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van engine belgian/swedish banger - tuning box fitted


Lacquer Peel

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I bought this from Jim Bell last year as I liked the look of it and Volvo x70s are comfy for me unlike medium Peugeots and Volkswagens. The sunroof was stuck closed but I foolishly forced it open on the way back from picking it up by flicking the switch back and forth. It eventually opened and it doesn't leak, phew.

 The driver's side wheel bearing was totally shot and I needed it to drive to France in a couple of weeks, I ended up ordering the wrong wheel bearing from eBay, scrabbled around to find the right one locally and fixed it the day before we left. It proved itself very well on that trip, driving to Normandy and back at high speed and averaging 47MPG in comfort. The heated seats were a bonus after I knackered my back lifting a mirror from France into the car. 

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The VAG 5 cylinder TDI engine is gruff and rattly almost all of the time, it sometimes sounds good and sometimes sounds like a bag of nails. It's really fuel efficient though for a big car, averaging 50MPG at the moment commuting to work and delivering food packages. It goes pretty well with 138 bhp and 213lb/ft of torque but it is slower than most new diesel hatchbacks tbh. I am interested in trying a tuning box, probably a Ron-box/Synergy.

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The tracking has been bad since a wishbone was changed for its MOT, chewing up the outside of the front tyres, it needs another wheel bearing, discs again because the ones I fitted last year are juddering horribly, and front brake maintenance because they're squeaking.

It's in decent condition for a car with nearly 170k miles on it now but the photos flatter it, my girlfriend drove it into a rock in France scraping the sill cover. It's had a front end bump in the past as the bumper is badly resprayed, the bottom grille fell off and went missing and some of the headlight mounts are broken. There is a wee bit of rust developing on the driver's side front wing that I'd like to deal with too.

One of the headlight wipers has stopped working which is very sad.

I like it and can't see myself changing it unless it breaks in a big way. van engine belgian/swedish banger good

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My son's got a metallic silver/grey 69K V70 petrol.  26mpg typical, the sunroof is temperamental, the headlight wipers don't work and the alternator seems to have given up during the virus - the charge warning light has stayed on despite charging the battery the other day. It's supremely comfortable as it empties his wallet and needs rear discs and pads plus an MOT fairly soon.

Yours, being a diesel saloon with good mpg, looks great in black and, even if you are an antique dealer, does not give the game away.

Nice to see you posting here again.  

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33 minutes ago, RayMK said:

My son's got a metallic silver/grey 69K V70 petrol.  26mpg typical, the sunroof is temperamental, the headlight wipers don't work and the alternator seems to have given up during the virus - the charge warning light has stayed on despite charging the battery the other day. It's supremely comfortable as it empties his wallet and needs rear discs and pads plus an MOT fairly soon.

Yours, being a diesel saloon with good mpg, looks great in black and, even if you are an antique dealer, does not give the game away.

Nice to see you posting here again.  

Thanks, nice to see you still posting and I hope you're well.

I couldn't live with the fuel consumption of the sluggish non turbo petrol ones even though they do make a nice noise. Sometimes you can get away with replacing the alternator regulator which I believe is an easy job on most big Volvos. 

Robert DIY is a font of knowledge for these cars.

 

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Really pleased to see you posting again.  I really should have had a go of this when Jim Bell had it too, but the same can be said for lots of his cars.

 

How does it rate for satisfaction compared to French child?

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13 minutes ago, loserone said:

Really pleased to see you posting again.  I really should have had a go of this when Jim Bell had it too, but the same can be said for lots of his cars.

 

How does it rate for satisfaction compared to French child?

French children? I don't know about that. 

I wish the ride was a bit softer but it handles very well for a big car.

I wouldn't say it's the most involving car to drive but you can chuck it about more than you'd think. 

It has passive rear steering like a lot of French cars and you can feel the rear end tucking in a bit driving like a C. 

The driving position is much better for me than any Peugeot or Citroen but I still miss the ride and handling balance of those cars. 

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3 minutes ago, Lacquer Peel said:

Thanks, nice to see you still posting and I hope you're well.

I couldn't live with the fuel consumption of the sluggish non turbo petrol ones even though they do make a nice noise. Sometimes you can get away with replacing the alternator regulator which I believe is an easy job on most big Volvos. 

