2006 Volvo S60 D5 Sport
Discussion
Seeing the shed of the week S80 D5 made me think it's about time to start a little thread on my new to me S60 D5.
It's my 5th Volvo S60/80. I started with a £430 S80 2.4 which I bought as a run around when I first got my Corvette C4. That was a great car, cost me nothing in 18 months and then I traded it in for £250 against an S60 D5 for £1200. That car was a poverty spec but it was twice as good on fuel and soon paid for itself. Fast forward a couple of years and I moved up again, this time to an S80 D5 manual. A sweet 2 owner car with 76k miles I sniped it on eBay by accident one evening for £1400. This was a nice upgrade, BBS wheels and all the options. I kept it for 5 years and did 50k miles at 50mpg, all it cost was oil changes, tyres and rear brakes. Insurance was as low as £80 a year at one point!
The £430 S80. This was one of the first on a T reg and so wafty with those 15” wheels!
The first S60 D5 Euro 3
The S80 D5, probably the best car I ever had
The C4 I sold. Since getting the C6 I just never really chose to drive the C4 but would never have gambled selling the C4 to try a C6.
And the C6. 458Bhp 6 speed manual, so much character for a modern car and incredible performance for the price of a new 1L Ecoboost focus.
Since selling my Corvette C4 of 7 years I spent some of the cash on my C6 to upgrade the wheels and brakes and was then going to be sensible with the rest. However after looking for a car for my Dad I was trawling eBay and looking at Volvo's again. There was the perfect S60 D5 which the seller had bought from the original owner and it was on just 68k miles. I had a week off from work and it was that lovely week in September. The car was in Scotland and I was in Cardiff. A couple of calls to the seller and he sounded genuine enough, he'd had some interesting cars and liked to try out a different but slightly left field daily car. I promptly put the S80 on Facebook marketplace and sold it to a young lad from Somerset for £1400. He'd bought a dog of an Audi A3 and just needed a decent car to commute in. My S80 had a couple of months MOT left at the time but he text me later to say it passed again without dramas and that he was enjoying the comfort and economy. It was nice to pass it on to him as I think he just needed to catch a break with cars/money at the time.
The S60 was an interesting spec. It had the BBS Eudora wheels, 4c active suspension, 6 speed space ball gear shift, inscription leather, xenon's and then the usual extras like the Dolby stereo, cruise, heated seats etc. I'd never seen one with this spec before and being so low miles and owners I should just buy it as the ultimate daily phase 2 car. It had a new set of Goodyear Eagle F1 and the original dealer plates still. A price of £3800 was agreed, there were a couple of marks on the bodywork and the belts needed doing. This was more than I'd paid for all 4 previous Volvo's before but a similar amount to what the wheels, tyres and big brakes cost on my C6 so it's all relative.
Some of the S60 photos from the advert, not one car park dink on the doors!
Anyway, the day after the S80 went I was on the train to Scotland. I thought it would be a nice little adventure from Cardiff. I had a 15 min train from my house to Cardiff central and then the troubles began. There was a tree on the line in Swindon so I couldn't get the decent train to Bristol and travel up. No, I would be on a 2 carriage valley lines diesel all the way up to Crewe, chugging along and stopping at every station, no A/C and late summer heat. Then I swapped onto the main train up to Edinburgh, which was late so I missed my connection to Berwick. Interrogated by every conductor as to why I was each train since the whole journey fell apart at the first hurdle. Thankfully I was grasping my piece of paper from Cardiff central ticket office telling me which trains to get instead. Meanwhile the seller was patiently waiting for 90 minutes past when I was meant to be there. I went through the delay repay process afterwards and got all of the £145 ticket price refunded at least.
When I turned up to see the car I was a bit of a let down. There was some etched in bird poo, the lacquer had gone on the roof rails and the mark on the rear quarter was more of a scrape than I expected. The rest of it seemed good though. I think the seller could just sense my disappointment when I first saw it and this is where our idea of clean maybe differed. He was a genuine guy and we amicably agreed to drop the price by £300. I wasn't about to endure the train journey back and the S80 was gone anyway.
