Discussion
Following on from my £500 Cayenne thread, this is about my £500 XC90.
As per my back story in the Cayenne thread - I'm an engineer and like to repair rather than replace.
A friend of my wife had an XC90 that her father had bought new. He did a lot of motorway miles in its first few years up and down to London. Unfortunately he passed away with/during Covid and the car was then run by the daughter for a few years. It started to clock up a few bills and a local garage messed them around on a repair. They tried trading it in at LR and were offered £500 for it. She asked me if I wanted it for the same and I jumped at it.
My wife has a 2004 V70 that we've had for 15years and done the bulk of its 208k miles. I gave it a mid life refresh during Covid and put around £2.5k of parts and a bit of paint into so I know my way around P2 platform Volvo's. I also have Vida/Dice.
This XC90 is a 2010 'facelift' D5 auto in the 'Active' trim.
It has 215k miles and had a bit of MOT left on it. Drove fine - had a 'anti lock brake' message/light which we'll come onto later.
Quite a few years ago I built an overlander Defender 200tdi 110 with a Howling Moon rooftent that we did Morocco in, and we've had a LWB Transit day/camper van that we regularly did Europe with for my wife's business. The original intention was to build an Overlander-lite vehicle for a Scandinavian roadtrip. Not as beefy as a Defender but faster on motorways and capable of gravel forest paths that the Transit wasn't.
Anyway with me being me - I wasn't happy with the rusty rear XC90 subframe and so it began...............
As per my back story in the Cayenne thread - I'm an engineer and like to repair rather than replace.
A friend of my wife had an XC90 that her father had bought new. He did a lot of motorway miles in its first few years up and down to London. Unfortunately he passed away with/during Covid and the car was then run by the daughter for a few years. It started to clock up a few bills and a local garage messed them around on a repair. They tried trading it in at LR and were offered £500 for it. She asked me if I wanted it for the same and I jumped at it.
My wife has a 2004 V70 that we've had for 15years and done the bulk of its 208k miles. I gave it a mid life refresh during Covid and put around £2.5k of parts and a bit of paint into so I know my way around P2 platform Volvo's. I also have Vida/Dice.
This XC90 is a 2010 'facelift' D5 auto in the 'Active' trim.
It has 215k miles and had a bit of MOT left on it. Drove fine - had a 'anti lock brake' message/light which we'll come onto later.
Quite a few years ago I built an overlander Defender 200tdi 110 with a Howling Moon rooftent that we did Morocco in, and we've had a LWB Transit day/camper van that we regularly did Europe with for my wife's business. The original intention was to build an Overlander-lite vehicle for a Scandinavian roadtrip. Not as beefy as a Defender but faster on motorways and capable of gravel forest paths that the Transit wasn't.
Anyway with me being me - I wasn't happy with the rusty rear XC90 subframe and so it began...............
Edited by RustyNissanPrarie on Monday 9th September 17:09
RustyNissanPrarie said:
No, I'm familiar with image posting on other forums I frequent but they all involve links which I can't do here for two weeks as a noob.
You can also quote people directly by clicking quote in the top left of their reply, is that blocked as well? (not trying to be cheeky, I am curious)
Our house is a former foundry/undertakers stables/RAC garage/haulage company garage and then became our home! As a result downstairs is studio/workshop/tinkering space so I brought the XC90 inside and started checking it over.
It had the “Anti Skid Fault Service Required” message displayed.
I know the previous owner (friend of MrsRNP) had taken the car to a reputable local garage for a Steering Angle Sensor replacement (~£300 part). Two weeks later the message flagged up again for them and they lost faith in it and the car came to my ownership.
I have VIDA/DICE which confirmed it was a SAS fault. I removed airbag/steering wheel etc and noticed a few broken clips on the SAS. Disassembled the SAS unit itself and found the ribbon cable had been damaged. The garage was knowledgeable enough to know you can clean the optical sensor rather than replace the unit as they'd been instructed to (and paid to do) but they weren’t good enough to reassemble the unit correctly. The cable lasted the two weeks before the rotary element wore through it.
This is why I maintain our own cars.
It had the “Anti Skid Fault Service Required” message displayed.
I know the previous owner (friend of MrsRNP) had taken the car to a reputable local garage for a Steering Angle Sensor replacement (~£300 part). Two weeks later the message flagged up again for them and they lost faith in it and the car came to my ownership.
I have VIDA/DICE which confirmed it was a SAS fault. I removed airbag/steering wheel etc and noticed a few broken clips on the SAS. Disassembled the SAS unit itself and found the ribbon cable had been damaged. The garage was knowledgeable enough to know you can clean the optical sensor rather than replace the unit as they'd been instructed to (and paid to do) but they weren’t good enough to reassemble the unit correctly. The cable lasted the two weeks before the rotary element wore through it.
This is why I maintain our own cars.
We had a 2001 V70T and at about 160k miles it showed up a few interesting faults...it needed new indicators stalks and an airbag as it threw a few errors and the indicators would only work on one side. We were fortunate enough to have a good Volvo specialist who had used parts albeit my local garage swapped them over. I'm of the opinion they were better built back then 
Watching this and your Cayenne experience with interest as I changed our XC60 out for an ML300 but I did glance at a Cayenne TDI beforehand but 10 previous owners put me off
Watching this and your Cayenne experience with interest as I changed our XC60 out for an ML300 but I did glance at a Cayenne TDI beforehand but 10 previous owners put me off
I drew up a list of bits needed that came to about £1700 - this was a mix of OEM and genuine Volvo.
Slight update – £1700 of parts ordered and delivered (£500 Volvo genuine parts, £1200 from Autodoc)
Shocks x4 (replacing the rear Nivomats with standard Sachs)
Springs x4 (Suplex HD rear springs)
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
Slight update – £1700 of parts ordered and delivered (£500 Volvo genuine parts, £1200 from Autodoc)
Shocks x4 (replacing the rear Nivomats with standard Sachs)
Springs x4 (Suplex HD rear springs)
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
I then;
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.
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.
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.
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.
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