Xantiaman's Blog

KP · Post by KP » 19 Sep 2011, 23:25

Good work fella!

are they throwing in the below as well

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 19 Sep 2011, 23:31

KP wrote:Good work fella!

are they throwing in the below as well

I've already got the slippers

And you guessed it, the current owner has a beard

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 19 Sep 2011, 23:45

Very nice

That looks very appealing to me, Id like one!

It looks to be in great condition too, the colour is right and its a manual too. I see its sold .. Congratulations

I expect some nice pictures when you have it fully detailed

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 19 Sep 2011, 23:56

Citroenmad wrote:Very nice

That looks very appealing to me, Id like one!

It looks to be in great condition too, the colour is right and its a manual too. I see its sold .. Congratulations

I expect some nice pictures when you have it fully detailed

Wont take me long!

The sides are very straight, barely a panel ding on it, both bumpers need repainting though. Mechanically its spot on, no expense spared, the chap who owned it used to work for Safety Devices actually and still has another Volvo, very much a car enthusiast family and a good car with a lot of potential.

Believe it or not, its 100kg less than the Mondeo! Tipping the scales at just over 1400kg, which is less than an Activa.

Performance was good, pulled very well from just over 2k and up to 6k, very tunable too with 300bhp fairly straightforward to achieve, which would mean it would be quicker than the ST then, but only just!

It will be our winter/all weather car for longer journeys and big shopping trip, plus it has that built in booster seat for Jack!

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 19 Sep 2011, 23:58

Ideal!

I bet you will get along wel with that and its quite a cool estate car

What are the Volvo Forums like?

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 20 Sep 2011, 00:04

Citroenmad wrote:Ideal!

I bet you will get along wel with that and its quite a cool estate car

What are the Volvo Forums like?

I had Montego Estates for over 4 years which prepared me for Volvo estate ownership! Hopefully the forums are better than the Mondeo one..

Post by **myglaren** » 20 Sep 2011, 06:43

XantiaMan wrote:
Citroenmad wrote:Ideal!

I bet you will get along wel with that and its quite a cool estate car

What are the Volvo Forums like?
I had Montego Estates for over 4 years which prepared me for Volvo estate ownership! Hopefully the forums are better than the Mondeo one..

Don't count on it

Excellent car at a very good price. Congratulations.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 20 Sep 2011, 07:53

Its been years since I last saw a Montego estate, at least you shouldn't have to worry about rust on a Volvo, should be a good car.

Chris570 · Post by **Chris570** » 20 Sep 2011, 08:28

Citroenmad wrote:Its been years since I last saw a Montego estate, at least you shouldn't have to worry about rust on a Volvo, should be a good car.

you're funny, no rust on a volvo!!!

my dad's 97 850 t5 is a lot rustier than an equiv xant

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 20 Sep 2011, 09:50

On dear Gareth, mind that slippery slope you're on...

Umm, I'll see if I can find a set of leather elbow patches for your jacket and I just may know of a spare guide dog you can have... Failing that, I have an old pair of glasses to help your long range VolvoVision; they have small crosshairs to assist with your motorcycle aim - remember that as a Volvo driver it is your duty to near-miss them whenever possible...

Back along when I was a really keen biker MotorCycle News used to run a strip cartoon called "Ovlov" (Volvo backwards) wherein all drivers on the fictional planet Ovlov drove Volvos and made the biker's lives a painful misery...

Truly, Volvos were then the scourge of every biker on the road and every Volvo seen was treated with extreme caution. Sadly, the adventures of the characters on Planet Ovlov and the real world in the early 80s did indeed bear a few similarities; a generalisation I know but some Volvo drivers really lived up to their reputation...

I've had a couple of Volvos in my career: a 144 in Cyprus as a rough runabout and a ratty 340 when I was very poverty-stricken following my marital breakdown..

The sodding 340 was the only car to seriously strand me

Truth was, neither was a bad car, the 144 was a tank in every respect and the 340 quite adequate as a car but oh gawd, bland as a bland thing. I really do hope the one you're looking at has a bit of character about it...

Oh, and I can offer a few beard growing tips for you...

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 20 Sep 2011, 10:59

CitroJim wrote:On dear Gareth, mind that slippery slope you're on...

Umm, I'll see if I can find a set of leather elbow patches for your jacket and I just may know of a spare guide dog you can have... Failing that, I have an old pair of glasses to help your long range VolvoVision; they have small crosshairs to assist with your motorcycle aim - remember that as a Volvo driver it is your duty to near-miss them whenever possible...

Back along when I was a really keen biker MotorCycle News used to run a strip cartoon called "Ovlov" (Volvo backwards) wherein all drivers on the fictional planet Ovlov drove Volvos and made the biker's lives a painful misery...

Truly, Volvos were then the scourge of every biker on the road and every Volvo seen was treated with extreme caution. Sadly, the adventures of the characters on Planet Ovlov and the real world in the early 80s did indeed bear a few similarities; a generalisation I know but some Volvo drivers really lived up to their reputation...

I've had a couple of Volvos in my career: a 144 in Cyprus as a rough runabout and a ratty 340 when I was very poverty-stricken following my marital breakdown..

