Mk1 C70 T5 Convertible - terrible idea?
Discussion
I was wondering if I can get some advice here. Having recommended to a 23 year old woman who has just totalled her hateful little Mercedes A140 that she buys a Mk1 Volvo C70 T5 manual I am now having a crisis of confidence and thinking "that's a terrible idea".
I know it's a floppy old school convertible, but that's fine for her and her usage and her mileage is low so the fuel economy doesn't matter. We've found a very clean 2005 car with extremely low mileage that appears to be very clean and well maintained, it's at the top end of the market but we're still talking about a very cheap car.
Are their any reliability or cost foibles with these? As I understand it they are pretty much vice free and parts are cheap, so somebody reassure me that it really is THE MOST sensible car for her...
I know it's a floppy old school convertible, but that's fine for her and her usage and her mileage is low so the fuel economy doesn't matter. We've found a very clean 2005 car with extremely low mileage that appears to be very clean and well maintained, it's at the top end of the market but we're still talking about a very cheap car.
Are their any reliability or cost foibles with these? As I understand it they are pretty much vice free and parts are cheap, so somebody reassure me that it really is THE MOST sensible car for her...
Good cars - I love my T5 coupe. Convertible is a soggy drive though and they suffer with flex quite badly - The T5 motor is probably a bit much for the convertible - the 2.4T is a better suited engine. They are comfortable, fast and have one of the best stereo of any car I have driven.
As for the car - most parts are attainable and cheap and any major issues have long since been solved. The engines are generally bullet proof but they are hard on their suspension and they are prone to front tyre wear if the geometry is out - the secret is running with more toe in on the front than recommended by Volvo.
Rear brake calipers seize but are easy and cheap to replace. Fly by wire Throttle bodies are a known fault but easily replaced - mines had two but admittedly I keep buying secondhand replacements the fault can be cured for good for less than a couple of hundred quid.
They like quality oil and regular changes and they don't take kindly to being run on crap fuel.
If you go look at one let me know and I'll give you some tips on what to look for.
As for the car - most parts are attainable and cheap and any major issues have long since been solved. The engines are generally bullet proof but they are hard on their suspension and they are prone to front tyre wear if the geometry is out - the secret is running with more toe in on the front than recommended by Volvo.
Rear brake calipers seize but are easy and cheap to replace. Fly by wire Throttle bodies are a known fault but easily replaced - mines had two but admittedly I keep buying secondhand replacements the fault can be cured for good for less than a couple of hundred quid.
They like quality oil and regular changes and they don't take kindly to being run on crap fuel.
If you go look at one let me know and I'll give you some tips on what to look for.
Well we bought one, 53 plate on 117k miles or so. T5 manual. Couple of small cosmetic issues that would be even smaller if the previous owner wasn't a ham fisted t
t with a touch up pen, but we've had a very sensible quote to correct those. No mechanical issues to speak of, it has a blown door speaker (one ordered already from eBay) and the "all windows up/down" button is shagged. Aside from that it's lovely, it has the soft leather option and it really shows up the plasticy st in my 2008 C70.
fk me you are not wrong about it being soggy. My Mk2 C70 mostly feels like a fixed roof car, but the Mk1 really is a flexible friend. The whole car feels decidedly old school with the upright windscreen you can touch with your hand on the wheel, the thin steering wheel and the general "mechanical" feel to the driving experience. Noise levels are on another plain compared to the Mk2 C70 too. Great car for £2k though.
I might get her to join and start a readers cars thread!
t with a touch up pen, but we've had a very sensible quote to correct those. No mechanical issues to speak of, it has a blown door speaker (one ordered already from eBay) and the "all windows up/down" button is shagged. Aside from that it's lovely, it has the soft leather option and it really shows up the plasticy st in my 2008 C70.f
k me you are not wrong about it being soggy. My Mk2 C70 mostly feels like a fixed roof car, but the Mk1 really is a flexible friend. The whole car feels decidedly old school with the upright windscreen you can touch with your hand on the wheel, the thin steering wheel and the general "mechanical" feel to the driving experience. Noise levels are on another plain compared to the Mk2 C70 too. Great car for £2k though.I might get her to join and start a readers cars thread!
dme123 said:
Well we bought one, 53 plate on 117k miles or so. T5 manual. Couple of small cosmetic issues that would be even smaller if the previous owner wasn't a ham fisted tt with a touch up pen, but we've had a very sensible quote to correct those. No mechanical issues to speak of, it has a blown door speaker (one ordered already from eBay) and the "all windows up/down" button is shagged. Aside from that it's lovely, it has the soft leather option and it really shows up the plasticy st in my 2008 C70.
fk me you are not wrong about it being soggy. My Mk2 C70 mostly feels like a fixed roof car, but the Mk1 really is a flexible friend. The whole car feels decidedly old school with the upright windscreen you can touch with your hand on the wheel, the thin steering wheel and the general "mechanical" feel to the driving experience. Noise levels are on another plain compared to the Mk2 C70 too. Great car for £2k though.