The saloon is surprisingly practical, you can even fold down the passenger seat back rest for long loads.

Thanks. We will take a look at the alternator to see if it is just a regulator problem. We gave up on the headlight wipers. I can't remember whether we could not find the appropriate fuse and/or relay or simply found those bits to be ok. The previous owner who had it from new is a long time friend of mine. He by-passed the sensitive closing circuitry in the sunroof so that it works most of the time. Yes, it is sluggish. In 2013 on the Nurburgring my friend and I managed to coax it to 100mph. He is an ultra economy fanatic and I think the car's electronics had learnt his driving style and just did not believe he really wanted to go flat out. My son has a heavier foot and it goes a lot better now.

I did not realise that the saloon had a fold down seat. Very handy.

My health has been stable since November 2018. Not cured, but can't grumble. Thanks for asking.

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12 hours ago, Lacquer Peel said:

I like it and can't see myself changing it unless it breaks in a big way. van engine belgian/swedish banger good

If you do change your mind about keeping it I would be interested. These have suddenly become hard to find

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1 hour ago, Jifflemon said:

Had one, loved it. 
Every single year I'd tell myself it'd be it's last MOT. Every single year it'd just need something trivial.

Eventually written off after being T-boned by a bus, with a paltry 350K+ miles on the clock.

Absolute top steed

Its first MOT with me was a bit of a nightmare, not really the car's fault but it failed a test, I had the fails fixed, it failed the test on advisories, I fixed the advisories and took it to another MOT testing station who failed it on other stuff, fixed that but it ended up with one wrong  brake pad thanks to ECP and it failed a brake test. I think it ended up going to MOT testing stations 5 separate times. 

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the only other thing I remember, was one of the injectors had some sort of sensor on it. Occasionally the car with throw a wobbler and pop a fault code, running like a bag of spanners. Had the diag software (vol-cr or something?), and it was always something with that unjector. Clear code, fine for another 6 months!

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8 minutes ago, garbaldy said:

Now if this s60 I've got was one of these I would keep it as love the boxy shape of old volvos especially the estates.

Wonder why the tester failed the car on the previous advisorys I didn't think they could do that

8 minutes ago, garbaldy said:

Now if this s60 I've got was one of these I would keep it as love the boxy shape of old volvos especially the estates.

Wonder why the tester failed the car on the previous advisorys I didn't think they could do that.

 

It was the same tester as well. To be fair the balljoint he advised on the week before now had a lot of play and the CV boot had developed a bigger tear.

I made the mistake of taking it to a council MOT testing centre, it was the longest MOT test I'd ever seen and they were so pernickety. Didn't notice the crap brake discs that the other place did however. 

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Pep it up for free by smashing the cat out and blanking the egr.

Ronbox ace but iirc they don’t sell them new anymore.

Pump timing very important, but a bit of a cunt to do.

@Jifflemon  you wouldn’t happen to still have vol-for would you? 

Love mine. 

 

Eta new suspenders has transformed the ride on mine. Still not plush mind, but plenty good enough.

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9 minutes ago, scdan4 said:

Pep it up for free by smashing the cat out and blanking the egr.

Ronbox ace but iirc they don’t sell them new anymore.

Pump timing very important, but a bit of a cunt to do.

@Jifflemon  you wouldn’t happen to still have vol-for would you? 

Love mine. 

 

Eta new suspenders has transformed the ride on mine. Still not plush mind, but plenty good enough.

What did you use to blank the EGR, a ready made blanking kit?

I can get a Ron box on eBay from Ron and he says it'll work on this Volvo, it's advertised as for a Transporter I think. 

I've tried to download VOL-FCR a few times but no one is seeding it. 

Which  brand of shock absorbers did you go for?

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Popped a blank plate between inlet manifold and egr unit, it’s a standard size and was easy to find on fleabay.

Happy days, glad to be corrected on that.

Its non existent on the torrent sites - always ends up being the evaluation copy. Ilexa still want£ 125+ vat for the software which is an expensive tool... so far I’ve managed to work round it. The day will come though when I’ll have to pay them for it, and wonder why I didn’t do it sooner.

