Rehabilitating the T5M

[FireFox31]

I just purchased a 1998 V70 T5 manual (T5M) in Nautic Blue with 178k miles. This thread will document my work to rehabilitate it and its journey to (likely) becoming my daily driver.

I drove a 2000 V70 NA manual for 18 years until it got rear ended and totaled (and stripped by abscate). For the past two years, I've driven a 2000 V70 NA automatic, still deeply missing the stick shift. Imagine my delight when abscate texted me that a T5M was at the auction house near me. I got some good advice on auctions on the forum, bid strong, and won the car.

The P80 V70 T5M is vanishingly rare according to posts on VolvoSpeed (thanks foggydogg). This 1998 is one of (supposedly) 127 brought to the US that year. The atypical blue color is also rare and one of the few colors I'd buy. What's even more rare, this car was with its original owner until three weeks ago and was always dealer serviced by the original selling dealership (per Carfax).

The car is in amazing shape after 25 years and 178k miles, according to my quick initial evaluation. The paint is solid, body is straight, engine bay is tidy, and interior is delightful. My biggest concern is that the carpets are significantly stained, perhaps from water intrusion or heater core leak. I hope the floor isn't rusted and will find out once I put it on the lift and eventually replace the carpets with good used ones from a junkyard.

The auction listed the car as having a missing catalytic converter and exhaust break. I built in a $1000 cat to my purchase calculation. Turns out, the cat and complete exhaust are in place, simply suffering the typical break between the cat and muffler pipes. I'll order a Bear River Converters repair flange like the BRC8175SS on my 2000 NA.

While looking at the cat, I noticed yellow on the rear suspension bushings. Perhaps they're Bilstein, suggesting the owner used good replacement parts. The battery is OEM Volvo and the rear rotors are slotted; more quality parts. This supports the hypothesis that the car was well cared for. I always prefer OEM parts, so I'll continue the trend.

I was able* to drive the car home from the auction house simply by bringing my own battery, saving me a slow and expensive tow. The fluids were all within acceptable levels except the engine oil was overfilled to the first bend in the dipstick. The brake rotors were rusty, but I stopped after 15 mins of driving and felt no heat from dragging. One tire had a significant flat spot but it started to smooth out. The transmission shifted smoothly, steering turned to both locks, brakes were soft but functional.

* Well, I almost made the drive. 1.5 miles from home, there was a quick decrease in dash light brightness and engine power. I desperately chugged a tenth of a mile to a gas station. There was an unfamiliar burning smell under the car, perhaps from the engine struggle and central exhaust leak. Thanks to a friend, I quickly got a ride home and got my other V70 battery. With it, the T5M started right up with full lights and power, easily finishing the drive. I'll check the alternator.

I'm amazed and thankful that fortune was with me every step of the way thus far. Even a break down only 1.5 miles away from home with an easy fix was fortunate. It feels amazing to be back in a stick shift after two years without, immediately resuming my 18 years of shifting habits. While I'll be sad to eventually sell my lovely green NA automatic V70, I hope to make a long term daily driver out of this beautiful, rare, and fun V70 T5M.

[abscate]

Brought home on Thanksgiving. Truly appropriate.

Welcome (back) to the elite Nautic Blue Club, FireFox

She needs a name, of course.

SynqQuA picks up the 5 speeds and is gendered appropriately for a vessel

v70-manual-5-speed-and-abscate.jpg (177.28 KiB) Viewed 1708 times

[matthew1]

FF, congratulations and thanks for the comprehensive initial post. What a 3-pedal score, just awesome. Remember to photograph the hell out of everything so you have an image baseline to look back on, either for practical purposes or just dumb nostalgia.

[foggydogg]

Pretty good looking car, and running and driving to boot. Excellent job getting it home - even if it was two gulps. I lost my blue GLT to a timing belt idler failure, and was so disappointed, I couldn't bring myself to scrap it. It's sitting under the willow oak, slowly donating parts to its siblings in the fleet.
Keep the faith, you're already getting good vibes from the audience.