I might get her to join and start a readers cars thread!
They do suffer with wind noise problems if the window regulators and wing mirrors are poorly aligned - they are both adjustable but it is a a bit of a case of tiny adjustments and lots of trial and error to get them right. They have two adjustment bolts for the window at the base of the doors and the mirrors have two moveable bolts at the top - easy to get to but like I said its a fair amount of trial and error to get them just so - best bet is do it on a warm, fine day and set aside the whole day to "play around" with them.t with a touch up pen, but we've had a very sensible quote to correct those. No mechanical issues to speak of, it has a blown door speaker (one ordered already from eBay) and the "all windows up/down" button is shagged. Aside from that it's lovely, it has the soft leather option and it really shows up the plasticy st in my 2008 C70.f
k me you are not wrong about it being soggy. My Mk2 C70 mostly feels like a fixed roof car, but the Mk1 really is a flexible friend. The whole car feels decidedly old school with the upright windscreen you can touch with your hand on the wheel, the thin steering wheel and the general "mechanical" feel to the driving experience. Noise levels are on another plain compared to the Mk2 C70 too. Great car for £2k though.I might get her to join and start a readers cars thread!
The soggyness can be improved but it really depends on how much it bothers you and how much you want to spend on correcting it - a cheap and easy solution you can fit yourself is:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-VOLVO-STRUT-BRAC...
Just make sure it is a RHD drive on otherwise it won't fit! There is a Rear brace available too but you'd need to hunt around for one.
The other option is to fit some better dampers - Bilstein B4 are a good choice as they are OEM in terms of damping rates and won't ruin the ride quality. I wouldn't advice stiffening up the suspension as it will make the flex even more noticable.
To demonstrate why they are soggy, jack it up in the middle where the jacking point is and run your finger down the door shut - you'll soon see where the flex is!
It wasn't wind rustling around bad seals/alignment or anything, I was quite careful to check for that, just a general level of NVH. Road noise, wind noise over the fabric roof, the effect on the internal pressure of the car when the wind blows and flexes the roof. NVH is one area that has moved on massively in the 25 years since this platform was introduced.
I've bought the strut brace from FRF Volvo in Swansea for £68 already, but she's not racing the thing so I think the soggyness won't be an issue.
I've bought the strut brace from FRF Volvo in Swansea for £68 already, but she's not racing the thing so I think the soggyness won't be an issue.
Parisien said:
Dme123, how did you get on with this Volvo, did you do a thread on it or more recent model?
P
Haven't made an owners thread for it, maybe I should. It'd have to be cleaned to get some decent photos, all I have are the Autotrader ones. I didn't make one for my Mk2 because who is interested in a relatively new FWD diesel Volvo? It's a boring but competent car that I will not shed a tear about when it's knackered and I throw it away.P
Anyway we bought a Mk1, she absolutely loves it and I thoroughly enjoy driving it. Picked up a late model, '04 model year (53 plate) T5 manual in dark metallic blue with a blue roof and the optional linen white soft leather. It looks fantastic, the darker colours flatter it and don't make it looked dated like silver seems to. I think the linen leather is a lot nicer than the vomity beige colour. For extra comedy value it comes with a CD-ROM based late 1990s spec sat nav system. I managed to find maps as recent as 2007 for it!
It had an immediate quick service and I fitted the volvo strut brace, I noticed the temperature dropping on fast roads then climbing back up so I changed the thermostat too. That was a bit of a shock as the late T5 engines require an entire housing rather than just a thermostat unit so it cost £110 or so. It has the optional sports exhaust so it sounds great, and it has the lowered dynamic chassis. Upgraded stereo in the GT models is very good, sound quality is better than a lot of the upgrade options available today, and I added a USB/SD Card Yatour box for £40 odd that means you're not stuck with CDs. The unit was missing it's 3 CD cassette so I picked one of those up and cleaned the laser lens to get it working again. It doesn't like CD-R discs but is happy enough with real CDs.