Got bilsteins b4’s on recommendation of tame mechanic. “No one has ever had a problem with them “ says he.

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44 minutes ago, Lacquer Peel said:

I can get a Ron box on eBay from Ron and he says it'll work on this Volvo, it's advertised as for a Transporter I think. 

My father-in-law had a VW T4 with the 2.5 5-cylinder engine and he put one of these on it and it did make quite an impressive difference IMHO

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3 hours ago, scdan4 said:

Popped a blank plate between inlet manifold and egr unit, it’s a standard size and was easy to find on fleabay.

Happy days, glad to be corrected on that.

Its non existent on the torrent sites - always ends up being the evaluation copy. Ilexa still want£ 125+ vat for the software which is an expensive tool... so far I’ve managed to work round it. The day will come though when I’ll have to pay them for it, and wonder why I didn’t do it sooner.

Got bilsteins b4’s on recommendation of tame mechanic. “No one has ever had a problem with them “ says he.

The annoying thing is I used to have a pirate copy of VOL-FCR that worked. I will keep digging. 

 

2 hours ago, reb said:

Dad has a copy of Vol-FCR, once lockdown is over I'll be able to find it, unfortunately not really feasible right now to access his computer.

It'll be useful for keeping the 850 TDI happy. Good to see you back reb after what was going on yesterday. 

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When the crank pulley shat itself and dad fitted the new one, he did the pump timing as the pump belt was scarily loose, he taught me how adjust it all both with and without the software. Of course, I can't remember now! Hopefully I will when it comes to do it.

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17 hours ago, alcyonecorporation said:

Glad to hear you're still cracking on, Ray. 

Get the Reliant working properly? 

Cheers.

The Reliant has not moved from the garage for at least 6 months. Winter was my first excuse for not touching it, then lockdown and a son at home blocking it in with a huge V70 or a huge BMW was excuse No.2.  With nearly everyone round here stuck at home, car shuffling has become impractical.  As much as I admire the V70 for it's cruising comfort and ability to swallow large loads, it is so low that I find entry and exit difficult. That's excuse No.3.  No.4 is that the Reliant needs a better fuel pump. Playing with petrol in my garage could set fire to my house, the cars outside and cause the NHS to waste effort on a barbequed cripple ?.

It is on my list of things to do and will be reported in the New News thread eventually.

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  • 2 months later...

I made some improvements. The instrument panel was cloudy and it bugged me, I guess a previous owner had spilled something on it. It would not clean or polish off.

A headless Volvo V70 2.5D provided an instrument cluster but being a late one it didn't like my early-ish ECU, the fascia clipped off easily enough though. In retrospect I should have just taken the fascia instead of paying for the whole cluster. 

A C70 convertible provided cupholders. I didn't like the leather armrest of that car but the internals of it are interchangeable with my velour armrest. 

I think the year old offside wheel bearing is growling again, poor show from an ECP part bought in a hurry, and the rear brakes need attention but I am glad to be driving this again instead of a van with windows. 

 

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I also changed the nearside front wheel bearing which turned into a bit of a war with two rounded external torx bolts, I ended up walking to a nearby garage with the hub to have them grind the bolts off.  Whose idea was it to use E14 bolts on a part that's very exposed to road salt?

Wrestling with the hub also triggered the ABS and TRACS lights. 

Reluctor ring or ABS sensor? Place bets now. 

 

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might be worth having a good look at the reluctor ring whilst you are there though,  and change if it looks badly rusted, swollen or cracked. Careful though, the cheapo ones off ebay just tap on but some of the more expensive ones are tighter interference fit and need a damn good heating before they fit (I found that out the hard way)

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3 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

might be worth having a good look at the reluctor ring whilst you are there though,  and change if it looks badly rusted, swollen or cracked. Careful though, the cheapo ones off ebay just tap on but some of the more expensive ones are tighter interference fit and need a damn good heating before they fit (I found that out the hard way)

Top tips, thanks. 

I hope I don't have to take the hub off again,it should be easier now however. 

The ABS sensor bolt looks like it's rusted into the hub, I don't look forward to trying to remove it. I bought a newish looking sensor from U Pull It, from the same C70 convertible I got the cupholders from but it's a different type.

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