Someone Else's Problem: Einstuerzende SWEbauten - My 2005 Volvo XC70 D5

Yeah those are the way/weight to go if I want to use these.
 
Have listened to a slightly annoying door seal whistle since January, but hopefully fixed it now with a seemingly intact junkyard seal. They cost some 80 eur new and this was 18 eur from the nearest Volvo boneyard. An easy part to replace, too.
 
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I did a bit of preventative maintenance today, as I had seen some scary photos of EGR related trouble on D5 engines. Since there's a good amount of room and everything's easily accessed, I removed the EGR mixer pipe and associated inlet hoses to inspect just how much soot they held inside.

In the above photo, the metallic EGR mixer pipe is in the right lower corner. It's held in place by three bolts and the rest is just jubilee clips.

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The answer: a lot of crap but I was actually relieved there wasn't more. The car has been working normally with no warning lights or codes, but since I've seen photos of cars with far lower mileage having far more clogged piping, it's good that I got all of it out. Obviously I didn't remove or clean the inlet, but I'll get to that when the car has some downtime at some point. An injector seal should also be replaced as its surroundings had blackened.

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I dug the pipe and the hoses as clean as I could and sprayed them with copious amounts of brake cleaner. The stuff really is blacker than anything I know.
 
I always ask any 5-cylinder Volvo owner this: have you checked the upper and lower torque mounts? They cause rough shifting on automatic cars and kangaroo fuel on stick shifts. Both were completely gone on my '04 2.5T at 200,000 km.

The top one is visible in your picture. The bottom one was (on my 2.5T anyway) accessible from below with the car on the ground. Just undo a few of the bolts holding the bottom panel on and you'll get right to it. Both mounts bolt right out and the new ones back in, they don't hold the engine up or anything like that.
 
I checked it and it seemed fine with a little bit of movement. The car shifts ok in my opinion, but of course a new part would probably improve it.
 
I actually had my first run in with an EGR valve yesterday even when I've been working with these parts for ten years.
 
EGR valve sales are on the rise here.
 
Problem-free, frugal motoring with 166k miles on the clock. Had an oil change done now as the car had done 10k km since the last one in the spring, and I'm pleased to note it only needed a little swig of top-up oil in that time. Next change should be somewhere at 173ish k and then 180k.

Car is still, obviously FWD but the summer season has given me no reason to have that sorted out yet. Will have a shot at MOT as is, with just a serviced handbrake (it's been a bit shit since I got the car) and if it passes, there's justification enough to invest some money in the drivetrain as there's another ticket for a year's commuting.
 
Everybody loves fuel economy stuff! Right?

I brimmed the tank this morning, as diesel prices seemed nicely cheap at 1,372 eur/l. Anything under 1,4 is cheap in my book now. I had done 336,4 miles after the last two-click fillup and kept the car strictly in the one-hour commute use for which I bought it, so the use is extremely real-world with as little town driving as possible: namely, just the country road that takes me to the highway proper.

The result for this 541-km drive is 31,23 litres of diesel, which comes to 5,768l/100km and change. It's good! It's not as little as the car would have me believe, but I think I can eke it closer to 5,5 as temps rise and cold starts are less cold. And the range is very good.

It's really good that I marked the diesel price there. 1,372e/l now seems horrendously expensive to me as the corona-related downturn, which was beyond belief in February, dropped diesel prices nearly to one euro per litre at cheapest (1.04/l was the best I could get with a discount card, I think). Later, we also experienced a tax-related price hike as prices climbed nearer to normal, but I could still get diesel here in normal Finnish fillup land at under 1,20/l.

Anyway, to recap: At the low point, a fillup after a half-tank refill would have cost me 10 euro less than a couple months earlier in Feb. Not that much taken at face value, but these things add up when you have a 150-km daily drive. Granted, I haven't reached similar readings recently as the higher highway speed limits and A/C take their toll, but the latest calculation gave me 6.4l/100km with four persons on board.
 
Handbrake repaired as the MOT's a month away and I also had the fender liner replaced at the same time. The bill for both came to 85 euros, which isn't much at all. Just the springs in the handbrake shoe had decided to run for it, which is why it wouldn't hold and the handle rose to near vertical position. Another thing of course if it'll be good enough at the actual inspection, but at least it functions now.

Also decided to sell the five-spoke OEM alloys as they don't fit the car properly. They also fit nothing else I own and while I happily hoard wheels, these ones I can let go.

Diesel prices have crept up a little and these days I'm working from home a lot, so there's a slight chance I may list the car up for sale if/when it passes inspection, rather than invest in fixing the AWD. I still need a wagon and I still need to commute, and few cars feel as right on the highway as the Volvo does, but it'd be interesting to see if there's any demand for it as it is, and how well a fresh MOT and a likely cheap asking price can sell a right-hand-drive car that only has half of its AWD left. But there's no rush, and I like driving it.
 
