My beaten and battered XC70 - To Macedonia and beyond
Discussion
I had never really been into cars, bangernomics is how I've dealt with them up to now but earlier this year I was in need of a bit of an adventure and an opportunity came up to move a server I own to Macedonia. I shall not elaborate more than that.
I thought this would be ideal, I will drive it there myself. I needed a car for the trip, as my old fiesta s
tbox wasn't the right tool for the job. I'm sure it would have done it but it would have finished me off.
After a few pints in the pub with a friend he suggested a Volvo V70. I thought that's not a terrible idea, but for the driving I do 99% of the time it's a bit big, I don't like diesels and I had never had an automatic, which most of them are.
"Just do the trip it in it then flog it then"...
Ok, that's not a bad idea. So off I went to have a look, after test driving one I loved the seats and thought it would be ideal for a 5000 mile jaunt over Europe but we couldn't agree a price.
Then a XC70 came up locally, it looked quite tidy and had decent service history. I took it out on an hour long test drive with the owner, bought them dinner at a pub in the country and I ended up buying it for £4000. I couldn't find a fault with the car anywhere and everything had been done on time.
I thought I will get it serviced, get new tyres on it and then take it up to Scotland for a shake down trip and off I go to Macedonia.
And then, disaster...
Two miles into the journey home the crank pulley stripped, the engine lost timing and it smashed the head to bits. I initially thought I had run out of fuel but no, I was not so lucky.
I got it towed to a local volvo specialist, they quoted me £4700 to fix her up. They had never seen a car fail like this, their theory is the garage that did the cam belt 2 years previously didn't torque it to spec and the pulley had been slowly stripping and I just got seriously unlucky. I went down to see the damage after a day to think about it and decided F it, get it repaired.
A reconditioned head was put on, new timing belt, all new pulleys, new aux belt and other stuff. Parts was most of the bill with proper OEM volvo stuff used throughout and just 10 hours of labour. I can't fault the garage, I will be using them again.
Two weeks later I go and pick it up, I slapped some new tyres on it and got the tracking done.
Then off to Alabania, I didn't get time to do a dry run as planned but I figured if it was going to break it would do it before I got to Dover, which it didn't. A nice 5 hour run through the night to sunrise over the white cliffs was lovely.
I had never driven in Europe before so the first hour or off the ferry was interesting but you soon settle down into it.
And then I met a female in Belgium, who decided to nudge me while changing music on her phone (which she kindly put into a police statement).
FFS. My flog it after it's done car now had a bill for more than I paid for it and battle scars. This was not going to plan.
I continued a bit annoyed, I decided to just get my head down and eat as many miles as I could to clear my head. By midnight I had reached the border of Germany and Austria but felt strong. Yes I had driven through the night and then most of the day too but I had two good naps at various stages and was just about to enter my favourite country of Austria.
I thought sod it let's carry on, it was a bit too late to find a hotel room and I had a pack of redbull so I refuelled and went. Crossing austria took a few hours but seeing the Alps and going to into Slovenia as the sun came up was amazing, one of my favourite drives yet.
At this point I was in Croatia, things were going well. I was 12 hours or so from my destination with a 6pm arrival time. It was then that I took my first picture of the car, I think I was starting to like it.
The rest of day 2 was fine. Serbia's border was interesting, they kept screaming green card at me. I just kept pointing to my insurance certificate... Macedonia was a country I wasn't insured to be in, but if you speak to the nice guy smoking in the green shed he will print off a form for 50 euros which says you're covered.
I arrived at my destination of Ohrid, Macedonia for roughly 8pm. That was a 32 hour drive, done in 40 hours door to door through 9 countries.
Was that potentially a stupid thing to do, 100%. Do I regret it, no.
At this point I had 5 days of holiday time, the car didn't move at all. I had met a friend who lived there who looked after me so they did the driving.
And then came the return leg. Everything was fine until 2 hours into my journey, at 6pm on a friday night I hear a loud bang and I got a service light. I had lost all boost, I parked up and ran my fisher price scanner to see this.
I thought it must be a boost pipe (I was right). However after pulling off the highway and into a random village I parked up to have a poke around to try and find it. A man approached me.
"you english?"
"yes"
"car broken?"
