Volvo T5..

Carl Gibbs and Pete M can answer this one.

On Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:50:10 +0100, Elder yelled loudly:

That's what I'm hoping.

Got a budget of around a grand. I could spend more but I really, really don't want to. Savings are for something worth spending money on, and a TVR will be mine one day! Current thinking is either a Volvo 850 , either

2.5 or T5, BMW 5 series from yesteryear or some sort of non-turbo Scooby Estate. I want big, reliable and aircon. Nothing else matters. I've also got to admit to a stunning lack of taste and had a glimpse at a Ssanyong Musso Diesel ,but I believe they are shit..

Oh, and Ian, if you're going to complain this isn't a mod post, save your bandwith, just go and f*ck yourself. I get better answers here than other places..

Mike P

I quite like them. The owners seem to rate them, especially the Daewoo badged, and later Ssangyong badged ones with the turbo diesel motors, and solid linkage gearshifts(the cable linkage ones break regularly).

They run well on high chip fat (which is much lower than diesel in Costco now), and on the turbos, up the fueling at the pump, up the boost, fit a flowing air filter and performance and economy is up.

Arround the world there are even more than a few mods to fit them.

I had an early (L reg) manual and loved it. It was a basic 'T5 Turbo' spec (no air con, only part leather) but engine was the best thing about it so none of the rest really mattered to me. And the sound was epic (mine had a slightly chav'd exhaust so it had a nice burble with the occasionaly pop and bang).

I found the handling to be pretty decent for a big car, although wet roads can be an issue and it can turn into an understeery mess, although that had more to do with my shit tyres. Things were greatly improved when I put some Goodyears on the front the week before I sold it.

Fuel economy was rubbish. I topped 30mpg once when I tried really hard, but within minute of acheiving that it was heading back down to the mid twenties. 5mpg with your foot down. And it did beg you to put your foot down.

I wouldn't worry too much about the high miles though, mine had done 169k and was still sweet. Only issue I had was the ECU light came on occasionally due to a non-OEM Lambda sensor, but never did get round to replacing that. Don't know much about the Auto but make sure it's working well because I know it's an arse of a job to remove the box. One of the reasons I got rid of mine was because the clutch was getting on and replacing it required dropping the front subframe and I couldnt be arsed. Still sold it on for a profit though, and TBH I still miss it for the sheer lunacy value. I'll own another one day.

Isn't that the kiss of death for anybody with taste?

On Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:39:32 +0100, Elder yelled loudly:

I've got to admit, the one I see sometimes appeals to the weird side of me. It's a 2.8 diesel but I don't know whether it's a turbo diesel or the dog slow n/a. What I do know is that it's in vgc, has a full history and a decent length of MOT. He wants £800 for it. It's a green/silver one.

That's even more interesting..

Mike P

On Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:41:21 +0100, Carl Gibbs yelled loudly:

I've given up worrying about miles on most things now. If it's got that far, and has MOT, it's got to be something like right

I've done a bit of research and it seems that the boxes last well, providing they are not abused too much

Thanks for all the info Carl, I'm passing by that way on Saturday morning so I'm going to pop in and have a butchers at it. I'll let you know how I get on..

Mike P

On Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:45:18 +0100, Clive George yelled loudly:

I have a shocking lack of taste when it comes to some motors. It's as "bad" as Elders is, I just like different s**te :-p

Mike P

Oh, one other thing - there's a christmas tree of vacuum pipes on the inlet manifold - make sure none of the little rubber elbows (there's a few dotted around the engine bay, just follow the pipes) are perished and leaking as this can cause problems. My boost gauge was broken when I got it and one of these elbows was the problem.

Pros: Space, safety, straight line bonkersness, easily modded to go proper fast. Surprisingly cheap insurance.

Cons: Fuel and tyres if driven hard. Suprisingly expensive parts.

Get one, everyone has to do 5 cylinders and a turbo at some point.

Yebbut a Ssanyong Musso? Specsavers for the pair of you. Or possibly Dignitas.

