1998 Volvo V70 T5... again...
Discussion
I'll try and keep this brief and relevant... however will likely fail and veer off so apologies in advance.
I should probably start at the start but that would be way back in 1998 when I bought my first of many T5 powered Volvos which in turn sort of planted the seed as far as the Volvo thing goes. However, as far as my relationship with this car goes, it began back in early 2015 when myself and a couple of equally unattached mates decided to do one of the "Rust 2 Rome" trips which basically entail driving a £500 car from Edinburgh to Rome and back... possibly, if you're lucky and you don't buy a complete banger.
Being of sound T5 stock, I did the obvious thing and bought a 1999 V70 2.4 N/A for £250 from a bloke in Glasgow, had it recovered home and within 24hrs had deemed it a complete banger so removed a few bits and scrapped it. A good start to our adventure. I then happened across a rather unloved looking silver V70 in Blackpool for a mere £400 and so, aided by my slightly unhinged associate, 5hrs later I was 275 miles south handing over £400 before heading straight back home. We had a car.
Said car was a 1998 V70 T5 with an auto box and a mere 170,000 miles on the clock and with no evidence of much love and attention over the past few years. It had however consumed the first 275 miles without any fuss, at speed and in reasonably wafty comfort. Based on that alone, it was going to Rome. Granted the air con didn't work but that's no problem in Scotland in winter however it was something we'd later regret in 43degs in Italy. In the weeks following, I drove the car daily and took it on a few extended runs to iron out any issues - it went down south twice, tt went to Applecross (I figured it was as close to the Alps as I could get without a passport) and it had some fresh fluids, filters and some matching, part worn Nankang superslider tyres - something else I'd later regret. In Scotland, in winter.
As June loomed and the miles increased at an alarming rate, final pre-trip prep work began - namely arguing over where to put the official stickers before deciding to go all in with some swanky vinyl work then fitting the CB radio so we could listen to lorry drivers and oddly, two guys discussing old thread pitches. Drilling a hole in the roof should have been fine, but the fact I was getting upset over it suggested I was getting a bit too attached to the car. One last long distance trip to Skye with me then new girlfriend confirmed all was well and with that, a week later we were at South Queensferry with 10 days and about 10,000 miles ahead. I'll skip the finer details of said trips but it was messy, sweaty, drinky, spendy, speedy and said T5 never missed a beat.
A brief route recap: Edinburgh > Dover > Paris > Luzern > Stelvio > Venice > Pisa > Rome... including pretty much all of the significantly high passes in the Alps and doing battle in Paris and Rome in rush hour traffic. Once in Rome we had lots to drink, had a day off then turned round and said goodbye to the group and headed back for home... this time going Rome > Genoa > Monaco > Geneva > Nurburgring > Amsterdam > Newcastle > Edinburgh by which stage we were ruined, the car stank of 16 days worth of BO, farts and paprika flavoured crisps however it had returned with an extra 4,750 miles on the clock, a 147mph autobahn stint and about 10 million flies welded to it.
At this stage, the car should have been returned to standard and all evidence of it's ordeal removed, it should have been sold and I'd have gone back to driving more modern, less thirsty and less smelly stuff but I didn't because by that stage I'd decided I just couldn't and so the adventures of Car 2 continued with more miles in and around the UK and it still refused to do anything wrong. I took it back to Skye and had several more trips south of the border and when the aforementioned new girlfriend found herself agreeing to be Mrs Davie, I figured I'd just drive it to the venue and drive us to the reception afterwards, probably partly because I'm tight and it also seemed more relevant than a random classic or something white and sedate. Obviously by this stage the stickers were off... I doubt she'd have let that one slide.
It was also used it for the Outer Hebrides part of our honeymoon, adding another 2000 miles in the process and by which stage even the other half was starting to warm to the idea of an old Volvo that still smelled a bit like farts and having broken her in gently to the concept for slightly ill advised, prolonged trips chanced my arm and suggested we should go and visit her friend in Southampton to which she agreed though took a while to figure out why I'd booked a ferry and why I'd asked if she could speak any French?
