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

Yeah I haven't even looked at it, that's just what the motman said as he handed me the papers back.
 
Got some Bosch handbrake parts and drove around for a month with the parts on the back seat, before getting the car fixed yesterday. I've needed the Volvo so much that I haven't had the time to take it to the shop, and seemingly I've done 1500 miles/2400km in the last month.

Anyway, an inspector at another station at another town deemed the now-improved handbrake good enough and the earlier fail now means the car's road legal til Dec 9th, 2021 - almost til 2022! The next service should be after another 1500 miles, at 173k and that's just refreshing the oils and filters. After that, I'm aiming at 180k, which is almost 290,000 km.
 
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Is this what you buy when you want to step up from @Matt2000 ?
 
I'm projecting the car will reach 173,000 miles by mid-January, which would mean 16,300 miles or 26,230 kms per year for me. It is a lot and it has been completely trouble free as I have only spent money on routine servicing (oils, filters, tires) in that time and gotten the handbrake and the inner wheelarch liner replaced.

However, somehow I managed to drive almost as much in the Mercedes in just the previous six months before the Volvo arrived and I didn't even take that to a roadtrip... I guess that shows how much staying at home for some time has affected the yearly mileage. Of course, my viability calculations were based on a more significant yearly mileage, but I'm not complaining. The Volvo fits my commute far better and feels a lot more relaxed.
 
There's probably a reason why there's a Volvo D5 on every driveway in rural Öysterbottom.
 
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.

The oil consumption appears the same no matter whether I'm running 0W-30 or 5W-30 (tried Valvoline stuff this time around). Car uses no oil at all for the first 5000 miles or 8000 km, then by 9000km it needs a little top-up (a couple dl). That's probably the point where the oil's capabilities start to lessen. I wouldn't want to run 10000-mile intervals.
 
Maintenance update at 177700 miles: got two injector seals changed at a shop today. When I got the car I was informed that one injector had dirtied its surroundings in the valve cover, meaning its fittings leaked. Ignored long enough, this would eventually mean that the injector would become a right pain to remove if I ever wanted to do the seals. Recently, I detected a sour exhaust smell when standing next to the nose of the idling Volvo, had a look under the engine cover and noted two of the injectors had sooted the valley quite significantly instead of just the one.

I used an online service to get quotes from two places, one estimating it as cheap as 100-150 eur and the other far more pessimistic at 650 for the worst case scenario. In the end I got billed 133 eur for the job with parts, which is far cheaper than I expected it to be. When I booked the work, there was an option of getting all five done if necessary, but it seems the guy didn't deem it needed.

I've now done a bit over 21000 miles, which is a bit under 34 tkm. Car good. Next maintenance is probably the oil change at 180k miles.
 
The steelies I got for the winter rusted up quite badly again, so I'll probably be ditching them. They cost barely anything, and I'm swapping the still really good winter rubber over to this new set I got last week. It's from a Jumpy and far less rusty, so I don't need to do any cosmetic work this time. The wheels even came with just enough rubber to justify mounting them already, so I'll get what kms I can get out of these and then swap on the proper summer tires I have. The BF Goodrich G-Grip tires are a bit louder than the Nordman SUVs on my OEM alloys, but they're quite fresh with DOT 18 stamps. Size is moderately off at 215/60 instead of 215/65 but it's liveable.

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Still really digging the van look. These also came with big Citroen center caps that however would need modding to fit the Volvo wheel bolts, so I'll probably just sell the center caps to make back a few bucks.
 
Lol, it seems there's actually something to fix. The brakes have been sounding like death just now, especially when using them more. We drove back from the cottage yesterday and an hour into the drive the dash cluster lit up with ABS, traction control and brake assist warning lights. I was able to clear those with a restart but they always came back soon. It seems at least one ABS ring on a driveshaft has cracked, and I suspect it's the right rear, but I'll have to observe it myself. There's a chafing noise of metal on metal when driving on the lawn, too. I did already order new discs and pads for the rear during the weekend (old ones looked like crap and were a UK MOT comment already), but we'll see how much stuff needs to be redone while at it.
 
Lol, it seems there's actually something to fix. The brakes have been sounding like death just now, especially when using them more. We drove back from the cottage yesterday and an hour into the drive the dash cluster lit up with ABS, traction control and brake assist warning lights. I was able to clear those with a restart but they always came back soon. It seems at least one ABS ring on a driveshaft has cracked, and I suspect it's the right rear, but I'll have to observe it myself. There's a chafing noise of metal on metal when driving on the lawn, too. I did already order new discs and pads for the rear during the weekend (old ones looked like crap and were a UK MOT comment already), but we'll see how much stuff needs to be redone while at it.

I suggest a good brand of parking brake shoes, and/or a new shoe expander kit with an adjustable bit. The latter wasn't something the car came with from the factory but it helps getting the brake shoes to actually fit.

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This is probably what the car came with and it doesn't allow for any adjustment. If the brake shoes are off by the tiniest bit, your handbrake won't work properly.


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I picked up whatever the big bad red store had, including the shoe adjuster kludgers from there for the last MOT. Not sure if they did the trick other than getting me through inspection.
 
No ABS rings in the rear according to my mechanic, who swapped in a new ABS sensor instead together with well due pads and rotors (outer right rear pad had been eaten to metal), along with an SKF rear hub I had sourced "just in case" the rear wheel bearing would have been to blame. Car should be error free now, hoping to put some more summer miles on it as it's the comfiest car I own. My lower back has been complaining due to me having to drive other cars to work.
 
182000 miles or roughly 293000 km. Did a 1800-km roadtrip in about a week, visiting the Åland Islands and then driving home the long way round, visiting the family cottage in Eastern Finland. The car managed that by burning through 189 euros worth of fuel, which isn't much. A year ago you could have bought quite a bit more fuel with that money, but at least the car's nice and frugal, and the A/C is still ice cold. Due to running 215/60R16 tires instead of correct 215/65 ones, the odometer is a bit off, but the latest fillup calculation over 500km produced a claim of 5,45l/100km, besting the previous best-of on the same route a year ago (5.76l/100km). But yeah, YMMV until the car wears correct size tires again.
 
Related: my yearly KM approximation is on the mark. I've sent an email last August where the reading has been 25000 less. That's what I declare in my tax form :D
 
The steelies I got for the winter rusted up quite badly again, so I'll probably be ditching them. They cost barely anything, and I'm swapping the still really good winter rubber over to this new set I got last week. It's from a Jumpy and far less rusty, so I don't need to do any cosmetic work this time. The wheels even came with just enough rubber to justify mounting them already, so I'll get what kms I can get out of these and then swap on the proper summer tires I have. The BF Goodrich G-Grip tires are a bit louder than the Nordman SUVs on my OEM alloys, but they're quite fresh with DOT 18 stamps. Size is moderately off at 215/60 instead of 215/65 but it's liveable.

vmM3eaj.jpg


Still really digging the van look. These also came with big Citroen center caps that however would need modding to fit the Volvo wheel bolts, so I'll probably just sell the center caps to make back a few bucks.

Looks like I got a full summer season's worth out of these tires. I'm now approaching 10,000 km with them despite them seeming on their way out when I grabbed the set for cheap, just to get the wheels. They still have enough meat left that I consider them safe to drive to work and back, but there's little enough left that I won't feel bad when I toss them away at winter tire time. The winters will be swapped onto these wheels and in the next season I'll run the Volvo alloys with good Nordman tires. Of course, I'm tempted to sell the alloys separately and get another set of steelies for the summer :D
 
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