Following on from my £400 bangernomics – £500 Volvo

@RustyNissanPrairie – where did you get the VIDA tool from? Any idea if it would work with more modern Volvos? (18 plate v90)

I think I would be taking up with the garage on behalf of the previous owner daughter. Really hate scammers. They have basically stolen the money and if they have done it once I bet they will do it again.

@RustyNissanPrairie – where did you get the VIDA tool from? Any idea if it would work with more modern Volvos? (18 plate v90)

I bought and sold mine via Facebook marketplace, some also come up via Volvo forums. Mine was bought for £100 and sold for £100. It is a faff to set up on laptop (runs on Virtual Machine thingy), but once running is superb.
Works with all ages of Volvo I believe.

I’ve bought my DICE (the hardware dongle) a few years ago from Alibaba but never needed it for my V70.

The best place for the VIDA software is Volvodiag.com – it’s a 24gb download that the guy charges $5 for the download but there’s an option of a VMWare pre packaged version which I did.

Download and install VMWare on Win10 in my case then run the download. Dead easy and no faffing.

Doesn’t work on newer Gealy era Volvo ~2015 onwards.

Forgot to say – VIDA/DICE is absolutely brilliant not least because you can increase over standard the heated seat temperature! (within set prescribed limits)

hehe – that is one of the reasons I bought ours, someone had maxed out the seat heaters to hot, hotter and *sizzle*. I had to turn them down!
I noticed this week on a cold morning that in the Leon we had cold feet while the cabin was warm and setting said auto and 21*c – the V70 it would have been at 18/19*c indicated and we *never* got cold feet while it was automatic.

Slight update – £1700 of parts ordered and delivered (£500 Volvo genuine parts, £1200 from Autodoc)

New OEM or Volvo;
Shocks x4
Springs x4
Top strut bearings
Bottom ball joints
TRE’s
CV boots
Control arm bushes
Brake discs x4
Brake pads
Handbrake shoes
Timing belt, aux, water pump, tensioners.
Swirl flaps & seals
General service items.
Gearbox flush.

Probably have another ~£500 of parts then 4x tyres. So it will stand me at ~£3500 all in.

The rear two row of seats are being removed and a double cooker and our Waeco fridge are going on a slideout. A false floor is going in with a water pump, air compressor and our spare Eberspacher heater. The space saver spare wheel is being removed from underneath and a water tank going in its place. A full size spare is going on the roof rack.

Sleeping will either be in the back or a rooftent. Lightweight Eziawn side canopy on the roof rack.

Plan is to drive to Finland next year in it via Germany, Norway and Sweden.

Yeah….. they’re heavy on the suspension!

How are the droplinks? I had to replace mine as it getting quite noisy.

You might also want to check the ABS rings also whie you’re in there as mine cracked and that throws an ABS error on the dashboard – I had them replaced with some aftermarket ones which were better quality.

Oh yeah forgot about them – new HD droplinks F&R and I’m replacing the ABS reluctor rings whilst the driveshafts are out having their CV boots replaced.

All the original removed components are still in good condition – top strut bearings,springs etc. Bushes are getting tired but it really doesn’t show it’s mileage.

Replacement shocks are Sachs F&R, I’m ditching the rear Nivomats and going with standard shocks but with HD Suplex springs.

Control arm bushes are Meyle HD – I don’t think they are going to be as long lasting as Volvo/Lemforder but I don’t want to fit polyurethane.

How are autodoc for p&p along with import duties? You got a hefty payload there plus high value.
I sold on my 263,000 v70 and bought a s211 e320cdi. The merc is newer and not made as well. The 7g box is uncanny after 5 mins of drving, the shifts are almost unnoticeable but sluggish on cold atf, and autodoc are the cheapest by far
Plus these cars have an built in, designed to destroy the car via rust, water catch box behind the front spring. Any road spray sits in a slot 6in long 2in wide , 2in deep eating away the metal.

Plan is to drive to Finland next year in it via Germany, Norway and Sweden.

Go Rusty!
Will you be posting updates of your epic journey – a la TJ’s euro cycle?

How are autodoc for p&p along with import duties? You got a hefty payload there plus high value.

Free P&P over £135, £8.95 below that. I’ve been okay customs duty so far. The problem is they use Evri in the UK and they are useless – they lost the parcel with the front discs in (£100value). Autodoc were good to deal with.

Use the app and keep an eye on the discount levels, order when it goes over 40%.

Takes just over a week to arrive so no good for emergencies. Autodoc is far better than Eurocarparts or GSF as you can get proper decent OEM stuff – Corteco/ATE/Lemforder/Sachs etc etc and it’s far cheaper.