The sodding 340 was the only car to seriously strand me

Truth was, neither was a bad car, the 144 was a tank in every respect and the 340 quite adequate as a car but oh gawd, bland as a bland thing. I really do hope the one you're looking at has a bit of character about it...

Oh, and I can offer a few beard growing tips for you...

Beard growing is not a problem, I get no patchiness and it grows very quickly too, I do find it gets very itchy though, so I tend to shave back to light stubble quite quickly! Still, with colder weather in the next few months, I'll have a good excuse!

Not sure about the rust thing, i would say if you see a rusty 850 or S/V70 chances are its had accident damage, my Dad's one doesnt have a spot on it, neither does the one I am getting.

Many years ago, the parents of a friend of mine used to have Volvo's and they probably still do, his Dad had a 240 Estate which just went on forever...his mum had a few 340's, a really old one, possibly one of the first, that eventually rusted to bits, this was followed by a later higher spec one, IIRC they had the Renault 1.4-1.7 engines in them and the gearbox at the back.

The old Montego was a brilliant car really, it was just rust rust rust which unless you have the time to chase it, really is never ending on a regular use car. I got my last one looking very respectable and underneath it was solid, but one morning a Seat Ibiza pulled out of its drive behind a parked car and went straight into the side of me, pushing the car into a wall

Whilst i could repair it, I didnt have the time, it got written off and i bought it back, used the money to pay for the first Xantia I had (i got about £800 back) and then broke the car and made around £4-500 quid, so till the end it really looked after me!

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 20 Sep 2011, 21:50

That was a tidy Montego estate, quite a late one too wasn't it?

Fairly recent Volvos don't rust very much, not if they have been well looked after and escaped shoddy body repairs. Im very impressed with the durability of Volvos. The 1.8 V40 we had as a loan car had covered over 155K miles and you would never have thought it, it was a very tidy car, everything worked, and it still drove very well ... I actually really liked driving it, it was a bit dull but it did the job and felt like a hardy car that would go on forever no matter how much abuse you gave it. I could quite easy have kept that Volvo and used it as a workhorse.

Someone at work has a 1995 850 Estate 2.5 petrol, its done 192K miles and its as tidy as can be, not rust at all.

I quite fancy a Volvo at some point

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 25 Sep 2011, 08:29

Well, what an eventful day!

My Dad picked me up at 8am to pick the Volvo up, it was only a few miles away from where he lived.

Now seeing the car in the daylight, it is still presentable, far from mint, seem quite a bit of paint but it also matches and nothing a machine polish cannot improve on.

The bumpers will need painting though, as will the wheels once i've sourced new tyres.

Anyway, it does drive nicely, but has a few issues.

Firstly, the steering is stiffer turning in one direction than the other. The NSF tyre does have significantly more shoulder wear so i'm thinking its possible the geometry is out, or a still balljoint. The spec of the power steering fluid is specific to the car, so i need to check it has the right stuff in it first.

Other than that, it handles fine, SWMBO commented on its good change of direction without too much bodyroll

It gets a bit hairy when you boot it though, easily spinning the lightest wheel, which again i think points to the geometry.

But i tell you what, when it comes on boost, it bloody flies!

Full boost is around 2500rpm and the pull is hard to the redline, the official figures are conservative IMO.

The engine is generally quiet and smoke free, it does require new plugs though. I added some BG44k http://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/news/bg- ... petrol/30/ to give it a good clear out.

However it was not a problem free day yesterday! When i got the car, it was running fine, temperature sitting in the middle, but it became apparent after a while that when going up a slight incline, the temperature gauge would rise slightly above the middle whilst maintaining speed. This was the first sign!

Anyway, we continued to drive whilst observing the gauge, on a few occasions it would rise to 3/4, very close to the red, but never actually overheating. The cooling fan would run all the time, yet you could put your hand in front of it and not get burned, i.e the radiator wasnt as hot as you would expect.

On the way back home from Kent, it was getting worse, any slight load condition or incline and the gauge would rise very quickly, by keeping the revs up to 2.5-3k seemed to keep it coolest whilst moving on a very light throttle.

I had to resort to putting the heater on full blast all the way home, it wouldnt maintain its temperature any longer, and with 120 miles to go it was a very nerve racking drive home.

Fortunately, running the heater on full blast kept it sitting in the middle most of the time, and only went one notch over when up inclines.

So, what diagnosis are we going for here? I'm going for the thermostat first, hoping for it to be in the closed position, which seems to be a pretty common occurrence.

If not, it could be the water pump, impellor slipped? Although the temp dropping with revs held may point to it being fine. Any suggestions?

KP · Post by KP » 25 Sep 2011, 09:41

is the rad all cool or are there hot spots?

Not uncommon for older cars to get gunked up rads as its not very oftne the coolant in them is changed every 2-3years??

failing that, maybe there is an airlock in the system, if the blower was blowing super hot air then i'd go with the thermostat first as well due to the way most cooling circuits run. The inclines would have seen the temp go up as the boost would have increased and thus the heat from the turbo as well which was being dumped into the system causing things to hot up.

I'd give it a good reverse flush as well when doing the stat to get it as efficient as possible, turbo cars need to be able to dump as much heat as quick as possible into the cooling system

At least the family weren't too un-entertained with the trip then and they didn't catch a cold

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 25 Sep 2011, 09:46

I'll let the picture do the talking.