"yes"
"my son is mechanic, he will fix it, please come with me have coffee"
I'm a bit confused, but sod it. I wanted adventure, we went into what looked like someones front room which doubles up as the village coffee shop. He called him and we got talking.
His son turns up 10 minutes later and we return to the car. He scans it with his tool, does the standard deep breath and says this is bad.
He crawls under the car and then is "oh no you are very lucky!"
It's just a split intercooler hose, we follow him to his workshop where I watched him do some proper bush mechanics.
Once this was done they insisted on taking me out for dinner, which was great. They took me on a tour of their nearest city and then sent me on my way and wouldn't accept a penny off me. Truly great people, a memory I will not forget.
At this point it's 9pm, I was not going to highfoot back in the way I arrived. I found a hotel and got a nights sleep.
And then I come downstairs and out into the street to see this...
Someone who I never found had hit my car and totally murdered the rear light and left the rear corner in a state. I was not happy but the rest of the drive back was uneventful, but hot.
With the rear light gone I didn't want to drive at night, so it added an extra day to the journey back but that's fine. I got to explore some cool cities each evening.
The car just kept going, the bush mechanic repair held out fine. I got back to blighty with mixed emotions.
My car had taking a physical beating but for the first time ever I actually felt an attachment to a car. It was not just a tool to me anymore, I felt quite sorry for it at this point and this is why I've made the thread really. I will be fixing her up, getting it back to as Volvo intended and enjoying some more trips in it. I've got complete faith in the car itself, I know everything mechanical is good. It's just a bit tatty.
With that fixed up I shall have a car I enjoy, I've built memories with and actually like. Considering I'm really not a petrol head of any kind that's quite a weird thing to say.
Here's a pic of it in the hills of Macedonia.
I thought this would be ideal, I will drive it there myself. I needed a car for the trip, as my old fiesta s
tbox wasn't the right tool for the job. I'm sure it would have done it but it would have finished me off.After a few pints in the pub with a friend he suggested a Volvo V70. I thought that's not a terrible idea, but for the driving I do 99% of the time it's a bit big, I don't like diesels and I had never had an automatic, which most of them are.
"Just do the trip it in it then flog it then"...
Ok, that's not a bad idea. So off I went to have a look, after test driving one I loved the seats and thought it would be ideal for a 5000 mile jaunt over Europe but we couldn't agree a price.
Then a XC70 came up locally, it looked quite tidy and had decent service history. I took it out on an hour long test drive with the owner, bought them dinner at a pub in the country and I ended up buying it for £4000. I couldn't find a fault with the car anywhere and everything had been done on time.
I thought I will get it serviced, get new tyres on it and then take it up to Scotland for a shake down trip and off I go to Macedonia.
And then, disaster...
Two miles into the journey home the crank pulley stripped, the engine lost timing and it smashed the head to bits. I initially thought I had run out of fuel but no, I was not so lucky.
I got it towed to a local volvo specialist, they quoted me £4700 to fix her up. They had never seen a car fail like this, their theory is the garage that did the cam belt 2 years previously didn't torque it to spec and the pulley had been slowly stripping and I just got seriously unlucky. I went down to see the damage after a day to think about it and decided F it, get it repaired.
A reconditioned head was put on, new timing belt, all new pulleys, new aux belt and other stuff. Parts was most of the bill with proper OEM volvo stuff used throughout and just 10 hours of labour. I can't fault the garage, I will be using them again.
Two weeks later I go and pick it up, I slapped some new tyres on it and got the tracking done.
Then off to Alabania, I didn't get time to do a dry run as planned but I figured if it was going to break it would do it before I got to Dover, which it didn't. A nice 5 hour run through the night to sunrise over the white cliffs was lovely.
I had never driven in Europe before so the first hour or off the ferry was interesting but you soon settle down into it.
And then I met a female in Belgium, who decided to nudge me while changing music on her phone (which she kindly put into a police statement).
FFS. My flog it after it's done car now had a bill for more than I paid for it and battle scars. This was not going to plan.
I continued a bit annoyed, I decided to just get my head down and eat as many miles as I could to clear my head. By midnight I had reached the border of Germany and Austria but felt strong. Yes I had driven through the night and then most of the day too but I had two good naps at various stages and was just about to enter my favourite country of Austria.
