2010 Volvo XC70 D5 AWD - The formerly scruffy barge
Discussion
Davie said:
I'm still deliberating what to buy as the Volvo genuine stuff is rather spendy and frankly, the fact it'll last another 250k is irrelevant as the rest of the car certainly won't!
That's the nail on the head with cars of this age. Although I think half the fun is finding out which aftermarket parts aren't a poor compromise. Good luck with the rear shocks, they're quite straightforward.LunarOne said:
Saw a Volvo in a car park the other day, and it had these lights in the grille. I don't know if these are from the factory or some sort of aftermarket (or perhaps they are blue and flashy!) but either way, I thought of this thread...
Awesome 
looks like the front of my previous V90 CC, although with it belonging to Santander I never got brave enough to hack up the grille!seawise said:
Discovered what a great towcar these XC70’s make yesterday - went to collect a historic rally car for my brother, 400 mile roundtrip, Volvo was faultless and comfortable as ever.
What an excellent tow vehicle, trailer and cargo 
I did my first track day of the year this week, which led to me pondering trailer/towing options again. I think I'll fit a bar and give trailer rental a go this year, being able to carry wheels and get a broken car home is appealing, although I'm wary about how much hassle the collection, loading and return of a trailer would add to the day.
We did quite a lot of miles over the long Easter weekend, but most of them were fairly mundane. Now that our daughter is substantial enough to go in a bike trailer I did fit a couple of bikes to the roof for the first time, which facilitated a pleasant loop around a forest.
I called in at my local scrapyard this morning, just to see what they'd got 'in stock' and was a bit giddy to finally find a P3 V70. There's usually a handful of P2 cars there but this is the first P3 I've encountered.
It's a curious spec, absolutely basic with cloth seats and no interesting options to pillage, but also the relatively rare (for a V70) AWD box ticked. Looking at the MOT history it had done 265k in November!
Although it's black it's a different paint code to my car, so what's left of the bodywork is of no use.
Surprisingly, unlike mine, the boot latch was in perfect condition with no corrosion, so I picked that along with the trim pieces that cover the front seat bolts - one of mine is missing. I also took a clip that holds the airbox in place as mine is broken.
This haul cost me an amusingly low £10. My boot latch has behaved since I greased it, but with used spares fetching £140-170 on eBay it won't hurt to have it. I now wish I'd taken the rear lights as it's not unheard of for the LEDs to fail.
Excuse the state of my carpets, but that's better...
I called in at my local scrapyard this morning, just to see what they'd got 'in stock' and was a bit giddy to finally find a P3 V70. There's usually a handful of P2 cars there but this is the first P3 I've encountered.
It's a curious spec, absolutely basic with cloth seats and no interesting options to pillage, but also the relatively rare (for a V70) AWD box ticked. Looking at the MOT history it had done 265k in November!
Although it's black it's a different paint code to my car, so what's left of the bodywork is of no use.
Surprisingly, unlike mine, the boot latch was in perfect condition with no corrosion, so I picked that along with the trim pieces that cover the front seat bolts - one of mine is missing. I also took a clip that holds the airbox in place as mine is broken.
This haul cost me an amusingly low £10. My boot latch has behaved since I greased it, but with used spares fetching £140-170 on eBay it won't hurt to have it. I now wish I'd taken the rear lights as it's not unheard of for the LEDs to fail.
Excuse the state of my carpets, but that's better...
I initially assumed that V70 might have been a Police car as the spec was so unusual, but it was missing a lot of the features of an 'authorities spec' car and there were no holes in the dash or additional wiring for lights etc.
However, Googling the reg shows it in press photos from a double shooting in Somerset back in 2011...
So it would appear that it was possibly a detective's car. It was wearing a numberplate from a local used car dealer, so it looks like its Police days were over a while ago and someone local was doing over 30k a year in it until recently. The usual D5 killer of the aux and cambelt looked intact, but there was some collision damage to the front wing and driver's door so maybe at 265k it was an insurance write-off after a small bump.
However, Googling the reg shows it in press photos from a double shooting in Somerset back in 2011...
So it would appear that it was possibly a detective's car. It was wearing a numberplate from a local used car dealer, so it looks like its Police days were over a while ago and someone local was doing over 30k a year in it until recently. The usual D5 killer of the aux and cambelt looked intact, but there was some collision damage to the front wing and driver's door so maybe at 265k it was an insurance write-off after a small bump.
Some people go for a jog before work, I prefer to take homicide Volvos apart...
I wanted to have a better look at a few parts that I'd left behind the day before. The plastic shifter mechanism has less play than mine, but still enough slop that I decided it wasn't worth taking.
With the boot latch being less crusty I'd also forgotten to inspect the handle to see if the steel bar that the plastic handle pivots on was in a better shape. This was one of the first things I 'fixed' on my car by greasing it up. It was in worse condition and completely seized...
Maybe a spare might have been useful to attempt a replacement (the bar appears to be moulded into the plastic) but mine works fine.
I did claim one prize though...
£30 for the pair, along with a handful of fasteners that were less crusty than mine. I've no idea if the LEDs work yet, but they're in decent shape apart from a few scratches that would polish out.
I fitted the replacement airbox clip last night...
I wanted to have a better look at a few parts that I'd left behind the day before. The plastic shifter mechanism has less play than mine, but still enough slop that I decided it wasn't worth taking.
With the boot latch being less crusty I'd also forgotten to inspect the handle to see if the steel bar that the plastic handle pivots on was in a better shape. This was one of the first things I 'fixed' on my car by greasing it up. It was in worse condition and completely seized...
Maybe a spare might have been useful to attempt a replacement (the bar appears to be moulded into the plastic) but mine works fine.
I did claim one prize though...
£30 for the pair, along with a handful of fasteners that were less crusty than mine. I've no idea if the LEDs work yet, but they're in decent shape apart from a few scratches that would polish out.
I fitted the replacement airbox clip last night...
guitarcarfanatic said:
Both our lives and cars must be similar! We have our first test run with our two bikes on the roof, bike trailer in the boot and two little ones on Saturday as we head to a local trail. Wish me luck!
Good luck! We only did a 40min loop, but both the almost-4 and 1y/o seemed to enjoy it, apart from some sister squashing towards the end.
Had our 'new' 62 plate XC70 D5 for a few weeks. One of those cars that makes you think "why didn't I buy one of these years ago?". All the benefits of a big 4x4 (I've run RangeRovers and a Shogun in the past), and all the benefits of a big fast estate. It's on 150k and apart from a noisy valve lifter you'd never tell it wasn't under half that.
Though the electric handbrake control position and direction both drive me nuts just as much as it did in our old V60. Put it just out of comfortable reach, and make it go the opposite way to logic, push to apply and pull to release. Just who thought that was a good idea and why?
Though the electric handbrake control position and direction both drive me nuts just as much as it did in our old V60. Put it just out of comfortable reach, and make it go the opposite way to logic, push to apply and pull to release. Just who thought that was a good idea and why?
agent006 said:
push to apply and pull to release. Just who thought that was a good idea and why?
I'm pretty sure it's like that so you can't accidentally release it. It's plausible that it could accidentally get knocked and this would press the button causing it to be released.It took a while to get used to it on our V70 but it does make sense!
Garett said:
agent006 said:
push to apply and pull to release. Just who thought that was a good idea and why?
I'm pretty sure it's like that so you can't accidentally release it. It's plausible that it could accidentally get knocked and this would press the button causing it to be released.It took a while to get used to it on our V70 but it does make sense!
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