Handbrake repaired as the MOT's a month away and I also had the fender liner replaced at the same time. The bill for both came to 85 euros, which isn't much at all. Just the springs in the handbrake shoe had decided to run for it, which is why it wouldn't hold and the handle rose to near vertical position. Another thing of course if it'll be good enough at the actual inspection, but at least it functions now.

Also decided to sell the five-spoke OEM alloys as they don't fit the car properly. They also fit nothing else I own and while I happily hoard wheels, these ones I can let go.

Diesel prices have crept up a little and these days I'm working from home a lot, so there's a slight chance I may list the car up for sale if/when it passes inspection, rather than invest in fixing the AWD. I still need a wagon and I still need to commute, and few cars feel as right on the highway as the Volvo does, but it'd be interesting to see if there's any demand for it as it is, and how well a fresh MOT and a likely cheap asking price can sell a right-hand-drive car that only has half of its AWD left. But there's no rush, and I like driving it.

I hear a certain Norwegian has a certain Audi....
 
few cars feel as right on the highway as the Volvo does

It's weird because I never really got along with my V70 2.5T of the same vintage. Maybe I just had a bad one? The (factory) wheels and tires were certainly too wide for the chassis because switching to narrower winter rubber was a huge improvement, but I've never driven an XC version. Would be interesting to compare the two back to back just to see what the higher ride height and sidewall does to road manners.

As for the usual diesel vs petrol budget conondrum, I kind of like having decent fuel economy even if I don't end up paying less at the end of the year. It's easier to enjoy that random 200km road trip just for a kebab and a coffee when your car is cheaper to fuel.
 
On the road it feels like you're travelling inside a Sievi/Jalas safety shoe and steering with one, too. Everything except road surface joints are insulated and the steering feel is distant and numb but thick. It doesn't need constant corrections, the big sidewalls, tall springs and cushy seats take care of comfort and you're designed to be driving at an indicated 105 km/h everywhere through the oysterbottom plains. It is just really effortless and assuring. Maybe driving from the gutter side also helps.
 
As I had some brake caliper clearance trouble last May with the other set of wheels that came with the car, I decided that come winter tire time I'd have some sort of solution which would not involve trying to make that set work. Instead I sold those (quickly, too), and went with a really cheap set of Toyota Proace steelies that share the bolt pattern, the center hole diameter and have a useable offset. I also picked up a barely used set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 to replace last winter's 7:s, which I'll also sell. They're not in great shape compared to the newer set but I guess someone will find them useful for the price.

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Anyway, with some rust removal done and a couple coats of primer and matt beige paint on the wheels, the Volvo now wears the van steelies proudly. They dial up the car's utilitarian look and work especially well with the unpainted bumpers in my opinion. Volvo should have sold this as a panel van from the factory, I think.
 
Volvo should have sold this as a panel van from the factory, I think.

Volvo XC70 Express?

I now know what it reminds me of. It's the new Defender in work spec.

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Oh yes, that was certainly an inspiration. Maybe mine needs a white top.
 
Big milestones today: passed 170,000 miles (successfully) and had a go at passing MOT (unsuccessfully)! The British MOT runs out tomorrow so I had to at least show the car, with little knowledge on how it would actually do. Well, I prepared by getting the emissions checked last week and the car passed those. I drove to the local MOT station today and had a complimentary jelly donut and a cup of coffee, and after that the guy came round and told me the handbrake was still no good. Bleh, I had it fixed once already, so either it's still useless, has gone worse or the garage just couldn't get it tight enough. Other than that and a shoddy condition muffler mount we're golden. No rust that would be severe enough to merit any action, brakes are otherwise OK and so on.
 
The P2 generation Volvos all have the same handbrake bits and it's a bit of a pain in the backside at times. The brake shoes need to be made just right and some aftermarket parts manufacturers still manage to mess it up, even after 20+ years. I would go with Bosch shoes.

You can get both the rearmost muffler mounts as cheap clamp-ons, at least for the FWD models. I can't remember off of the top of my head if the exhaust is routed differently on the AWD models or not but rotten muffler mounts has been a Volvo issue since the 850. The back exhaust box itself is usually still good, and it's not exactly cheap so it makes sense to replace the mounts.
 
Yeah I bet the muffler mounting only needs a bit of Hotel Kempinski to serve another year. The handbrake had had the springs go loose when I had it looked at and it only grabbed a little when the handle was at nearly 90 degree angle. Now it's been fine-ish, but the shoes might need replacing anyway. In any case I timed the MOT correctly and have another month's time to get the handbrake fixed.
 
Yeah I bet the muffler mounting only needs a bit of Hotel Kempinski to serve another year.

Unless you really like the DIY bit it doesn't make sense to fire up the Kemppi glue machine when the ready-made bits are cheap as chips. I think it's like €3 for the rear one on the Volvo 850/V70.
 
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