I thought sod it let's carry on, it was a bit too late to find a hotel room and I had a pack of redbull so I refuelled and went. Crossing austria took a few hours but seeing the Alps and going to into Slovenia as the sun came up was amazing, one of my favourite drives yet.
At this point I was in Croatia, things were going well. I was 12 hours or so from my destination with a 6pm arrival time. It was then that I took my first picture of the car, I think I was starting to like it.
The rest of day 2 was fine. Serbia's border was interesting, they kept screaming green card at me. I just kept pointing to my insurance certificate... Macedonia was a country I wasn't insured to be in, but if you speak to the nice guy smoking in the green shed he will print off a form for 50 euros which says you're covered.
I arrived at my destination of Ohrid, Macedonia for roughly 8pm. That was a 32 hour drive, done in 40 hours door to door through 9 countries.
Was that potentially a stupid thing to do, 100%. Do I regret it, no.
At this point I had 5 days of holiday time, the car didn't move at all. I had met a friend who lived there who looked after me so they did the driving.
And then came the return leg. Everything was fine until 2 hours into my journey, at 6pm on a friday night I hear a loud bang and I got a service light. I had lost all boost, I parked up and ran my fisher price scanner to see this.
I thought it must be a boost pipe (I was right). However after pulling off the highway and into a random village I parked up to have a poke around to try and find it. A man approached me.
"you english?"
"yes"
"car broken?"
"yes"
"my son is mechanic, he will fix it, please come with me have coffee"
I'm a bit confused, but sod it. I wanted adventure, we went into what looked like someones front room which doubles up as the village coffee shop. He called him and we got talking.
His son turns up 10 minutes later and we return to the car. He scans it with his tool, does the standard deep breath and says this is bad.
He crawls under the car and then is "oh no you are very lucky!"
It's just a split intercooler hose, we follow him to his workshop where I watched him do some proper bush mechanics.
Once this was done they insisted on taking me out for dinner, which was great. They took me on a tour of their nearest city and then sent me on my way and wouldn't accept a penny off me. Truly great people, a memory I will not forget.
At this point it's 9pm, I was not going to highfoot back in the way I arrived. I found a hotel and got a nights sleep.
And then I come downstairs and out into the street to see this...
Someone who I never found had hit my car and totally murdered the rear light and left the rear corner in a state. I was not happy but the rest of the drive back was uneventful, but hot.
With the rear light gone I didn't want to drive at night, so it added an extra day to the journey back but that's fine. I got to explore some cool cities each evening.
The car just kept going, the bush mechanic repair held out fine. I got back to blighty with mixed emotions.
My car had taking a physical beating but for the first time ever I actually felt an attachment to a car. It was not just a tool to me anymore, I felt quite sorry for it at this point and this is why I've made the thread really. I will be fixing her up, getting it back to as Volvo intended and enjoying some more trips in it. I've got complete faith in the car itself, I know everything mechanical is good. It's just a bit tatty.
With that fixed up I shall have a car I enjoy, I've built memories with and actually like. Considering I'm really not a petrol head of any kind that's quite a weird thing to say.
Here's a pic of it in the hills of Macedonia.
Proper adventure, that! The furthest I’ve been that way is Croatia.
I’d love to go through Albania and NME, through to Greece. As far as selling the Volvo, I think you might be stuck with it now, for better or worse!
Classic Belgian drivers too. I find just driving like a Belgian when there makes for the easiest time. A bit like London. Put an indicator on and do what you were going to, no hard feelings if someone wrongs you, or you wrong someone.
I’d love to go through Albania and NME, through to Greece. As far as selling the Volvo, I think you might be stuck with it now, for better or worse!
Classic Belgian drivers too. I find just driving like a Belgian when there makes for the easiest time. A bit like London. Put an indicator on and do what you were going to, no hard feelings if someone wrongs you, or you wrong someone.
Thanks for the feedback chaps.
There is more to come yet, I've done a few odds and ends since getting back. I really do like the car, the twin turbo D5 engine is quick, it's comfy as any car I've been in, it's also massive and extremely functional inside. I plan on cutting a sofa up this weekend at my mums and taking it to the tip for her, the volvo will have no issues.
The downside is the tax @ £430/year and with me driving it I'm struggling to keep MPG in the mid 30's.
