Volvo XC70 D5 - yet more comfy bargeness
Discussion
Not done a Readers Car thread on here before but given the current global covid-based misery thought I'd give it a go.
Three months ago was looking for a cheap. comfy estate for winter car duties and to help with an upcoming house move. I've had a few Ovlov's before (740, 960, later V70 D5) so was naturally drawn back to them as all know they fit the bill well. Decided after reading S100HP's superb thread on his P2 XC70 (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=47&t=1719478) to give one of these a go.
After a thorough search threw up the usual turds and hilariously priced wannabes, I found one closish to home that was just on the fringe of the spec I wanted. Owner was genuine, it drove well and had good history so a deal was done and I drove it home.
It's a 2005 D5 (163bhp/no DPF), manual, SE in good working order. Decent history with money spent each year - the first owner had it until 115k miles and spent a small fortune on it each year having it serviced exclusively at Volvo. I bought it with 160k miles on it, 4 new tyres and a shortish (<3month MOT).
Back home and straight in to use helping with a house move the same weekend:
The boot is cavernous, swallowing all manner of housemove clutter:
Then an array of tip runs, the highlight being an old pub bench:
And a trip away for the weekend, the boot eating up family sized luggage without having to put the seats down:
The XC70 has progressively become part of the family, getting the pick for many more duties than the mobile skip it was intended to be so I decided to give it a thorough clean (a £6 handjob) and service (oils and filters, check everything else):
(The thing I like about this era of Volvos is how well they come apart and go back together again - all the fixings and hardware are quality and properly designed):
Then we drove it 1900 miles to Austria and back for the annual ski trip. It returned a remarkable 48mpg with cruise control on at 85 most of the way:
Which brings us up to the current day. Plans? None - looks like it'll need new rear discs and handbrake shoes for the MOT. Clutch position sensor needs the resistor mod doing and and the alarm siren back up battery needs replacing, which I may or may not get round to.
Fantastic cars!
Three months ago was looking for a cheap. comfy estate for winter car duties and to help with an upcoming house move. I've had a few Ovlov's before (740, 960, later V70 D5) so was naturally drawn back to them as all know they fit the bill well. Decided after reading S100HP's superb thread on his P2 XC70 (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=47&t=1719478) to give one of these a go.
After a thorough search threw up the usual turds and hilariously priced wannabes, I found one closish to home that was just on the fringe of the spec I wanted. Owner was genuine, it drove well and had good history so a deal was done and I drove it home.
It's a 2005 D5 (163bhp/no DPF), manual, SE in good working order. Decent history with money spent each year - the first owner had it until 115k miles and spent a small fortune on it each year having it serviced exclusively at Volvo. I bought it with 160k miles on it, 4 new tyres and a shortish (<3month MOT).
Back home and straight in to use helping with a house move the same weekend:
The boot is cavernous, swallowing all manner of housemove clutter:
Then an array of tip runs, the highlight being an old pub bench:
And a trip away for the weekend, the boot eating up family sized luggage without having to put the seats down:
The XC70 has progressively become part of the family, getting the pick for many more duties than the mobile skip it was intended to be so I decided to give it a thorough clean (a £6 handjob) and service (oils and filters, check everything else):
(The thing I like about this era of Volvos is how well they come apart and go back together again - all the fixings and hardware are quality and properly designed):
Then we drove it 1900 miles to Austria and back for the annual ski trip. It returned a remarkable 48mpg with cruise control on at 85 most of the way:
Which brings us up to the current day. Plans? None - looks like it'll need new rear discs and handbrake shoes for the MOT. Clutch position sensor needs the resistor mod doing and and the alarm siren back up battery needs replacing, which I may or may not get round to.
Fantastic cars!
Davie said:
If you're doing shoes, fit the early V70 rear shoes adjusters in place of the existing spacer bars. Makes getting a handbrake that actually works so much easier. About £12 delivered via Parts For Volvos / eBay etc
Thanks - do tell more, may I have a link please?Today replaced the aux belt, tensioner and idler pulleys as looking back through the history, I couldn't see when they were last changed. I've had the occasional squeak from the aux belt on cold starts too.
I got the kit from these chaps on eBay, they appear to be a Volvo dealership up north.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202136915903
The kit comes with new tensioner, pulleys, bolts and belt:
And followed SiRobb's youtube guide (very good btw). In particular checking the alternator pulley clutch is something I wouldn't have thought of doing. (It was fine).
https://youtu.be/DLyiYnUkQuE
I was surprised (and vindicated) to see the tensioner and pulleys were date stamped 03 and 04 so likely the originals. Despite this it appeared in good condition and the pulleys still spun freely without excessive float on the bearings. Belt looked in good condition so that part obviously fairly recent.
Start to stop was c.1 hour with cups of tea along the way. Cold start squeak has gone and that end of the engine sounds a bit quieter. Success!
