Volvo XC70 D5 - yet more comfy bargeness
Discussion
Thanks.
Put the lift in to use for the Volvo today; the O/S/R brakes were hot after a long run. Turns out this is a swollen caliper housing causing the piston to stick - a quick tidy-up and moving piston in/out a few times sorted it but managed to tear the piston seal so will order a rebuild kit this week and sort.
Put the lift in to use for the Volvo today; the O/S/R brakes were hot after a long run. Turns out this is a swollen caliper housing causing the piston to stick - a quick tidy-up and moving piston in/out a few times sorted it but managed to tear the piston seal so will order a rebuild kit this week and sort.
Ended-up getting a replacement refurbished caliper from Brakes International and changing it in the rain, on the drive, the night before the Girlf needed the car for a 500 mile round trip to see an elderly relative. Any other car and I'd be fretting about the what-ifs, but fortunately this era of Volvo is well built so the caliper was changed quicker than it took to jack car up/put on axle stand/remove wheel. Even the brake flexy came straight out no issues. Explaining to the Girlf when exactly to press the brake pedal and hold it, whilst I bled that line through, was another matter altogether.
A pic of the new (refurbished) caliper:
None of it being fitted - it was pissing it down and I was just rattling through the job.
And a little bit of bank holiday TLC - an oil and change filter change as we approach 170k miles:
A bit of Elbow Grease to spruce the engine up (usually hidden by acoustic cover but fancied giving it a clean):
And a stripdown/clean/regrease of the indicator stalk mechanism as the Girlf reported she couldn't find high beam. Lovely made assembly that comes out in 2 mins (a few torx screws hold steering column cowling on, then two screws hold this in it's receptacle on the column):
All it needed was a quick wipe of the tracks you can see on the PCB below:
And voila, all is good in Volvo column stalk land. Onwards and upwards.
A pic of the new (refurbished) caliper:
None of it being fitted - it was pissing it down and I was just rattling through the job.
And a little bit of bank holiday TLC - an oil and change filter change as we approach 170k miles:
A bit of Elbow Grease to spruce the engine up (usually hidden by acoustic cover but fancied giving it a clean):
And a stripdown/clean/regrease of the indicator stalk mechanism as the Girlf reported she couldn't find high beam. Lovely made assembly that comes out in 2 mins (a few torx screws hold steering column cowling on, then two screws hold this in it's receptacle on the column):
All it needed was a quick wipe of the tracks you can see on the PCB below:
And voila, all is good in Volvo column stalk land. Onwards and upwards.
It's fantastic to see you getting stuck in with the home mechanics. I've worked for a (used) Volvo specialist for the last 13 months or so, so know the merits of these very well. While I much prefer an auto - they can and do have issues. They can be notoriously tricky to diagnose and have control modules that can fail amongst other complicated things. Still not a patch on Powershift, but we won't talk about those..
We regularly see D5's on 200/300/400 thousand miles so yours will be good for a while with regular maintenance.
We regularly see D5's on 200/300/400 thousand miles so yours will be good for a while with regular maintenance.
Jimmy No Hands said:
It's fantastic to see you getting stuck in with the home mechanics. I've worked for a (used) Volvo specialist for the last 13 months or so, so know the merits of these very well. While I much prefer an auto - they can and do have issues. They can be notoriously tricky to diagnose and have control modules that can fail amongst other complicated things. Still not a patch on Powershift, but we won't talk about those..
We regularly see D5's on 200/300/400 thousand miles so yours will be good for a while with regular maintenance.
Thanks Jimmy. Yeah I think we'd prefer an auto too, would better suit the character of the car. But you can't argue with how cheap the manual is to run with 48mpg average and no worry of gearbox implosion.We regularly see D5's on 200/300/400 thousand miles so yours will be good for a while with regular maintenance.
I was amazed at how clean the engine oil was after 7k miles in a 170k mile engine so can easily imagine them going on for while. I suspect blanking the EGR has contributed to this.
Was just a matter of time...
Cheers, Rob
Wasn't too bad Kevin, we rarely go but when we do we aim for the last couple of opening hours of the day. None of the restaurants were open so no meatballs for me... 
Volvo is booked in for it's MOT this coming week so a bit of prep was in order. Usual replacement of secondary bulbs, but also replaced the rear brake discs, pads, handbrake shoes and adjusters. With the adjustable abutment from the earlier V70/XC70 the handbrake is spot on now - three clicks and fully on.
Volvo is booked in for it's MOT this coming week so a bit of prep was in order. Usual replacement of secondary bulbs, but also replaced the rear brake discs, pads, handbrake shoes and adjusters. With the adjustable abutment from the earlier V70/XC70 the handbrake is spot on now - three clicks and fully on.