There is also a very, very common problem that 95% of them have where the roof rubs as it goes down and goes a bit bobbly in certain areas. It'll eventually wear through. The fix is available online and you just need some bungee cord to replace some elastic straps that go loose, but almost nobody seems to know this and all the roof repair places said it was unavoidable and required a new roof. You can use it as a negotiating point. Otherwise the roof mechanism seems to be very reliable and quite straightforward
Shopping for one was a chore; lots of tired dogs out there, and I think even the low mileage cherished single owner models probably need a bit of TLC at this stage. You need to budget £2k - £2,500 for a decent one but price seems to be little indication of quality.
It IS wobbly compared to a Mk2 C70, but I find it doesn't detract from the experience and as I've just commented on the bargain barge I have no problems making very rapid progress indeed. Even with a great deal of urban driving she's somehow getting 28mpg out of it on the OBC, so it is not inefficient either.
My daily driver is a 2008 Mk2 C70 D5 with a manual gearbox and a remap to a claimed 225bhp. Also been a great car for the last 50,000 miles / 2 years. Driving hers does throw into relief how f
king horrible a diesel engine is compared to a petrol, even a good diesel engine like the D5. In terms of all the objective measurements the Mk2 is a far better car, the ride is much better, NVH is far lower, hard top is more secure and gives better visibility, seats are more comfortable, the Dynaudio premium audio system is on another plane of hilarity, and it's significantly less wobbly. With all that said I find the Mk1 more enjoyable due to the far nicer engine, and the car has loads of character. A colleague has just bought a manual T5 Mk2 C70 and is over the moon with it, I suspect I'd be much more enthusiastic about mine if it was a petrol. Worth knowing that the Mk2 didn't get a 'proper' HPT T5 engine, it's the low pressure turbo 2.5.
I'd be perfectly happy with the Mk1 as a daily driver for the 20 - 30k a year I drive.
They're all pretty good my old war horse passed 3rd year in a row in Nov with only 1 advisory - a track rod end show signs of wear but not excessive - Even when they do need work they're no bother - mines getting to "that age" now and last year had some new goodies like a new heater matrix but nothing cost the earth and all the work is easy to do - I'll stick a new rack in mine this year and refresh the whole steering and suspension
Will do galactic miles When auto, you MUST flush the ATF in these or few make high mileages, and do the PCV. There's a few killers, but otherwise very good.
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?p=223...
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?p=223...
Edited by OldDuffer on Friday 17th March 09:14
I bought an 03 plate in red with 58k miles. Apart from the flexy/bouncy ride I quite enjoy it. I have fitted a strut brace to the front and upgraded the budget tyres to Conti 3's to cut down on the levels of understeer. I bought it to help keep the mileage down on my Ranger. It seems really slow after my last petrol car (Monaro CV8) but it makes progress of sorts.
bbg1400 said:
I bought an 03 plate in red with 58k miles. Apart from the flexy/bouncy ride I quite enjoy it. I have fitted a strut brace to the front and upgraded the budget tyres to Conti 3's to cut down on the levels of understeer. I bought it to help keep the mileage down on my Ranger. It seems really slow after my last petrol car (Monaro CV8) but it makes progress of sorts.
A remap to 290-300bhp is only £400 odd away. If it's like the remaps on the D5 and LPT T5 models it adds a lot of mid range torque and improves the driveability of the car no end.Thread revival!
Just bought myself one of these as a cheap convertible to go with my other 'normal' car.
Was £1900 on a 55 plate with 104K miles, 4 owners and FSH. As a Bertie Bonus it has the wind deflector in the boot, and a front strut brace already fitted..
Generally very good condition for the age. Paintwork is excellent, and the hood has some rubbing but it's very minor (I'll probably do the bungee cord thing as a preventative measure anyway).
One thing it isn't (as you've all said) is a sports car! Very much a wafter rather than a hooner, but that will encourage me to drive perhaps a bit more sensibly.
Pick it up next week. Looking forward to it.
Just bought myself one of these as a cheap convertible to go with my other 'normal' car.
Was £1900 on a 55 plate with 104K miles, 4 owners and FSH. As a Bertie Bonus it has the wind deflector in the boot, and a front strut brace already fitted..
Generally very good condition for the age. Paintwork is excellent, and the hood has some rubbing but it's very minor (I'll probably do the bungee cord thing as a preventative measure anyway).
One thing it isn't (as you've all said) is a sports car! Very much a wafter rather than a hooner, but that will encourage me to drive perhaps a bit more sensibly.
Pick it up next week. Looking forward to it.
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