Edinburgh > Newcastle > Amsterdam > Nurburgring (again) > Reims > Caen > Southampton just seemed more appealing than the M6 average speed cameras though by the French border her sense of humour had well and truly departed but an emergency stay in Deauville managed to save a divorce. Back home and having clocked up something like the 40th ferry trip of the cars time with me in the process (we went to the Isle of Wight) it had one last winter around bits of Scotland that usually necessitate a tractor or a dog team... or winter tyres...
In 2017 it became unavoidable, the writing was on the wall for the T5. Not only we were moving and thus my commute was going to increase massively and I'd no longer have a garage for the foreseeable, but there was also the imminent arrival of number one child to consider and I just couldn't justify keeping the T5 any longer and so I reluctantly agreed to pass ownership to a mate who in turn promised to carry on where I left off. Under his ownership it had another couple of trips back to Europe and in time found itself with V70R bodykit and alloys and a complete change to a black interior, the old sweat infused beige one being sacrificially burned. In need of a bit TLC (unsurprisingly!) the car's MOT lapsed in 2019 and it'd been sat in storage since. It'd come up in conversation a few times but nothing happened for one reason or another, but despite saying "Let it go Dave, let it go" to myself, I couldn't.
A couple of weeks back it came to light that the car could be available and with my rose tinted glasses firmly in place, a conversation was had and agreement was in place - probably fuelled by current restriction boredom, an empty garage space and the deluded belief that in between work, the kids, house renovations (and tip runs) I'd somehow have the time for an old Volvo estate in need of some TLC but, ultimately it'd niggled away at me since I sold it and I figured if I didn't make a move, it would be lost forever.
The first, unflattering picture taken back in my tenure and already I've removed a few bits and pieces that were added after I sold it and whilst I admit, it looked good as a V70R replica... I wanted it back "as was" and so I removed the V70R bumper, 17" alloys, door cards and an egg create grill in lieu of standard CD spec stuff, whilst also realising the world has moved on and thus finding parts that were once ten-a-penny, is suddenly quite a challenge. The removed bits have since been passed on, in turn offsetting the initial cost of the car which is also nice.
As I write, it's now back in my lock up until I clear my feet but my plan is to get it MOT'd and then along to the house so I can waste a couple of evenings out there once the kids are in bed and she's busy with Married At First Sight or something. Thankfully, between the car, the MOT station and me is a mate with a fully equipped workshop so the idea is to get it there first, do some MOT prep and from an initial once over it's going to need the handbrake fixed (ideally a full brake overhaul) and a rear exhaust tailpipe as it's gone AWOL but aside for that, I'm hoping it'll be enough to pass then once at the house I can tinker to my hearts content... obviously I've opted to ignore the fact it may be too long for the garage but we'll worry about that later.
Longer term... not sure to be honest, I negated to think about that as I rushed to hand over some money. It's far from a weekend toy, though with a manual conversion and some tweaks it could be quite a cool retro thing (I may have already bought a mapped ECU...) or I might run it daily for a bit, the current sheddy V50 could have a few months off. I probably have visions of more euro trips and such nonsense but between Covid and life, that's not going to happen and time soon but for now, I'll just pretend and update as and when things move along.
Cheers
I should probably start at the start but that would be way back in 1998 when I bought my first of many T5 powered Volvos which in turn sort of planted the seed as far as the Volvo thing goes. However, as far as my relationship with this car goes, it began back in early 2015 when myself and a couple of equally unattached mates decided to do one of the "Rust 2 Rome" trips which basically entail driving a £500 car from Edinburgh to Rome and back... possibly, if you're lucky and you don't buy a complete banger.
Being of sound T5 stock, I did the obvious thing and bought a 1999 V70 2.4 N/A for £250 from a bloke in Glasgow, had it recovered home and within 24hrs had deemed it a complete banger so removed a few bits and scrapped it. A good start to our adventure. I then happened across a rather unloved looking silver V70 in Blackpool for a mere £400 and so, aided by my slightly unhinged associate, 5hrs later I was 275 miles south handing over £400 before heading straight back home. We had a car.