Glad you've enjoyed the read. Can't recommend them enough.
MOT week. Failed first time round on rear droplinks and a missing steering rack gaitor clip - all pretty boring bits but a fail nonetheless.
Went for Meyle HD droplinks which I got next day delivery on from a place one eBay. Getting the old ones off was an arse and resorted to a hacksaw, gaitor clip I raided my spares boxes for. The lift in the garage makes jobs like this so much more palatable than rolling round on a cold driveway.
Popped it back to test station just now and got a pass.
So 171k miles down and a fresh 12 months MOT. Great car.
MOT week. Failed first time round on rear droplinks and a missing steering rack gaitor clip - all pretty boring bits but a fail nonetheless.
Went for Meyle HD droplinks which I got next day delivery on from a place one eBay. Getting the old ones off was an arse and resorted to a hacksaw, gaitor clip I raided my spares boxes for. The lift in the garage makes jobs like this so much more palatable than rolling round on a cold driveway.
Popped it back to test station just now and got a pass.
So 171k miles down and a fresh 12 months MOT. Great car.
Continued preventative maintenance on the bus today - top engine mount replaced. They appear to be almost a consumable on these cars and the one I took off was original but dated stamped 2013 so had been replaced once already. We'd noticed with the cold mornings a slight judder pulling away, which has gone away with this replaced.
It's the big lump of aluminium/rubber supported by the cross brace:
A 20 min job to change, probably quicker if Volvo didn't insist on using three different sizes of bolt head/nut meaning I had to walk back to the toolbox more times than necessary. Other than that car is continuing to do sterling work racking up the miles - it's become the Girlf's preferred daily and seems to spend most of it's weekends collecting bits of tatty furniture to be "upcycled".
It's the big lump of aluminium/rubber supported by the cross brace:
A 20 min job to change, probably quicker if Volvo didn't insist on using three different sizes of bolt head/nut meaning I had to walk back to the toolbox more times than necessary. Other than that car is continuing to do sterling work racking up the miles - it's become the Girlf's preferred daily and seems to spend most of it's weekends collecting bits of tatty furniture to be "upcycled".
Had an hour to myself today to hide from the family so gave the headlights a sand/polish/coating with a cheap German resto kit that turned-up in Aldi a month or two ago.
I gave the headlights a quick buff earlier in the year but never really treated them, so they'd clouded over progressively to this:
I've gone to town on other headlight lenses before, removing the headlight assy from the car, sanding, polishing then re-lacquering. But for the XC70 something quicker/more time efficient was in order. Enter £5 kit from germany - an assortment of 2000-5000 grade papers, small sanding block, polish, sealant and clothes. Very exciting.
Et voila. Literally was only about 10mins per side:
All important cross car compare:
Which meant I was still looking for something to kill a bit more time/avoid the family so gave it a wash from top to bottom. Scrubs up well.
I gave the headlights a quick buff earlier in the year but never really treated them, so they'd clouded over progressively to this:
I've gone to town on other headlight lenses before, removing the headlight assy from the car, sanding, polishing then re-lacquering. But for the XC70 something quicker/more time efficient was in order. Enter £5 kit from germany - an assortment of 2000-5000 grade papers, small sanding block, polish, sealant and clothes. Very exciting.
Et voila. Literally was only about 10mins per side:
All important cross car compare:
Which meant I was still looking for something to kill a bit more time/avoid the family so gave it a wash from top to bottom. Scrubs up well.
Thanks all
Front offside corner was getting warmer than it should do and more dusty than the rest - quick check showed a sticky caliper. From the looks of the service record this is the last original brake caliper on the car at 172k miles.
A refurbed one from Brakes Int and a new Pagid brake hose for that corner from ECP was the order of the day. Quickish change with just a little fight from the brake hose + bleed through of that corner.
Will replace the discs/pads at the front when weather is warmer!
loskie said:
That's lovely I do like these. Massively impressed by your DIY skills.
One thing from first photo and last has the car been lifted or running on higher profile tyres? It sits nice and tall.
Standard 215/65r16 and springs/shocks as far as I know. The nivomats raise the rear up after a run.One thing from first photo and last has the car been lifted or running on higher profile tyres? It sits nice and tall.
Front offside corner was getting warmer than it should do and more dusty than the rest - quick check showed a sticky caliper. From the looks of the service record this is the last original brake caliper on the car at 172k miles.
A refurbed one from Brakes Int and a new Pagid brake hose for that corner from ECP was the order of the day. Quickish change with just a little fight from the brake hose + bleed through of that corner.
Will replace the discs/pads at the front when weather is warmer!