Driving home was uneventful, I was hoping to take the scenic route down from Scotland but it was getting dark soon after the deal was done so I made a dash back to Preston and would take the scenic route down to Cardiff from there. The car had 6 CD changer in the dash and a 12 CD changer in the boot. Great for 2006 but I didn't have a CD on me and it didn't have the GROM Bluetooth interface fitted so it was radio all the way.
On the way home
Plugging in my Vida clone it was amazing to see just two error codes for the ECU, suggesting it had been remapped. Looking at the Vida live read outs it's making around 490nm torque and 240bhp. Whilst it's fine and gets 40mpg I'm not sure if I will get it put back to standard or go for the more modest Polestar map or similar. I have the Corvette for real performance and am more interested in reliability and economy with the S60.
I booked it in ASAFP (F being feasibly) with Volvo Cardiff to have all the belts/tensioners/pulleys done for a competitive £520. Looking at the price of genuine parts it just wasn't worth bothering buying those and getting an Indy to do it. Over the next few weeks a few more niggles would come up and since it was such a nice foundation I thought I'd just really try to make it perfect. The was a little clunk when coming on/off throttle so I bought the top engine mount, a cheap and easy item to change. Slight improvement. Bought the two smaller mounts that hold the cross bar in place, slight improvement again. Did the bottom gearbox mount, got worse. With my vac gauge it was clear the rear vac mount was knackered and by doing the other mounts it really showed up rather than everything just being a bit sloppy. I made a little shopping list and got new Volvo OEM vacuum mounts, the Meyle HD drop links and polybush sub-frame inserts. At a friends workshop we spent a couple of hours fitting it all. Getting the new vacuum mounts in was awkward. The old ones had collapsed quite a bit. The vac fitting on the rear mount was one of those scratch all your knuckles, feel about with your eyes closed, come back 5 minutes later and have another go jobs.
This made a big difference to the feel of the car, even just starting it up the new mounts had made a difference. The polybush sub-frame inserts tighten it up a bit more without really penalising the ride. I popped along to the excellent Queens Square breakfast meet at Eastwood park, parking well out of the way in the mud. With the engine mounts done I started to chase a couple more rattles. The rubber grommets in the arm rest had been lost and I was impressed Volvo Cardiff could order them in for me, albeit at £7 each! The door sill trim was cracked, that was another £60 and a new headlamp washer and cover was another £60. I'd replaced it when I got the car and it lasted about 3 actuations before it left the chat again. On closer inspection the nozzle was missing so the cover had no chance. The interior A pillar trims were coming apart. They changed from plastic to fabric and the glue/foam goes and they can't be stuck back nicely so some plastic ones from an earlier car were a quick replacement. I fitted the GROM audio interface too, which I had in the S80 as well. It's great quality and allows you to use your phone for the stereo/steering wheel buttons too. I removed the period correct Nokia interface at the same time!
Squeaky arm rest
The most expensive rubber in the world
Old vs new
Interior is lovely now
PS I didn't stick the R badge on
These little touches really made a big difference overall to the car and it's a lovely thing now. I'm probably in it for about £5k now but hopefully it'll be a great daily car for a long time to come. The interior is nearly mint and it's tempting to get the roof rails re-lacquered and that scrape on the rear sorted out. It's a solid and reassuring car to drive and such a practical and ergonomic design. Whether it's 3x better than the S80 I'm not sure but as an interesting daily drive alongside the C6 I'm proud to own it.
It's my 5th Volvo S60/80. I started with a £430 S80 2.4 which I bought as a run around when I first got my Corvette C4. That was a great car, cost me nothing in 18 months and then I traded it in for £250 against an S60 D5 for £1200. That car was a poverty spec but it was twice as good on fuel and soon paid for itself. Fast forward a couple of years and I moved up again, this time to an S80 D5 manual. A sweet 2 owner car with 76k miles I sniped it on eBay by accident one evening for £1400. This was a nice upgrade, BBS wheels and all the options. I kept it for 5 years and did 50k miles at 50mpg, all it cost was oil changes, tyres and rear brakes. Insurance was as low as £80 a year at one point!
