New winter hack - cheap and Swedish

[wesacosa]

After my long term daily Saab 9-5 Aero HOT was sadly written off by some dopey Kia driver in November I had decided that I could make do with my other halfs Mini and my 94 Skoda Favorit and didn't need another car just yet

So today I picked up this

 

Friend of a friend's elderly mother told to pack in driving and was looking for an easy and quick sale.  One owner from new, 85k , FSH . 2.0 petrol auto. fully specced up. All very nice and not too bad on fuel considering.  Only fly in the ointment is a months MOT and an overdue cambelt. Was done at 60k but that was in 2010

Anyone done a belt on one of these? Wonder if it's within the scope of a home enthusiastic car fiddler

 

cheers

[GeordieInExile]

Always liked these, think that shape has aged gracefully.

[wesacosa]

6 minutes ago, GeordieInExile said:

Always liked these, think that shape has aged gracefully.

yeah its a nice looking car. An unusual green/grey colour depending which light you look in and lovely cream leather . I always fancied a V70 classic but these are nice and a lot cheaper.

[ianbmw]

I have a friend in Sweden who has the manual version of one of these.

It clicked over to 400,000km at the beginning of Dec. He swears by them and it's rare he ever seems to do anything to it.

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

[skattrd]

Weren't these made in the Netherlands?

[Spiny Norman]

Funnily enough I was driving one just like that last night. They've aged really well IMO, and few estates look so good.
 

[wesacosa]

5 hours ago, skattrd said:

Weren't these made in the Netherlands?

yes. Apparently they platform share with the Mitsubishi Charisma and the Proton Impian too

[leafsprung]

I convinced a non car licker friend to get one as his daily/work car. His is a diesel manual in Swedish racing gold. Other than routine maintenance the only issue as been a snapped exterior drivers door handle. Common fault apparently and replacements hard to come by. 

[loserone]

I've been thoroughly offensive about these for a long time, but that one looks like it has its precise niche.  Cheap, ex-OAP, auto, petrol.  Ideal.

 

Love it.

[jmsguzzi]

The only thing I could find to like about mine were it’s excellent seats, a well sorted example  is probably a decent car though, good luck!

[wesacosa]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

I've been thoroughly offensive about these for a long time, but that one looks like it has its precise niche.  Cheap, ex-OAP, auto, petrol.  Ideal.

 

Love it.

probably wouldn't have been my choice but my commute is so miserable just want something cheap reliable and comfortable with room for the dog in the back. If I can sort out the cambelt cheaply it should do the trick

[Richard]

Timing belt procedure attached. No special tools required apparently.

V40 Belt.pdf

[Wingz123]

I had one of these once with the renault 1.9dci engine in that rather expectedly shat its turbo however I fitted full grey leathers to it and the factory sound system was pretty blimin good! Loved that car!

[scorchio69]

Timing belts on these are a doddle mate , you used to get a variant of this engine in Laguna s when I was working in the renault garage and made a welcome change doing a belt as it was so easy 

[wesacosa]

I am at my fecking wits end with this stupid cambelt.  Three days solid so far.

I get the belt on, central on all pulleys idler and tensioner. Tension it up as per the procedure , bar it over all marks line up.

Then as soon as I start the car the belt wanders down to the back of all of the pulleys so it's running level with the rear face rather than in the center

I have had the belt on and off four times and reset the tension (mechanical tensioner) about ten time and every time the same thing, as soon as it starts up it wanders down to the back faces

I am tearing my hair out. Anyone seen anything like this before

[Lankytim]

Unless it’s hanging over the edge I’d say that was fine.

[wesacosa]

17 hours ago, Lankytim said:

Unless it’s hanging over the edge I’d say that was fine.

more of a worry as to why its sitting differently, you can see from the marks on the pulley the old belt ran much more centrally.   Swapped the old tensioner in last night and still the same, suggesting its the idler or the belt. Will swap in the old idler tonight.  If nothing fixes it I might try just running for few hundred miles and checking for any movement or damage to the belt

[ChampionRabbit]

The v40/s40 forums on the Volvo owners forum is really, really good. Or it used to be when I had one. Might be worth asking...

[wesacosa]

1 hour ago, ChampionRabbit said:

The v40/s40 forums on the Volvo owners forum is really, really good. Or it used to be when I had one. Might be worth asking...

cheers, posted on there too. 

[wesacosa]

I am seriously beginning to wish I had never laid eyes on this car, or at least not tried to change the cambelt.

As soon as I start the engine the belt leaves black marks all over the idler and tensioner pulleys.  Not surer if it is some kind of release agent from the belt manufacturing process or if the belt is faulty and the running over the pulleys is degrading the rubber. I have literally only idled the engine for 2 mins and both pulleys have gone black.

Its a Contitech belt kit , not an ebay special. Bought from Mister-Auto (who are owed by PSA) but surely I shouldn't be having bits of the belt marking up the pulleys already

This belt change is starting to break me .  Due to the weather, work and dark nights not to mention all the problems is getting on for 3 weeks now and I still cant see an end in sight

in the picture you can see the idler pulley after about 30 second running and the new belt on the right versus the old belt (10 years old) on left

[Minimad5]

I'd look at getting another belt.

As long as you are sure all the pulleys (including crank ) have no play etc then certainly try another belt.

But clean the pulleys up before you put on the new belt.

[wesacosa]

3 hours ago, Minimad5 said:

I'd look at getting another belt.

As long as you are sure all the pulleys (including crank ) have no play etc then certainly try another belt.

But clean the pulleys up before you put on the new belt.

had another go at seating and tensioning the belt , having cleaned the pulleys, and now seems ok. So either it was some coating on the belt or it wasn't tensioned properly