I know where there's a T plate Impreza Sport AWD estate up for grabs cheap, (as in =A3850), if that's any good.

The paintwork isn't all that, but 90k from new and the current, (ageing farmer couple), owners have had it nine years IIRC.

Can find out if it's still available / possibly get some pictures sorted if you're interested.

-- JackH

There's something strange about that. According to the owner it's a T5 GLT but it appears to be a T5 CD (leather, wood, climate, electric seat etc). Mine was in better nick, with less miles and FSH for around the same price.

Do the dipstick check, when it's nice and warm, pull the dipstick out with the engine running. If it's been looked after properly there won't be much smoke from the dipstick tube. The breathers on these are a bugger, there's a big oil separator tank behind the inlet manifold that blocks up at between 80-120k miles on average. 3 hours to sort but a pain in the arse. If it's not been sorted it'll pop the rear main oil seal and then you're in a world of pain. Full kit of breather pipes inc. canister will come to around £85 from a main agent, fitting you can do yourself if you're half handy with spanners.

The pipes leading to the turbo can go, as Carl said. Get it warm, and boot it properly, full full throttle. Boost gauge should get to around

3/4, maybe a tad higher for a few seconds. Turbo should be quiet but very noticeable.

Auto trans should be fine, but check the oil is clean.

Brake pads will quite probably rattle. Drive it with the window open at town speeds and you'll probably hear the pads rattling in the caliper. Gen. Volvo pads don't do this...

Spend a few quid getting the geometry set up, makes one hell of a difference to 'em and tyre wear isn't so bad if you don't drive like a nutter. I put a set of pre-enjoyed tyres on mine when I bought it at

122k and they still had plenty of life in 'em at 128k, I reckon I could get at least 15k from a set of tyres driven normally.

Oh, mine averaged 30-32 mpg on a run and 19-22 in town. They like super unleaded but run fine on the cheap stuff. Super just makes 'em quicker and more responsive.

Premium stereo system is excellent. Way better than the Bose s**te in my Audi. To be honest, the Volvo is quite probably a better car than the Audi in a lot of respects. It's a lot quicker accelerating, a bit better on fuel, has comfier seats, is bigger inside and smaller outside, has a better stereo and better equipment levels, and costs less to insure.

I've only got the A6 because it's a quattro.

They're a festering heap of shit. Just don't. "It's got a Merc engine" is not an excuse. They're unreliable, horrible to drive and will make mechanics avoid you, at precisely the same time you'll need 'em on speed-dial.

I'm talking Pious bad to drive with old Alfa levels of reliability and diesel Escort van performance. The 3.0 petrol one is slightly quicker, but uses Range Rover amounts of fuel.

The interior on the 850s is *very* Volvo. In all seriousness, the dash of a pre V70 Volvo looks pretty much the same as the dash from a 340 made in the early 80s. OTOH, if you can stand that, they're solid cars.

IMO you're looking at the right price range. Ordinary stuff around a grand hasn't got a lot to lose, whereas my Pug was bought very cheaply (bottom book trade price), and has cost a lot in repairs, and lost a fair whack in depreciation, and will easily end up having cost me over a grand to run for

18 months or so. In the future, I'll go back to buying cheap stuff, or fast stuff. Cheap stuff hasn't got far to go, and fast stuff never really gets cheap. The T5 is both cheap and fast...

Having run a car on biodiesel, it's not something I'd do again unless I were very hard up. I was using commercially processed used oil rather than fresh stuff, but it whiffed a bit, ran badly on cold starts, and you only saved a fiver or so on a 45 quid tank.

I'd be interested in that possibly too if it's still available. If you can find out it'd be much appreciated.

My email is mikepearson8 at yahoo dot co dot uk

cheers

Mike P

t

Ok, bear with me - tis owned by a customer of my dads, who I'll nip over to see tomorrow at some stage. :-)

-- JackH

If you buy 20l drums it is down to 70p a litre for raw veg oil. And on the engines that run it well, it tends to run better than commercial bio, and doesn't have the added chemicals.