The £430 S80. This was one of the first on a T reg and so wafty with those 15” wheels!
The first S60 D5 Euro 3
The S80 D5, probably the best car I ever had
The C4 I sold. Since getting the C6 I just never really chose to drive the C4 but would never have gambled selling the C4 to try a C6.
And the C6. 458Bhp 6 speed manual, so much character for a modern car and incredible performance for the price of a new 1L Ecoboost focus.
Since selling my Corvette C4 of 7 years I spent some of the cash on my C6 to upgrade the wheels and brakes and was then going to be sensible with the rest. However after looking for a car for my Dad I was trawling eBay and looking at Volvo's again. There was the perfect S60 D5 which the seller had bought from the original owner and it was on just 68k miles. I had a week off from work and it was that lovely week in September. The car was in Scotland and I was in Cardiff. A couple of calls to the seller and he sounded genuine enough, he'd had some interesting cars and liked to try out a different but slightly left field daily car. I promptly put the S80 on Facebook marketplace and sold it to a young lad from Somerset for £1400. He'd bought a dog of an Audi A3 and just needed a decent car to commute in. My S80 had a couple of months MOT left at the time but he text me later to say it passed again without dramas and that he was enjoying the comfort and economy. It was nice to pass it on to him as I think he just needed to catch a break with cars/money at the time.
The S60 was an interesting spec. It had the BBS Eudora wheels, 4c active suspension, 6 speed space ball gear shift, inscription leather, xenon's and then the usual extras like the Dolby stereo, cruise, heated seats etc. I'd never seen one with this spec before and being so low miles and owners I should just buy it as the ultimate daily phase 2 car. It had a new set of Goodyear Eagle F1 and the original dealer plates still. A price of £3800 was agreed, there were a couple of marks on the bodywork and the belts needed doing. This was more than I'd paid for all 4 previous Volvo's before but a similar amount to what the wheels, tyres and big brakes cost on my C6 so it's all relative.
Some of the S60 photos from the advert, not one car park dink on the doors!
Anyway, the day after the S80 went I was on the train to Scotland. I thought it would be a nice little adventure from Cardiff. I had a 15 min train from my house to Cardiff central and then the troubles began. There was a tree on the line in Swindon so I couldn't get the decent train to Bristol and travel up. No, I would be on a 2 carriage valley lines diesel all the way up to Crewe, chugging along and stopping at every station, no A/C and late summer heat. Then I swapped onto the main train up to Edinburgh, which was late so I missed my connection to Berwick. Interrogated by every conductor as to why I was each train since the whole journey fell apart at the first hurdle. Thankfully I was grasping my piece of paper from Cardiff central ticket office telling me which trains to get instead. Meanwhile the seller was patiently waiting for 90 minutes past when I was meant to be there. I went through the delay repay process afterwards and got all of the £145 ticket price refunded at least.
When I turned up to see the car I was a bit of a let down. There was some etched in bird poo, the lacquer had gone on the roof rails and the mark on the rear quarter was more of a scrape than I expected. The rest of it seemed good though. I think the seller could just sense my disappointment when I first saw it and this is where our idea of clean maybe differed. He was a genuine guy and we amicably agreed to drop the price by £300. I wasn't about to endure the train journey back and the S80 was gone anyway.
Driving home was uneventful, I was hoping to take the scenic route down from Scotland but it was getting dark soon after the deal was done so I made a dash back to Preston and would take the scenic route down to Cardiff from there. The car had 6 CD changer in the dash and a 12 CD changer in the boot. Great for 2006 but I didn't have a CD on me and it didn't have the GROM Bluetooth interface fitted so it was radio all the way.
On the way home
Plugging in my Vida clone it was amazing to see just two error codes for the ECU, suggesting it had been remapped. Looking at the Vida live read outs it's making around 490nm torque and 240bhp. Whilst it's fine and gets 40mpg I'm not sure if I will get it put back to standard or go for the more modest Polestar map or similar. I have the Corvette for real performance and am more interested in reliability and economy with the S60.