When driving back from Austria last month I got "Engine System Service Required" message on the dash and cruise control stopped working. Car drove fine otherwise. A quick google suggested a test which determined it was the Clutch Position Sensor going faulty - a further google shows this to be common for the age of V70/XC70.
I was going to order a replacement from Volvo (c.£60) but remembered seeing in the history it had a new sensor every year for the period it was serviced at Volvo main dealer. Some suggestion online that a weeping master cylinder allows brake fluid to ruin the sensor, but a check revealed mine to be dry as a bone. Meaning they must just wear out - there are moving parts involved.
The clutch position sensor is a linear potentiometer and I found the values for the resistance of a new one online. So today I whipped mine out to test it which showed the resistance had gone out of range at 7Kohm extended (should be <3Kohm). A thorough clean and tidy-up yielded no improvement so I soldered a 3.9Kohm resistor in a parallel to bring the extended resistance down to 2.5Kohm, refitted the sensor to the car and all is fixed/normal service is resumed.
A 6p fix!
This is the sensor. It lives above the clutch pedal.
The brushes and tracks they run on.
Testing.
The fix - an additional resistor in parallel.
I was going to order a replacement from Volvo (c.£60) but remembered seeing in the history it had a new sensor every year for the period it was serviced at Volvo main dealer. Some suggestion online that a weeping master cylinder allows brake fluid to ruin the sensor, but a check revealed mine to be dry as a bone. Meaning they must just wear out - there are moving parts involved.
The clutch position sensor is a linear potentiometer and I found the values for the resistance of a new one online. So today I whipped mine out to test it which showed the resistance had gone out of range at 7Kohm extended (should be <3Kohm). A thorough clean and tidy-up yielded no improvement so I soldered a 3.9Kohm resistor in a parallel to bring the extended resistance down to 2.5Kohm, refitted the sensor to the car and all is fixed/normal service is resumed.
A 6p fix!
This is the sensor. It lives above the clutch pedal.
The brushes and tracks they run on.
Testing.
The fix - an additional resistor in parallel.
No, clutch position sensor is still operating as it should so all usual functions are normal. The second resistor has simply corrected the curve of position vs resistance as the carbon tracks have worn/failed and resistance has drifted up.
Plot below shows my sensor as I found it, in blue curve. Yellow is the resistance value versus position for a new sensor and red is the corrected resistance with the second resistor soldered in parallel. So the additional resistor has brought the resistance much closer across the range and added some margin for it to continue drifting up as the tracks wear further.
One thing I also noted is the car is much smoother pulling away/as the clutch is released. I guess the engine management measures clutch position or rate of change of clutch position (how quick you lift clutch) and smooths the torque demand/fuel curve to suit. Otherwise a simple switch would suffice if the sensor is just there to switch cruise off when clutch is depressed.
Cheers, Rob
Plot below shows my sensor as I found it, in blue curve. Yellow is the resistance value versus position for a new sensor and red is the corrected resistance with the second resistor soldered in parallel. So the additional resistor has brought the resistance much closer across the range and added some margin for it to continue drifting up as the tracks wear further.
One thing I also noted is the car is much smoother pulling away/as the clutch is released. I guess the engine management measures clutch position or rate of change of clutch position (how quick you lift clutch) and smooths the torque demand/fuel curve to suit. Otherwise a simple switch would suffice if the sensor is just there to switch cruise off when clutch is depressed.
Cheers, Rob
An opportunity to tidy-up the headlight lenses with the great spring weather and covid lockdown conditions - they had gone cloudy, typical of noughties Hella lenses.
On other cars I've removed the lenses, sanded, lacquered then polished-up but I couldn't be bothered for these so went for a quick mask-up and cut/polish with some old farecla bodyshop compounds. Then rubbed some UV-protectant in to hopefully stop/slow down the breakdown of the plastic.
Came up well!
On other cars I've removed the lenses, sanded, lacquered then polished-up but I couldn't be bothered for these so went for a quick mask-up and cut/polish with some old farecla bodyshop compounds. Then rubbed some UV-protectant in to hopefully stop/slow down the breakdown of the plastic.
Came up well!
A further month of lockdown has given an opportunity to continue maintenance on the XC70:
Bought all new rear brakes (discs, pads, handbrake shoes), anticipating a complete overhaul. Eurocarparts came up trumps with all the bits, delivered the same day. After checking specs was happy to go with their own-brand eicher discs and pads (TMD friction).
The discs on the back of these go rusty very quickly so I etched and sprayed the non-friction surfaces to try and keep them tidy for a bit longer
Upon stripping down the rear brakes I found discs, pads and shoes with plenty of material on - just looking a bit under utilised and needing a tidy/regreasing. The new bits will stay on the shelf until required.
And I spent my time giving the arches and undercarriage a thorough clean out and degrease. Intrigued to find ally uprights and rear subframe. Nivomat self-levelling shocks inside the rear spring.
With the above looking a bit scabby I went hunting and found an old can of Dinitrol in the garage that was put to good use after heating-up in the sun.