Said car was a 1998 V70 T5 with an auto box and a mere 170,000 miles on the clock and with no evidence of much love and attention over the past few years. It had however consumed the first 275 miles without any fuss, at speed and in reasonably wafty comfort. Based on that alone, it was going to Rome. Granted the air con didn't work but that's no problem in Scotland in winter however it was something we'd later regret in 43degs in Italy. In the weeks following, I drove the car daily and took it on a few extended runs to iron out any issues - it went down south twice, tt went to Applecross (I figured it was as close to the Alps as I could get without a passport) and it had some fresh fluids, filters and some matching, part worn Nankang superslider tyres - something else I'd later regret. In Scotland, in winter.
As June loomed and the miles increased at an alarming rate, final pre-trip prep work began - namely arguing over where to put the official stickers before deciding to go all in with some swanky vinyl work then fitting the CB radio so we could listen to lorry drivers and oddly, two guys discussing old thread pitches. Drilling a hole in the roof should have been fine, but the fact I was getting upset over it suggested I was getting a bit too attached to the car. One last long distance trip to Skye with me then new girlfriend confirmed all was well and with that, a week later we were at South Queensferry with 10 days and about 10,000 miles ahead. I'll skip the finer details of said trips but it was messy, sweaty, drinky, spendy, speedy and said T5 never missed a beat.
A brief route recap: Edinburgh > Dover > Paris > Luzern > Stelvio > Venice > Pisa > Rome... including pretty much all of the significantly high passes in the Alps and doing battle in Paris and Rome in rush hour traffic. Once in Rome we had lots to drink, had a day off then turned round and said goodbye to the group and headed back for home... this time going Rome > Genoa > Monaco > Geneva > Nurburgring > Amsterdam > Newcastle > Edinburgh by which stage we were ruined, the car stank of 16 days worth of BO, farts and paprika flavoured crisps however it had returned with an extra 4,750 miles on the clock, a 147mph autobahn stint and about 10 million flies welded to it.
At this stage, the car should have been returned to standard and all evidence of it's ordeal removed, it should have been sold and I'd have gone back to driving more modern, less thirsty and less smelly stuff but I didn't because by that stage I'd decided I just couldn't and so the adventures of Car 2 continued with more miles in and around the UK and it still refused to do anything wrong. I took it back to Skye and had several more trips south of the border and when the aforementioned new girlfriend found herself agreeing to be Mrs Davie, I figured I'd just drive it to the venue and drive us to the reception afterwards, probably partly because I'm tight and it also seemed more relevant than a random classic or something white and sedate. Obviously by this stage the stickers were off... I doubt she'd have let that one slide.
It was also used it for the Outer Hebrides part of our honeymoon, adding another 2000 miles in the process and by which stage even the other half was starting to warm to the idea of an old Volvo that still smelled a bit like farts and having broken her in gently to the concept for slightly ill advised, prolonged trips chanced my arm and suggested we should go and visit her friend in Southampton to which she agreed though took a while to figure out why I'd booked a ferry and why I'd asked if she could speak any French?
Edinburgh > Newcastle > Amsterdam > Nurburgring (again) > Reims > Caen > Southampton just seemed more appealing than the M6 average speed cameras though by the French border her sense of humour had well and truly departed but an emergency stay in Deauville managed to save a divorce. Back home and having clocked up something like the 40th ferry trip of the cars time with me in the process (we went to the Isle of Wight) it had one last winter around bits of Scotland that usually necessitate a tractor or a dog team... or winter tyres...
In 2017 it became unavoidable, the writing was on the wall for the T5. Not only we were moving and thus my commute was going to increase massively and I'd no longer have a garage for the foreseeable, but there was also the imminent arrival of number one child to consider and I just couldn't justify keeping the T5 any longer and so I reluctantly agreed to pass ownership to a mate who in turn promised to carry on where I left off. Under his ownership it had another couple of trips back to Europe and in time found itself with V70R bodykit and alloys and a complete change to a black interior, the old sweat infused beige one being sacrificially burned. In need of a bit TLC (unsurprisingly!) the car's MOT lapsed in 2019 and it'd been sat in storage since. It'd come up in conversation a few times but nothing happened for one reason or another, but despite saying "Let it go Dave, let it go" to myself, I couldn't.