I booked it in ASAFP (F being feasibly) with Volvo Cardiff to have all the belts/tensioners/pulleys done for a competitive £520. Looking at the price of genuine parts it just wasn't worth bothering buying those and getting an Indy to do it. Over the next few weeks a few more niggles would come up and since it was such a nice foundation I thought I'd just really try to make it perfect. The was a little clunk when coming on/off throttle so I bought the top engine mount, a cheap and easy item to change. Slight improvement. Bought the two smaller mounts that hold the cross bar in place, slight improvement again. Did the bottom gearbox mount, got worse. With my vac gauge it was clear the rear vac mount was knackered and by doing the other mounts it really showed up rather than everything just being a bit sloppy. I made a little shopping list and got new Volvo OEM vacuum mounts, the Meyle HD drop links and polybush sub-frame inserts. At a friends workshop we spent a couple of hours fitting it all. Getting the new vacuum mounts in was awkward. The old ones had collapsed quite a bit. The vac fitting on the rear mount was one of those scratch all your knuckles, feel about with your eyes closed, come back 5 minutes later and have another go jobs.
This made a big difference to the feel of the car, even just starting it up the new mounts had made a difference. The polybush sub-frame inserts tighten it up a bit more without really penalising the ride. I popped along to the excellent Queens Square breakfast meet at Eastwood park, parking well out of the way in the mud. With the engine mounts done I started to chase a couple more rattles. The rubber grommets in the arm rest had been lost and I was impressed Volvo Cardiff could order them in for me, albeit at £7 each! The door sill trim was cracked, that was another £60 and a new headlamp washer and cover was another £60. I'd replaced it when I got the car and it lasted about 3 actuations before it left the chat again. On closer inspection the nozzle was missing so the cover had no chance. The interior A pillar trims were coming apart. They changed from plastic to fabric and the glue/foam goes and they can't be stuck back nicely so some plastic ones from an earlier car were a quick replacement. I fitted the GROM audio interface too, which I had in the S80 as well. It's great quality and allows you to use your phone for the stereo/steering wheel buttons too. I removed the period correct Nokia interface at the same time!
Squeaky arm rest
The most expensive rubber in the world
Old vs new
Interior is lovely now
PS I didn't stick the R badge on
These little touches really made a big difference overall to the car and it's a lovely thing now. I'm probably in it for about £5k now but hopefully it'll be a great daily car for a long time to come. The interior is nearly mint and it's tempting to get the roof rails re-lacquered and that scrape on the rear sorted out. It's a solid and reassuring car to drive and such a practical and ergonomic design. Whether it's 3x better than the S80 I'm not sure but as an interesting daily drive alongside the C6 I'm proud to own it.
Lovely cars. So comfortable and beautifully put together.
I had a petrol one which I loved, but had to sell when an increase in my annual mileage and an increase in fuel prices coincided. It felt so good to get into after a long day though. I note yours has the spaceball which mine also had. A really cool touch. As is that Inscription interior which is just stunning. I never knew these existed.
I currently have the D5 engine (in 200PS guise) in an XC90, and it's a lovely thing. Smooth, lots of shove, and they just seem to plod on forever. Mine's on 182k now, still pulls well, still fast passes the MOT emissions test, and doesn't leak or use any fluids.
If you look after that, it'll last you years. Properly built cars.
I had a petrol one which I loved, but had to sell when an increase in my annual mileage and an increase in fuel prices coincided. It felt so good to get into after a long day though. I note yours has the spaceball which mine also had. A really cool touch. As is that Inscription interior which is just stunning. I never knew these existed.
I currently have the D5 engine (in 200PS guise) in an XC90, and it's a lovely thing. Smooth, lots of shove, and they just seem to plod on forever. Mine's on 182k now, still pulls well, still fast passes the MOT emissions test, and doesn't leak or use any fluids.