At some point the driver's door check 'strap' had been broken - the arm was still there but it flopped around inside the door. This meant the door didn't have it's usual resistance to blowing in the wind when opened:
A quick google showed this to be a common occurrence and the solution is a new assembly from Volvo:
I thought I'd strip the door down instead to see if whatever had happened was repairable. The doorcard comes off in 5mins with plastic rivets and two torx holding it on.
It looked like the check arm had been overloaded at some point and popped the arm out of the roller bushes it runs in (inside the door), allowing the spring and one of the bushes to drop out. Fishing around with a magnet found all the bits of the check assembly in the bottom of the door (spring, bushes etc):
Studying the images of the new parts and a bit of work in the vice with some screwdrivers as leverage got it all back together:
And reassembled in no time:
Et voila! A working drivers door check strap reinstated. The door now opens and closes with the resistance you'd normally expect, staying where you leave it partly open on the detents in the arm. A small but satisfying repair that cost zilch other than a few cups of tea and a bit of head scratching.
Onwards!
A quick google showed this to be a common occurrence and the solution is a new assembly from Volvo:
I thought I'd strip the door down instead to see if whatever had happened was repairable. The doorcard comes off in 5mins with plastic rivets and two torx holding it on.
It looked like the check arm had been overloaded at some point and popped the arm out of the roller bushes it runs in (inside the door), allowing the spring and one of the bushes to drop out. Fishing around with a magnet found all the bits of the check assembly in the bottom of the door (spring, bushes etc):
Studying the images of the new parts and a bit of work in the vice with some screwdrivers as leverage got it all back together:
And reassembled in no time:
Et voila! A working drivers door check strap reinstated. The door now opens and closes with the resistance you'd normally expect, staying where you leave it partly open on the detents in the arm. A small but satisfying repair that cost zilch other than a few cups of tea and a bit of head scratching.
Onwards!
Onwards and upwards, indeed!
This is a great read - a great buy and a great job you're doing here. (Thanks!) This thread is almost like a complete online Haynes manual for the XC70; though I doubt I'd be capable of tackling some of the more ambitious jobs you've managed.
Had a (rare) petrol, manual XC70 myself for about 5 years and really appreciated its virtues. Went like stink, loads of room for consignments from IKEA, with a very luxurious leather interior when you need a grown-up car to attend the opera in. Good in snow, too, and would happily function as a knock-about service barge for towing my forest rally car out of Kielder, or transporting various classic Italians around the countryside.
Eventually part-exchanged it for a Freelander; which was better in some respects but not as quick, spacious or luxurious; but I do still miss my old XC70 and occasionally wonder about getting one of those Japanese imports you can find...
This is a great read - a great buy and a great job you're doing here. (Thanks!) This thread is almost like a complete online Haynes manual for the XC70; though I doubt I'd be capable of tackling some of the more ambitious jobs you've managed.
Had a (rare) petrol, manual XC70 myself for about 5 years and really appreciated its virtues. Went like stink, loads of room for consignments from IKEA, with a very luxurious leather interior when you need a grown-up car to attend the opera in. Good in snow, too, and would happily function as a knock-about service barge for towing my forest rally car out of Kielder, or transporting various classic Italians around the countryside.
Eventually part-exchanged it for a Freelander; which was better in some respects but not as quick, spacious or luxurious; but I do still miss my old XC70 and occasionally wonder about getting one of those Japanese imports you can find...
Thanks both, glad the thread is being enjoyed.
The Clarke impact wrench was an old 14.4v NiCad unit, replaced last year with an 18v Li-ion Ryobi which is far superior.
Today I fitted a replacement new front undertray. There wasn't one fitted when I purchased the car, a bit of googling didn't seem particularly clear whether this vintage of XC70 should had one, until I spotted the captive nuts present on the front subframe suggesting it should be there. I got a £40 eBay special that fits perfectly, and found some stainless bolts and penny washers in the garage to attach it with. Gave the bottom of the engine a good degrease/scrub/hose off whilst under there.
Not very exciting, but a satisfying outcome for an hour or so's work.
The Clarke impact wrench was an old 14.4v NiCad unit, replaced last year with an 18v Li-ion Ryobi which is far superior.
Today I fitted a replacement new front undertray. There wasn't one fitted when I purchased the car, a bit of googling didn't seem particularly clear whether this vintage of XC70 should had one, until I spotted the captive nuts present on the front subframe suggesting it should be there. I got a £40 eBay special that fits perfectly, and found some stainless bolts and penny washers in the garage to attach it with. Gave the bottom of the engine a good degrease/scrub/hose off whilst under there.
Not very exciting, but a satisfying outcome for an hour or so's work.
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