I sold on my 263,000 v70

MrsRNP has a V70 with 200k miles. I gave it a midlife freshen up with £2k of parts and it still drives like a new car.

This era of Volvo are great to work on, well designed cars.

Agreed, the MB is not user friendly at all. Way too much reliance on electronics and ecu control. The om642 lump is smooth and quiet but i struggle to get over 40mpg, but its got 220bhp and 1800kgs
No black death yet, but a central drive shaft bearing had to be replaced, plus a rear airspring. Gearbox service is next, plus tailgate struts, then the radio ariel which is the heating element on the rear window.
The D5 2.4 163 was faster though andcway more economical at over 50mpg over like for like journeys.
Will keep an eye out for the autodoc discounts The gearbox service kit is £99, add 2 x boot struts and a fuel filter and i think that’s the free shipping point hit.

The D5 2.4 163 was faster though andcway more economical at over 50mpg over like for like journeys.

I take it those were downhill journeys as I never got anything even vaguely close to 40mpg out of my D5 XC90 over a period of about 12 years, let alone 50mpg!!

(The reality was about 32mpg average)

Phase 2 V70, with a manual gearbox.
I have seen 54mpg in the summer with my relaxed driving style, that miraculously only seems to take almost the same journey time as driving like a cock. It’s just cocks wanna be cocks, accelerate really hard, drive far too close to the car in front, brake later and harder than everyone else. When most of the time they are in a never emding flow of traffic and, inevitably, there is always someone else in front.

few small updates to report for anyone vaguely interested!

1. Designed a 20mm suspension lift for the front struts. Mk1 version shown before pressing to shape and welding. Since redesigned a little to fit better.

2. Made a handbrake spring tool (even though you can buy them from Volvo)

3. Designed and made some tools for replacing wishbone and trailing arm bushes.

4. Made a tool for splitting the propshaft – this thwarted me for a few weeks. Most people just smash them apart but I don’t like that approach!

5. Stripped the rear seats and trim out ready for designing a cooker/fridge slide out.

It’s a big old bus….

Yep – they are 7seaters as standard in the UK.

Subframe out ready for removing the Haldex diff unit to reseal/service. Disassemble and remove the bushes then media blast followed by either zinc rich epoxy or possibly hot dip galvanzing.

Loving this, great effort. Keep the updates coming!

It’s easy to see why people don’t keep older cars running! I cannot imagine the bill if you had all of that kit fitted at a garage.

I’m impressed at your skills and mildly regretful I’ll always have to take a car to a garage if it needed that amount of refreshing

Great work

It’s easy to see why people don’t keep older cars running! I cannot imagine the bill if you had all of that kit fitted at a garage.

This car was coming to the end of its financial life with its previous owner as bills were starting to mount up, thankfully for it I don’t subscribe to the ‘beyond economic repair’!

I’d be interested to know what you end up putting in to the car, both financially and in time. Once done the car will be good for another 1-200k and if you look at it that way, £10 grand spent would still be good value.

10k

“But, but, you can buy a new car for that!!”
Not a volvo though.

I’d be interested to know what you end up putting in to the car, both financially and in time. Once done the car will be good for another 1-200k and if you look at it that way, £10 grand spent would still be good value.

I estimate by the time I’m finished I’ll have spent £4k – £4.5k including cost of car (£500). Its getting 4 new tyres and probably some new ‘overlander’ wheels which are a chunk of that spend.

Just like WheelerDealers – my time isnt factored in or costed!

I did a similar refresh (suspension, brakes, a few engine bits, steering rack a bit of paintwork) of our 200k mile 2004 V70, that cost £2k in parts.

It results in cars that I know inside out and that I trust to carry us long distances.

Volvo estate appreciation

The good thing about doing a DIY refurb if you have time is that you end up with a nearly new car and now know the car better so when you need to repair it’s much easier. First time taking something apart (or really the rebuilding) is the worst

No, rebuilding is the easy bit, rust is the worst.

Re the “is a £50k+ car worth it” question.

I’ve just come into company cars and have switched from an 175k mile 07 plate Avensis to a brand new car. Is it a “nicer place to be”? Yes. Is it £50k nicer? No. The Avensis did exactly the same job – actually a bit better as it was a roomy estate car and I didn’t feel a need to fret about it getting scratched with bikes inside and in car parks etc.

As and when I’m buying a next car with my own money it’ll be back to the cheaper end of the market again, and I won’t feel I’m missing out.

Small update.

Subframe, some of the rear suspension components and general brackets all shotblasted.

Now 2kg heavier with Zinga zinc cold galvanising applied.

Rear end of bodyshell, derusted, Jenolite (to remove any pitted rust) and Fertan (to convert any remaining rust).
Next stage is Jotunmastic epoxy.