If you look after that, it'll last you years. Properly built cars.
Edited by Limpet on Thursday 22 February 19:30
10 months on and with MOT a week away I thought I'd do another round up. Happily not many issues to report. The most frustrating thing being the parking dinks it has since accrued! I always park at the keep fit end of the car park but still it's got a few each side now.
I lost all turbo pressure recently which turned out to be a c clip! Looking underneath the car I couldn't find any loose hoses or obviously leaking intercooler. The turbo on the euro 4 version isn't vacumm opperated, instead there's an electronic actuator and a rod connecting it to the turbo. It seems like the old c clip was a bit too weak and fell off at some point, then the rod dropped off. Some scratched knuckles against the firewall and it was all good again.
I thought I'd bite the bullet and remove the headlights to polish them and fit new xenon bulbs. To do this I had to remove the bumper, which came off easily in a couple of minutes. This was another good chance to inspect the intercooler. On the D5 they tend to bulge at the bottom but there were no signs of any issues with mine. Unfortunately one of the headlights is cloudy on the inside. It's about £100 for a new aftermarket lens and replacing it looks a bit tedious. Some late night ebay trawling and parts number searching scored me a pair of mint looking bi xenon headlights from a RHD Japanese car, just got to wait for them for turn up from Malaysia! They weren't much more than the new lenses and should be a plug and play solution.
After putting it back together I gave it a quick clean and polish. Because I'm lazy I gave it a quick going over with a clay mitt then I used Meguiars 3 in 1 wax. This is great stuff for someone lazy like me, it gets rid of lighter swirls, buffs off easily and is just one and done!
The interior is still in great condition, the extended leather is a few grades above what's in my Corvette C6!
I lost all turbo pressure recently which turned out to be a c clip! Looking underneath the car I couldn't find any loose hoses or obviously leaking intercooler. The turbo on the euro 4 version isn't vacumm opperated, instead there's an electronic actuator and a rod connecting it to the turbo. It seems like the old c clip was a bit too weak and fell off at some point, then the rod dropped off. Some scratched knuckles against the firewall and it was all good again.
I thought I'd bite the bullet and remove the headlights to polish them and fit new xenon bulbs. To do this I had to remove the bumper, which came off easily in a couple of minutes. This was another good chance to inspect the intercooler. On the D5 they tend to bulge at the bottom but there were no signs of any issues with mine. Unfortunately one of the headlights is cloudy on the inside. It's about £100 for a new aftermarket lens and replacing it looks a bit tedious. Some late night ebay trawling and parts number searching scored me a pair of mint looking bi xenon headlights from a RHD Japanese car, just got to wait for them for turn up from Malaysia! They weren't much more than the new lenses and should be a plug and play solution.
After putting it back together I gave it a quick clean and polish. Because I'm lazy I gave it a quick going over with a clay mitt then I used Meguiars 3 in 1 wax. This is great stuff for someone lazy like me, it gets rid of lighter swirls, buffs off easily and is just one and done!
The interior is still in great condition, the extended leather is a few grades above what's in my Corvette C6!
Lovely example, I like these a lot as a comfortable workhorse and they're so well made compared to a contemporary 3 series or C class.
I had a C70 D5 remapped by the supposedly cautious and well experienced MTE to a claimed 225bhp and whatever claimed torque on a D5 and after about 80k the (manual) gearbox and driveshafts were completely knackered, so I'd use the extra power and torque judiciously. Most success stories with remaps are over far smaller mileages than I cover, people claim they're "absolutely safe" because they've done 30k since remapping and all it needed was a clutch, so if you're in it for the long run I'd consider getting the dealer to flash it to standard.
Even if you don't use full throttle god alone knows what torque limits and other engine behaviours the remapper has removed that are in place to protect the engine and drivetrain from torque spikes and so on. It's not like you're getting your performance thrills from a diesel Volvo when you have a Corvette at home
I had a C70 D5 remapped by the supposedly cautious and well experienced MTE to a claimed 225bhp and whatever claimed torque on a D5 and after about 80k the (manual) gearbox and driveshafts were completely knackered, so I'd use the extra power and torque judiciously. Most success stories with remaps are over far smaller mileages than I cover, people claim they're "absolutely safe" because they've done 30k since remapping and all it needed was a clutch, so if you're in it for the long run I'd consider getting the dealer to flash it to standard.