There's various bits I want to do, the RTI sat nav is very dated, it's almost unusable. I feel like a raspberry pi could fix that. I'd also like to work out how to make the windows point down when reversing as parking is a struggle, later models have this but mine doesn't.
It's got the beige interior which needs a good wet vac.
It's missing the front under tray, one of those should arrive tomorrow and I want to get it all spruced up ready for the salted roads. The intercooler split I spoke of in the OP was the jubilee clip rusting through and buggering it up and others look to be on their last legs. There are also bits of rust I want to sort, nothing a bit of bilt hamber and lanolin oil won't fix.
I suppose the bush mechanics turbo hose also needs to be replaced too...
While I didn't go out looking specifically for the car I do like it. It seems to suit everywhere, it never looks out of place really. I do a lot of countryside stuff, the AWD has come in useful several times already. It's seriously impressive how it deals with mud, even on budget road tyres. Speaking of which, the haldex, angle gear and dif need a service as I have no record of that being done.
The only other liquid left in the car from purchase is the brake system, I plan on flushing that when the brakes are due and the rears aren't far off that.
Since getting the engine fixed I've given it an oil change, coolant was done at that time, power steering fluid has been flushed out, gearbox oil has been changed and the fuel filter was done last weekend. I plan on 5k oil changes and 10k fuel filter changes with the gearbox getting a 50% change at 10k too.
I've also got myself a data cable and loaded VDash onto an old laptop. I tried to get VIDA working but the dodgy $5 copies aren't the easiest things to set up. I may get myself a pre-set up laptop and cable with it set up if VDash doesn't do the job in the future, there's a few guys offering this it seems.
I've also got the car booked in to get the bodywork fixed up in January. This is just the body work, the plastics need doing but I feel confident that I can sort those out. The rear bumper needs a bit of welding and filling. The passenger side needs some love too but it's nothing major. It's a 15 year old car, perfection isn't required and I'm sure a bit of filler and paint will give me a lovely 10 foot repair.
There is more to come yet, I've done a few odds and ends since getting back. I really do like the car, the twin turbo D5 engine is quick, it's comfy as any car I've been in, it's also massive and extremely functional inside. I plan on cutting a sofa up this weekend at my mums and taking it to the tip for her, the volvo will have no issues.
The downside is the tax @ £430/year and with me driving it I'm struggling to keep MPG in the mid 30's.
There's various bits I want to do, the RTI sat nav is very dated, it's almost unusable. I feel like a raspberry pi could fix that. I'd also like to work out how to make the windows point down when reversing as parking is a struggle, later models have this but mine doesn't.
It's got the beige interior which needs a good wet vac.
It's missing the front under tray, one of those should arrive tomorrow and I want to get it all spruced up ready for the salted roads. The intercooler split I spoke of in the OP was the jubilee clip rusting through and buggering it up and others look to be on their last legs. There are also bits of rust I want to sort, nothing a bit of bilt hamber and lanolin oil won't fix.
I suppose the bush mechanics turbo hose also needs to be replaced too...
While I didn't go out looking specifically for the car I do like it. It seems to suit everywhere, it never looks out of place really. I do a lot of countryside stuff, the AWD has come in useful several times already. It's seriously impressive how it deals with mud, even on budget road tyres. Speaking of which, the haldex, angle gear and dif need a service as I have no record of that being done.
The only other liquid left in the car from purchase is the brake system, I plan on flushing that when the brakes are due and the rears aren't far off that.
Since getting the engine fixed I've given it an oil change, coolant was done at that time, power steering fluid has been flushed out, gearbox oil has been changed and the fuel filter was done last weekend. I plan on 5k oil changes and 10k fuel filter changes with the gearbox getting a 50% change at 10k too.
I've also got myself a data cable and loaded VDash onto an old laptop. I tried to get VIDA working but the dodgy $5 copies aren't the easiest things to set up. I may get myself a pre-set up laptop and cable with it set up if VDash doesn't do the job in the future, there's a few guys offering this it seems.
I've also got the car booked in to get the bodywork fixed up in January. This is just the body work, the plastics need doing but I feel confident that I can sort those out. The rear bumper needs a bit of welding and filling. The passenger side needs some love too but it's nothing major. It's a 15 year old car, perfection isn't required and I'm sure a bit of filler and paint will give me a lovely 10 foot repair.
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