[foggydogg]

My suggestion would be to address the crankcase overfill soon rather than waiting. Way too much oil can cause the crank to splash and cause foaming, and could introduce air into the system, and of course would encourage leaks. Air is not a good lubricant.
Even though 5 quarts leaves the engine slightly under full when changing the filter too, that's where I stop, I don't bother with the extra half-quart - or whatever it says.
When my R Rescue came to me, the right (front) motor mount was in long-term neglect territory, and the exhaust had that same break.
When you're under the car have a peek there; obviously oil cooler line leaks are common too, and can get on that mount to soften things up. Volvo still sells the blockoff plates, and Robert always has a stash used. He refuses to replace those lines, even on clients' cars. If folks won't let him put the plate on he leaves it leaking.
I'm semi-envious - although even if the car had been on the DC campus, I wouldn't have been able to participate. Glad it found a good home.

[FireFox31]

I spent 3.5 hours reviewing the T5M on the lift and was left pleasantly surprised. The car is cleaner than my 2000 V70 NA daily driver. There is minimal rust, few fluid leaks, and many parts appear to be in great shape.

The underside had more surprises. Along with have a nice looking catalytic converter, the car has a complete stainless exhaust by TME of Sweden which is in solid condition. Only the clamp at the tailpipe is cracked, easily replaced. I'll add a Bear River Converters flange to repair the cat-to-muffler break (and eliminate that awful stock connector).

Surprises continued when I found the shocks and struts were all yellow Bilstein HD. Unfortunately, I suspect they've failed. The rear end sits very low and one original rear spring is split. I will replace the rear suspension very soon. I have a full front/rear spring suspension in box ready for my boring 2000 NA. How lame would it be to install OEM spring suspension on a "sporty" T5?

The only large problem I found was oil weeping from the intercooler and maybe the turbo. Let's leave that discussion in that thread. Bigger picture, I should clean the intercooler and PCV, and must replace the dead alternator. It seems most efficient to do all of this at once, stripping the front of the engine. I've done it on my NA, but this turbo will be more work.

My current work list is:
Glove test the PCV
Replace alternator, clean PCV and intercooler
Change oil
Repair exhaust flange and tailpipe clamp
Test compression
Replace rear spring suspension

[454cid]

The muffler looks stainless, but the pipes look quite rusty, to me. Not even 400 series stainless will rust like that, that I've ever seen.

Wow that spring sure is rough too. That must be the source of your low ride height. I just looked under my S70 (on the ground) and saw my rear bump stops have rotted away.

If those are the B6 shocks, is the ride much stiffer than stock? I've been considering what to get for my 850 eventually.

[Clemens]

This must be a TME muffler fitted to the stock exhaust. TME has nice, quality stuff from what I can telö looking at my TME catback

[scot850]

The HD (don't know if that is the B4 or B6) I would recommend you don't use for road use unless all the roads around you are mirror smooth. They are really hard and make the ride uncomfortable. I use the 'Touring' spec on my 'R' as I broke the valving on a rut on a front HD version that were fitted when I bought the car.

Careful on the springs. The T5 and Base may be different spring rates. You can find out what they should be and if they are the same based on the lower right string of numbers on your Vin plate by the battery. Volvo don't make it easy as they have part numbers and refer to them by color code. I did do a cross reference on this many years ago.

Neil.

[foggydogg]

Blue swaybar ! Cool stuff surprises are a good thing.
Since you're trying to get the car online, and it's pretty painless, just put the stock rear springs under it for now. Anything will be an improvement over the one in two parts. If those rear shocks aren't leaking just drive them for a while.
Don't forget to have a look at the right (front) motor mount, wouldn't hurt to add it to the FCP order just to have, even if it doesn't need it right now.
This is shaping up to be An Excellent Adventure.