Even if you don't use full throttle god alone knows what torque limits and other engine behaviours the remapper has removed that are in place to protect the engine and drivetrain from torque spikes and so on. It's not like you're getting your performance thrills from a diesel Volvo when you have a Corvette at home
I think this has turned into a project now.
This last week I did a major suspension refresh and the car is absolutely lovely now, must be better than new!
Back in time to last summer and my eBay Malaysia headlights arrived. They were so thoroughly packed, I was seriously impressed! Plugged them in and they worked perfectly. It's surprising how much the light output is improved with the better condition lenses. I sold the old ones locally on Facebook and the whole swap ended up costing me about £50 in the end. Result!
Headlights in and an MOT pass
One of the tyres was rubbing a bit at full lock, a design feature of Volvo P2. I had replaced the rubber steering limiters on the control arms but the arch liner was scuffed and chewed the tyre. New liners and an ABS ring on and I took the opportunity to get a pair of Michelin PS4's for the front axle. The ABS rings like to crack too but they're easily enough to replace and I would be getting alignment with the tyres anyway. The old one took a tap with a chisel and then after a couple of minutes in the oven the new one slipped right on. A nice £3 repair.
All cleaned up before a road trip to Christmas markets in Belgium
Over the winter the ride quality seemed to be diminishing although I didn't have any errors coming from the 4C active suspension system. Taking a look underneath it seemed like 3 of the shocks all decided to leak their fluid at once. Whilst the car wasn't yet on 80k it's 19 years old and perhaps the age just caught up with it. Meanwhile my Corvette was working just fine..
Days of trawling the internet and part numbers followed. The 4C shocks are £250ea for Monroe units (OEM supplier) and the rears £580ea from Volvo since Monroe has sold the last of their stock. I could almost justify £1k for all Monroe but wanted to replace the springs and other parts too. The 4C system is easily removed from the car configuration so no warning lights appear if it's disconnected. Great. But I have bi-xenon headlights and the levelling goes via the 4C controller. No 4C and the xenon's are operated by the car as normal. So if I removed the 4C that way my headlights would just point to the ground. Can't swap them for halogens as the loom is different. Not wanting to have a 4C service message every time I started the car the solution was to cut the solenoids out of the old shocks and plug them back in. Everything is happy, no errors and the headlights operate as they should.
I wanted to buy once cry once so spent some time looking at my options for shocks and springs and any other whilst I'm there jobs. Bilstein makes a B12 kit with B8 shocks, which I recently fitted to my Corvette. However I thought these may be too firm for the Volvo. As for springs my car is the sport trim so 25mm lower than a base car. I managed to get a set of Eibach 30mm lowering springs for £160 from Autodoc. These are specific to the D5 with the heavy lump compared to the petrol models. As for shocks I went for a slightly more budget friendly set of Bilstein B4 at £290. Reading online a lot of people have used the Eibach/B4 combo and been happy. I'd changed the front drop links for MeyleHD already so bought a matching set for the rear and a new anti roll bar. The bushes are bonded to the bars on these models which stops some squeaks but makes replacement a bit more awkward. Since my bar was looking worse for wear anyway a new bar for £100 with the bushes already on was a worthwhile time saving and aesthetic change. Shocks/top mounts/springs were done all 4 corners as well as a rear wheel bearing, front discs/pads and handbrake cables.
Bumpgummi not to be confused with an IKEA gummy bear.
I enlisted a friend who agreed to the work a few months ago then with a rest week from shifts it was time. Keen to use the window of time I volunteered myself to help and hopefully get it done in a day. (haha)
The Corvette shocks aren't much more involved than drop links thanks to the leaf spring suspension. Just bolt through the top of the shock and two on the wishbone.