A couple of weeks back it came to light that the car could be available and with my rose tinted glasses firmly in place, a conversation was had and agreement was in place - probably fuelled by current restriction boredom, an empty garage space and the deluded belief that in between work, the kids, house renovations (and tip runs) I'd somehow have the time for an old Volvo estate in need of some TLC but, ultimately it'd niggled away at me since I sold it and I figured if I didn't make a move, it would be lost forever.
The first, unflattering picture taken back in my tenure and already I've removed a few bits and pieces that were added after I sold it and whilst I admit, it looked good as a V70R replica... I wanted it back "as was" and so I removed the V70R bumper, 17" alloys, door cards and an egg create grill in lieu of standard CD spec stuff, whilst also realising the world has moved on and thus finding parts that were once ten-a-penny, is suddenly quite a challenge. The removed bits have since been passed on, in turn offsetting the initial cost of the car which is also nice.
As I write, it's now back in my lock up until I clear my feet but my plan is to get it MOT'd and then along to the house so I can waste a couple of evenings out there once the kids are in bed and she's busy with Married At First Sight or something. Thankfully, between the car, the MOT station and me is a mate with a fully equipped workshop so the idea is to get it there first, do some MOT prep and from an initial once over it's going to need the handbrake fixed (ideally a full brake overhaul) and a rear exhaust tailpipe as it's gone AWOL but aside for that, I'm hoping it'll be enough to pass then once at the house I can tinker to my hearts content... obviously I've opted to ignore the fact it may be too long for the garage but we'll worry about that later.
Longer term... not sure to be honest, I negated to think about that as I rushed to hand over some money. It's far from a weekend toy, though with a manual conversion and some tweaks it could be quite a cool retro thing (I may have already bought a mapped ECU...) or I might run it daily for a bit, the current sheddy V50 could have a few months off. I probably have visions of more euro trips and such nonsense but between Covid and life, that's not going to happen and time soon but for now, I'll just pretend and update as and when things move along.
Cheers
Edited by Davie on Friday 12th March 17:25
Thanks gents.
Sadly yes, the days of even sub £1000 T5 powered stuff seems long gone and needless to say I'm sat thinking of the many many cars that came and went that'd be worth a small fortune had I held on to them but such is life! That was also back when they were common place in breakers and so parts were cheap and plentiful which is something that has also changed.
One which note, I've just spent £150 on four original 16" Perfo alloys (with utterly ruined tyres) and three mismatched fog lights... not expensive by any means however also bits that you couldn't give away a few years back but I'm not bitter. The alloys will need a coat of paint and new tyres (TBC!) and the fog lights, the originals were sold with the R bumper and the replacement "standard" one came without.
Said fog lights arrived, bit tatty and so I should have just bolted them on and been done with it but she was watching something on TV and I found myself getting far too involved and so found myself stripping all three units to clean, paint and reassemble the assorted bits in to two good, working lights before standing back and thinking a) that was quite enjoyable and b) why did I even bother?
More so given the car remains in the unit, untouched for the past week or so and I'm no further forward with regards to getting it MOT'd however I probably need to just start ordering some parts and book a day on a friends ramps and just get it on the road, then I might realise what a crap idea this was...
Sadly yes, the days of even sub £1000 T5 powered stuff seems long gone and needless to say I'm sat thinking of the many many cars that came and went that'd be worth a small fortune had I held on to them but such is life! That was also back when they were common place in breakers and so parts were cheap and plentiful which is something that has also changed.
One which note, I've just spent £150 on four original 16" Perfo alloys (with utterly ruined tyres) and three mismatched fog lights... not expensive by any means however also bits that you couldn't give away a few years back but I'm not bitter. The alloys will need a coat of paint and new tyres (TBC!) and the fog lights, the originals were sold with the R bumper and the replacement "standard" one came without.
Said fog lights arrived, bit tatty and so I should have just bolted them on and been done with it but she was watching something on TV and I found myself getting far too involved and so found myself stripping all three units to clean, paint and reassemble the assorted bits in to two good, working lights before standing back and thinking a) that was quite enjoyable and b) why did I even bother?