All back together and down on the ground to adjust handbrake. Auto adjusters left in so a simple case of tweaking cable travel at handbrake.
And I now have a handbrake fit enough to pass an MOT - job jobbed.
Separately I added an Ultragauge to the dash to monitor OBD channels and check for any codes:
(Good bit of kit these).
And tidied the wiper arms as they were looking their age. The required a light pulling as the base of the arms are aluminium/the wiper spindles steel:
(Did one of the other cars too)
And voila! A few more jobs ticked-off the list.
Bought all new rear brakes (discs, pads, handbrake shoes), anticipating a complete overhaul. Eurocarparts came up trumps with all the bits, delivered the same day. After checking specs was happy to go with their own-brand eicher discs and pads (TMD friction).
The discs on the back of these go rusty very quickly so I etched and sprayed the non-friction surfaces to try and keep them tidy for a bit longer
Upon stripping down the rear brakes I found discs, pads and shoes with plenty of material on - just looking a bit under utilised and needing a tidy/regreasing. The new bits will stay on the shelf until required.
And I spent my time giving the arches and undercarriage a thorough clean out and degrease. Intrigued to find ally uprights and rear subframe. Nivomat self-levelling shocks inside the rear spring.
With the above looking a bit scabby I went hunting and found an old can of Dinitrol in the garage that was put to good use after heating-up in the sun.
All back together and down on the ground to adjust handbrake. Auto adjusters left in so a simple case of tweaking cable travel at handbrake.
And I now have a handbrake fit enough to pass an MOT - job jobbed.
Separately I added an Ultragauge to the dash to monitor OBD channels and check for any codes:
(Good bit of kit these).
And tidied the wiper arms as they were looking their age. The required a light pulling as the base of the arms are aluminium/the wiper spindles steel:
(Did one of the other cars too)
And voila! A few more jobs ticked-off the list.
Thanks, glad you're enjoying!
I had a 2013 215bhp V70 (not XC70) for a few years and that engine (twin turbo) is superb but lacks the character of the single-turbo D5. Did 100k miles in it and never had an issue with DPF or anything, mind.
Month or so on since last update, I've cleaned-out the EGR mixer and inlet pipe - 165k miles of the devil's work:
(The mixer unit is sat on the slam panel in below pic, it was similarly full of oily crud):
And blanked the feed with a plate off eBay:
This brings on a 'High-Emissions Service Required' warning on dash info panel, but no warning lights or derate/limp home. At some point I may see if I can code it out...
I was able to get a copy of Vovlo's official/dealearship-level diagnostic software working - for those in to computers I have it running on a Windows 10 virtual machine on my macbook - and then with the help from some chinese hardware have it communicating with the car
This enables me do access all modules on the car and interrogate for errors, check plausibility and do some testing. First scan shows all is well in Ovlov land with just an error for the EGR circuit and a historic one for the clutch position sensor being out of range.
Which means all we're waiting for now is the pub's to reopen...
I had a 2013 215bhp V70 (not XC70) for a few years and that engine (twin turbo) is superb but lacks the character of the single-turbo D5. Did 100k miles in it and never had an issue with DPF or anything, mind.
Month or so on since last update, I've cleaned-out the EGR mixer and inlet pipe - 165k miles of the devil's work:
(The mixer unit is sat on the slam panel in below pic, it was similarly full of oily crud):
And blanked the feed with a plate off eBay:
This brings on a 'High-Emissions Service Required' warning on dash info panel, but no warning lights or derate/limp home. At some point I may see if I can code it out...
I was able to get a copy of Vovlo's official/dealearship-level diagnostic software working - for those in to computers I have it running on a Windows 10 virtual machine on my macbook - and then with the help from some chinese hardware have it communicating with the car
This enables me do access all modules on the car and interrogate for errors, check plausibility and do some testing. First scan shows all is well in Ovlov land with just an error for the EGR circuit and a historic one for the clutch position sensor being out of range.
Which means all we're waiting for now is the pub's to reopen...
Thanks. Can't see this one going anywhere as become part of the family already. Only wish is an auto as think that'd suit the car better, but auto's don't do 48mpg on a run.
Last night I replaced the lower front engine mount as I noticed it was shot. £33 off eBay and less than 10mins work:
Last night I replaced the lower front engine mount as I noticed it was shot. £33 off eBay and less than 10mins work:
Took the Volvo to west cornwall last week/weekend for a family camping trip - it excelled at swallowing all manner of gear needed for 5 days away, cruising there and back 80-85 and returning 51mpg over the 600 miles.
Separately I've been fiddling with an arduino to interrogate the ECUs and log data from them. This is currently fitted to the volvo along with a GPS sensor and 6DoF motion sensor -
Separately I've been fiddling with an arduino to interrogate the ECUs and log data from them. This is currently fitted to the volvo along with a GPS sensor and 6DoF motion sensor -
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.
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!
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