By comparison the S60 front struts had quite a few components, spring seats, top mounts, spring cushions etc. I made up the struts at home again to save time when it came to fitting. Volvo OEM was a little more expensive for spring mounts but apparently anything else is a false economy. FRF Swansea were great at getting back to me with my questions and reams of part numbers for little bolts, washers and all sorts. The Volvo genuine discs and pads weren't much more than after market and the braking feel is much improved. It's never going to be like the Corvette but the pedal feel was poor before. Changing the rear parts was a bit more difficult. Getting the rear springs out was challenging, it was a bit tight for spring compressors. We got them on in the end and undid the rear control arm inboard of the car to swing it out of the way. One of the rear shocks was completely devoid of any damping effort once removed. Changing the rear anti roll bar would have been an adventure by itself. The exhaust needed dropping down and the springs removed to pass it through. Still not much extra effort with the jobs we were doing. At the end of the first day we hadn't done the handbrake cables but I thought I'd drop back in the morning to sort those out. The S60 uses a cable for each side which enter the centre console from underneath and then hook onto a third cable at the handbrake lever. One was seized but I wanted to change both to make sure they were nicely balanced. We started keenly enough scraping double figures in Pop Master. My plan was to remove the centre console, tie some speaker cable to the eyelets of the handbrake cables then pull them through leaving plenty of cable in the car. Tie the speaker cable to the new ones and pull them back through. The first one went fine. Lovely. In my eagerness I'd removed the other one ready but not tied the cable off inside the car anywhere. Imagine our joy as about 4ft of speaker cable emerged from underneath the car and fell to the ground as we lifted it up on the ramp. A moment of reflection and googling lead to removing the rear seats and lifting the carpet. We cut the old cable out of the plastic sheath and I was just able to post it back through from the car via the convoluted route to the underside. Not too much time lost and I was off to get a 4 wheel alignment.
The car is transformed now and it's very tight but smooth. It must feel like a new S60 with Bilstein shocks. With the wishbones and engine mounts done last year everything is taught and the condition of the body and interior support it's low mileage. It's cost me about the purchase price in the last 18 months now but it's a real pleasure to drive without the interference of too many extra features. Hopefully I'll have many years service from it now but I sometimes wish it was a T5 since the fuel economy of the D5 is a moot point now I've spent so much on it.
This last week I did a major suspension refresh and the car is absolutely lovely now, must be better than new!
Back in time to last summer and my eBay Malaysia headlights arrived. They were so thoroughly packed, I was seriously impressed! Plugged them in and they worked perfectly. It's surprising how much the light output is improved with the better condition lenses. I sold the old ones locally on Facebook and the whole swap ended up costing me about £50 in the end. Result!
Headlights in and an MOT pass
One of the tyres was rubbing a bit at full lock, a design feature of Volvo P2. I had replaced the rubber steering limiters on the control arms but the arch liner was scuffed and chewed the tyre. New liners and an ABS ring on and I took the opportunity to get a pair of Michelin PS4's for the front axle. The ABS rings like to crack too but they're easily enough to replace and I would be getting alignment with the tyres anyway. The old one took a tap with a chisel and then after a couple of minutes in the oven the new one slipped right on. A nice £3 repair.
All cleaned up before a road trip to Christmas markets in Belgium
Over the winter the ride quality seemed to be diminishing although I didn't have any errors coming from the 4C active suspension system. Taking a look underneath it seemed like 3 of the shocks all decided to leak their fluid at once. Whilst the car wasn't yet on 80k it's 19 years old and perhaps the age just caught up with it. Meanwhile my Corvette was working just fine..
Days of trawling the internet and part numbers followed. The 4C shocks are £250ea for Monroe units (OEM supplier) and the rears £580ea from Volvo since Monroe has sold the last of their stock. I could almost justify £1k for all Monroe but wanted to replace the springs and other parts too. The 4C system is easily removed from the car configuration so no warning lights appear if it's disconnected. Great. But I have bi-xenon headlights and the levelling goes via the 4C controller. No 4C and the xenon's are operated by the car as normal. So if I removed the 4C that way my headlights would just point to the ground. Can't swap them for halogens as the loom is different. Not wanting to have a 4C service message every time I started the car the solution was to cut the solenoids out of the old shocks and plug them back in. Everything is happy, no errors and the headlights operate as they should.