More so given the car remains in the unit, untouched for the past week or so and I'm no further forward with regards to getting it MOT'd however I probably need to just start ordering some parts and book a day on a friends ramps and just get it on the road, then I might realise what a crap idea this was...
ALBA MELV said:
Do like a Davie Volvo write up so I'm in.
Hope you're well Dave, been a while since we were both buggering about with Vauxhalls.
Ha, cheers sir and I hope you're all good too. Hope you're well Dave, been a while since we were both buggering about with Vauxhalls.
It has indeed been a while, probably at least 5 years since I last owned some sort of slowly dissolving mid 90's Luton derived nonsense and those days feel like a long, long way away. I fully admit this latest fabulous / terrible idea is probably a by-product of driving terribly sensible, diesel Volvos full of child and wife based crap day in, day out and a sadistic desire to flee the house and sit in a damp, cold garage swearing at some rusty bolts of an evening whilst asking myself why I didn't just go and buy some golf clubs instead.
sgtbash said:
No way! I was on this trip.. Red MR2 here! Dont think we ever spoke though!
There were two trips in 2015, I did the Swiss Alps pioneers trip in June... there were only 9 of us, which was actually really nice! As for updates, very little however my local scrap yard took in a rather shabby V70 diesel last week which I got excited about as it had 16" T5 wheels so off I went but sadly, said 16" T5 wheels were the 850 "Columbas" and not the V70 "Perfos" and whilst similar in design, the Perfos are needed to clear the 302mm brakes mine has. Granted, I could always get the grinder out but... nope.
Also picked up a few handy odds and ends that are getting increasingly hard to source such as drivers door switch pack, a few switches, relays and such like plus got the missing piece for the boot floor trims, the missing bumper grills plus some bits and pieces for the other cars whilst I was in there and in yellow high viz and rigger boots mode.
Still no further forward as far as seeing the road goes, sadly work and house based nonsense has limited any free time of late.
Good things come to those who wait and all that... maybe...
A small but significant if a bit uninteresting update....
Up until last week, said T5 has been sat in my storage garage full of crap gathering dust whilst I faffed about with the whole work / life / kids stuff but took a rare lull in proceedings to go to my tame mechanics, strip off the utterly ruined tyres from the 16" T5 wheels I bought and fit a set of four used, but perfectly usable replacements which were duly fitted to the car. Staggering effort.
I then did some pre-MOT stuff, ie made sure bits wouldn't fall off it en route so that meant actually attaching the front bumper, the fog lights, a number plate and putting some fuel in it. I then opted to get tame mechanic to drive it there on his trade plates, just in case... and it failed which is a given but nothing I wasn't expecting.
Handbrake is non-existent - no reserve travel, no hope of holding the car and just generally a disaster
Rear brake pads are less then 1.5mm, confirmed by the metal on metal sound en route
NSF track rod end has seen better days
The rear exhaust tailpipe is missing and thus, unsupported
It's got a missing (broken) wheel bolt
So basically handbrake cables, rear discs, pads, shows and a rebuild kit, track rod ends (will do both) plus alignment, weld a nut to the snapped wheel bolt and extract it and obtain an off cut of 60mm tube and weld it to the broken tailpipe and then fabricate a new hanger and whilst I'm at it, probably do the fluids, strip and clean all the brakes and investigate my oil leak, which I suspect is the turbo return so no biggie.
I could have addressed all of the above before it was tested but figured I'd be as well to put it in, get a list then work through it so I'm not remotely disappointed or bothered. The car is now at the house where it fits in my garage with about 4.7mm to spare at either end and is awaiting a bit time in my diary to take over matey's garage and his ramps for an afternoon.
I have been out the past couple of nights after the kids are in bed to do important stuff like machine polishing the series of scratches that ran along the NSR door, arch and quarter. Why you may ask? Despite the car sporting numerous battle scars... this one wasn't my doing and so I was struggling with that, basically it was damage I couldn't explain unlike the dent on the NSR arch caused by an altercation with an Italian Toureg in a camp site in Venice or the assorted dents in the rood where we stood on it, pretty much at every opportunity.
