next couple thousand miles..
On the next oil change I'll give 0W30 or 5W30 a go and report back any notable differences!
This contradicts the handbook, which suggests 0W-30:
But does then come with a table suggesting a change of grades is permissible for different climates:
Reassuring me of the use of 5W-40. Most notable was the ACEA specs (A3/B3/B4) and the statement that these requirements must be met irrespective of grade. I had been using A3/B3 spec oil so all good there too.
However I was keen to commonise the oil used across a couple of cars and set about seeing if the Volvo and Range Rover could use the same. Land Rover dictate the use of a 5W-30 C1 oil in the L322 TDV8, despite my version not having a DPF (C1 is a spec designed for cars with DPFs - it comes about by reducing the sulphur, ash and phosphate anti-wear additives which also happen to knacker DPFs. In place of the SAPs additives they use a more advanced set of anti-wear ingredients apparently).
Reading through the below, I convinced myself that I could run a C1 oil in the Volvo, in place of the A3/B3 specified:
Valvoline low saps lubricants
And so ordered 20L of it to do the Range Rover (9L) and Volvo (7L) from Smith and Allan. Buying in bulk like this gives significant cost benefits.
And gave it the usual vac oil change with new MANN filter.
Its MOT is due shortly, so gave the car it's usual annual checkover. The car's been on maternity leave with the girlf most of this year, so only covered 8k miles since the last. Coupled with the clutch change and work done with that earlier this year, I couldn't find the car wanting for anything so gave it a wash and a general spruce up to make it as presentable as possible for the test.
Fingers crossed for plain sailing.
Faust66 said:
Glad it's all sorted now.
How many miles do you reckon the original clutch lasted? My missus got 220k miles from her factory fitted clutch (she's had the car - 1999 V70 - for 19 years!).
I've just had a quick look on Clickmechanic: they quoted 893 quid for a clutch and DMF replacement on my 2007 P2 D5 XC70. Not as bad as I was expecting to be honest.
Forgot to mention: got a clean pass with no advisories when I MOT'd my car back in March. Very happy with that on a 2 grand car.
Sorry for missing this Faust! I think the clutch was original (194k miles) and found in the service history where the slave cylinder had been replaced just under three years old, covered by warranty. Presumably as it was a warranty job they replace the bare minimum (slave cylinder). How many miles do you reckon the original clutch lasted? My missus got 220k miles from her factory fitted clutch (she's had the car - 1999 V70 - for 19 years!).
I've just had a quick look on Clickmechanic: they quoted 893 quid for a clutch and DMF replacement on my 2007 P2 D5 XC70. Not as bad as I was expecting to be honest.
Forgot to mention: got a clean pass with no advisories when I MOT'd my car back in March. Very happy with that on a 2 grand car.
The wear on the clutch plates at 194k miles was minimal so I can see it easily going to that type of mileage, particularly if a cruiser rather than city or tow car. However what failed was the slave cylinder (catastrophically), and the DMF was not far behind - it rattled lightly on idle but once out had no resistance/springiness left.
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