I wanted to buy once cry once so spent some time looking at my options for shocks and springs and any other whilst I'm there jobs. Bilstein makes a B12 kit with B8 shocks, which I recently fitted to my Corvette. However I thought these may be too firm for the Volvo. As for springs my car is the sport trim so 25mm lower than a base car. I managed to get a set of Eibach 30mm lowering springs for £160 from Autodoc. These are specific to the D5 with the heavy lump compared to the petrol models. As for shocks I went for a slightly more budget friendly set of Bilstein B4 at £290. Reading online a lot of people have used the Eibach/B4 combo and been happy. I'd changed the front drop links for MeyleHD already so bought a matching set for the rear and a new anti roll bar. The bushes are bonded to the bars on these models which stops some squeaks but makes replacement a bit more awkward. Since my bar was looking worse for wear anyway a new bar for £100 with the bushes already on was a worthwhile time saving and aesthetic change. Shocks/top mounts/springs were done all 4 corners as well as a rear wheel bearing, front discs/pads and handbrake cables.
Bumpgummi not to be confused with an IKEA gummy bear.
I enlisted a friend who agreed to the work a few months ago then with a rest week from shifts it was time. Keen to use the window of time I volunteered myself to help and hopefully get it done in a day. (haha)
The Corvette shocks aren't much more involved than drop links thanks to the leaf spring suspension. Just bolt through the top of the shock and two on the wishbone.
By comparison the S60 front struts had quite a few components, spring seats, top mounts, spring cushions etc. I made up the struts at home again to save time when it came to fitting. Volvo OEM was a little more expensive for spring mounts but apparently anything else is a false economy. FRF Swansea were great at getting back to me with my questions and reams of part numbers for little bolts, washers and all sorts. The Volvo genuine discs and pads weren't much more than after market and the braking feel is much improved. It's never going to be like the Corvette but the pedal feel was poor before. Changing the rear parts was a bit more difficult. Getting the rear springs out was challenging, it was a bit tight for spring compressors. We got them on in the end and undid the rear control arm inboard of the car to swing it out of the way. One of the rear shocks was completely devoid of any damping effort once removed. Changing the rear anti roll bar would have been an adventure by itself. The exhaust needed dropping down and the springs removed to pass it through. Still not much extra effort with the jobs we were doing. At the end of the first day we hadn't done the handbrake cables but I thought I'd drop back in the morning to sort those out. The S60 uses a cable for each side which enter the centre console from underneath and then hook onto a third cable at the handbrake lever. One was seized but I wanted to change both to make sure they were nicely balanced. We started keenly enough scraping double figures in Pop Master. My plan was to remove the centre console, tie some speaker cable to the eyelets of the handbrake cables then pull them through leaving plenty of cable in the car. Tie the speaker cable to the new ones and pull them back through. The first one went fine. Lovely. In my eagerness I'd removed the other one ready but not tied the cable off inside the car anywhere. Imagine our joy as about 4ft of speaker cable emerged from underneath the car and fell to the ground as we lifted it up on the ramp. A moment of reflection and googling lead to removing the rear seats and lifting the carpet. We cut the old cable out of the plastic sheath and I was just able to post it back through from the car via the convoluted route to the underside. Not too much time lost and I was off to get a 4 wheel alignment.
The car is transformed now and it's very tight but smooth. It must feel like a new S60 with Bilstein shocks. With the wishbones and engine mounts done last year everything is taught and the condition of the body and interior support it's low mileage. It's cost me about the purchase price in the last 18 months now but it's a real pleasure to drive without the interference of too many extra features. Hopefully I'll have many years service from it now but I sometimes wish it was a T5 since the fuel economy of the D5 is a moot point now I've spent so much on it.
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