However, I digress and having abandoned the DA polisher in favour of a rather scary rotary thing with more torque than a V-tec, said scratches are about 90% removed and good enough for a pass. Feeling enthused, I then wasted two hours this morning cleaning the car with an offensively strong Surfex HD mix and using an couple of old paint brushes and the washing up brush to dig the past two years worth of storage detritus out the various nooks and crannies. Also attacked the engine bay with a zero f**ks approach, ie snow foamed it with Surfex HD then did under the arches... unnecessary? Probably but I have issues with working on a minging car so I suppose it makes sense.
Hoping to offload wife and children next weekend so I can have a bit time to myself for car based / pizza eating / beer consuming nonsense then get it retested the following week. It's already insured, £170.00 a year via an alleged multi-car discount scheme via Churchill but given the RAC wanted £58.00 to insure it temporarily for 48hrs, I'll take that. Mrs Davie has also asked on several occasions, sounding more concerned or perhaps optimistic with each attempt, if I intend on disappearing off a boat to somewhere far away any time soon.
Possibly. Probably.... Yes....
Up until last week, said T5 has been sat in my storage garage full of crap gathering dust whilst I faffed about with the whole work / life / kids stuff but took a rare lull in proceedings to go to my tame mechanics, strip off the utterly ruined tyres from the 16" T5 wheels I bought and fit a set of four used, but perfectly usable replacements which were duly fitted to the car. Staggering effort.
I then did some pre-MOT stuff, ie made sure bits wouldn't fall off it en route so that meant actually attaching the front bumper, the fog lights, a number plate and putting some fuel in it. I then opted to get tame mechanic to drive it there on his trade plates, just in case... and it failed which is a given but nothing I wasn't expecting.
Handbrake is non-existent - no reserve travel, no hope of holding the car and just generally a disaster
Rear brake pads are less then 1.5mm, confirmed by the metal on metal sound en route
NSF track rod end has seen better days
The rear exhaust tailpipe is missing and thus, unsupported
It's got a missing (broken) wheel bolt
So basically handbrake cables, rear discs, pads, shows and a rebuild kit, track rod ends (will do both) plus alignment, weld a nut to the snapped wheel bolt and extract it and obtain an off cut of 60mm tube and weld it to the broken tailpipe and then fabricate a new hanger and whilst I'm at it, probably do the fluids, strip and clean all the brakes and investigate my oil leak, which I suspect is the turbo return so no biggie.
I could have addressed all of the above before it was tested but figured I'd be as well to put it in, get a list then work through it so I'm not remotely disappointed or bothered. The car is now at the house where it fits in my garage with about 4.7mm to spare at either end and is awaiting a bit time in my diary to take over matey's garage and his ramps for an afternoon.
I have been out the past couple of nights after the kids are in bed to do important stuff like machine polishing the series of scratches that ran along the NSR door, arch and quarter. Why you may ask? Despite the car sporting numerous battle scars... this one wasn't my doing and so I was struggling with that, basically it was damage I couldn't explain unlike the dent on the NSR arch caused by an altercation with an Italian Toureg in a camp site in Venice or the assorted dents in the rood where we stood on it, pretty much at every opportunity.
However, I digress and having abandoned the DA polisher in favour of a rather scary rotary thing with more torque than a V-tec, said scratches are about 90% removed and good enough for a pass. Feeling enthused, I then wasted two hours this morning cleaning the car with an offensively strong Surfex HD mix and using an couple of old paint brushes and the washing up brush to dig the past two years worth of storage detritus out the various nooks and crannies. Also attacked the engine bay with a zero f**ks approach, ie snow foamed it with Surfex HD then did under the arches... unnecessary? Probably but I have issues with working on a minging car so I suppose it makes sense.
Hoping to offload wife and children next weekend so I can have a bit time to myself for car based / pizza eating / beer consuming nonsense then get it retested the following week. It's already insured, £170.00 a year via an alleged multi-car discount scheme via Churchill but given the RAC wanted £58.00 to insure it temporarily for 48hrs, I'll take that. Mrs Davie has also asked on several occasions, sounding more concerned or perhaps optimistic with each attempt, if I intend on disappearing off a boat to somewhere far away any time soon.
Possibly. Probably.... Yes....
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff