What did you do to your P2 Volvo today?

[Antoine240bk]

Looking great with a wing!

Last spring i've changed the Ac Condenser and was concerned how in bad shape was the old one.
Think, i found these from guys from Slovakia. Cut in a 2mm aluminium plate, a guard bumper, not a cheap solution but looks awesome.
It does not seems to restrict air flow by too much.

[scot850]

That is a nice protection grill. Looks nicely made. Can you add a link to where you bought this from please?

Today, I got a closer look at my soon to be new to me Volvo P2. It is a 06 V70 2.5T AWD auto with Polestar tune. Car is finished in Titanium grey. It has 230kkm on it but has been owned for the last 3-4 years by my ex-Volvo mechanic friend and previous to that by the daughter of the local Volvo dealer GM. I will post pictures when I get a chance. Took it for a brief run tonight, mostly to check the driver's seat out. I have a tailbone injury and it both amazes me and is really disappointing that there are very few comfortable seats in modern cars. Some of the later P3 and SPA XC90's have really nice R-design seats, but just can't bring myself to buy one. P3 XC60's trunk space is too small for our needs (up to 4 sets of golf clubs and 4 adults), P2 XC90 with R-design nearly impossible to find unless it is black local (i.e. up to 500km from me). Don't want a black car. Just hate cleaning them seemingly all the time. The SPA XC90's scared the crap out of me in the unnecessary complexity that seems to break all the time, expensively.

The P2 V70 has what I call the 'Sports' seats with higher side bolsters. The P2 seats were designed by a sadist, flat with all the pressure on your tailbone. They are a revelation. I'm looking forward to enjoying the car. It will take some getting used to as I have not been without an SUV for many years, so it will be interesting. I may keep looking forward to driving the car as it has a reasonable turn of speed with the Polestar tune. It is not crazy, but a good improvement over the stock 2.5T motor.

Today, helped my young friend with his P1 V50 T5 manual AWD. He is having brake issues and his car also needed an oil change. Engine oil and filter swapped, on to the brakes. He and a young mechanic friend had tried to fit new rear pads after I found the caliper seized on one side. They then also fitted a reman (Centric) caliper. They could not get it to bleed. They concluded the hose on that side may have collapsed internally. So he had bought new rear flexis and asked if we could swap them it. Not terrible, but it turned out the caliper is defective. No fluid will bleed through it. Removed it again and tried blowing through it with compressed air. Nothing. So now he has another caliper on order.

Had to then pass on swapping out his 'borrowed' cvvt solenoid from my mechanic buddies project C30 with a dead engine. That will get done next visit with the new caliper.

Neil.

[Antoine240bk]

That is a nice protection grill. Looks nicely made. Can you add a link to where you bought this from please?

Neil.

It does looks nice and robust. I was ready of zip ties a ABS plastic grill but found them instead.
They do have a instagram as well and seems pretty involved in Overland trips.

http://customxc.eu

A

[scot850]

They make some nice stuff. I will need to contact then to see if the under trays will fit a 06 V70 2.5T AWD as well. I would also think stuff like the neat back up camera and mount would fit a V70 P2 as well.

Thanks for adding the link! Issue might be cost of shipping to Canada!

Neil.

[Antoine240bk]

They make some nice stuff. I will need to contact then to see if the under trays will fit a 06 V70 2.5T AWD as well. I would also think stuff like the neat back up camera and mount would fit a V70 P2 as well.

Thanks for adding the link! Issue might be cost of shipping to Canada!

Neil.

I must say that the RTI retrofit with back up camera seems quite appealling !

[scot850]

Today my buddy dropped of the 'new' car. Naturally the car immediately disgraced itself by one of the mounting bolts for the license plate snapping off when removing his plate. Fortunately I have a couple of spares. Car will now sit in the garage until at least Monday until I find out if the guy supposedly buying the Toyota 4Runner follows through. I would like to use the plate off that car ideally as the registration has been paid on it for a year. Not terrible but I can use a spare we have, and then transfer it at a future date but more hassle. Dropped my buddy off at the shop he works at with my spare 'Thor' rims so he can fit a nice new set of Conti winter boots for me.

I have mentioned in other threads I have some work to do on the car already with the lighting. Also need to look into the single Din Kenwood head unit to see if it has an internal or external amp. It has blue tooth and is integrated but I'd prefer a newer double din touch screen unit ideally with back up camera capability. Projects to do over the winter!

Neil.

[abscate]

That P2 is going to be a lot more fun to drive and own than the R or the Toyota ( that’s been a bit of a $ pig hasnt it? Cat replacements if I recall?)

I’ve had one big item , the clutch, on my p2, so the unscheduled maintenance has been something like $2000 over 80,000 miles or 2.5 cpm.

[scot850]

The Toyota seems to have proved to me the Toyota 'reliability' is a huge lie. Just as the only other Japanese/Canadian car I owned from new a Honda Oddity minivan. Definitely a Friday car. Honda Canada President was even involved in that one!!

It just annoys me, allowing that the Toyota is 22 years old, it only has less than 125k miles on it. Every time something breaks I get told by those in the know, that that is a common problem, especially when it is an expensive fix. It is not terrible, but a reminds me of an old Series Landrover from the 60's to 80's. A bit plusher sure. Gas mileage is horrible (V8) at around 14 liters/100km. Even my 01 Suburban was better than that. Apparently as my car now has the Doug Thorley exhaust manifolds (the originals crack at 100k miles, and mine did) do release about another claimed 45bhp over standard so it is peppy on the road for what it is.

People still seem to love these, particularly the V8's. So hopefully nothing else breaks before it sells...............

On the P2, we have owned the 06 XC70 since 2011, bought from the local dealer. First my wife's car, and then passed to our son. It was dealer serviced until maybe 2 years ago, then as my son's funds are not huge, I do the majority of the maintenance or call in my buddy the ex-Volvo mechanic. It has had a big service, and the only remaining jobs to do are the thermostat and coolant flush and I'd like to do the angle gear and rear diff. Car has around 125k miles currently. Otherwise all servicing is up to date including a full trans flush and Haldex pump, filter and oil done at the dealer. No plans to sell that one any time soon.

The 'new V70' will need a once over and sit down with my buddy to work out where the servicing is up to. I thought he had done the timing belt, pulleys and water pump already, but he has not. So that is needing done and he has promised that in the next 2 weeks. The serp belt will get done at the same time so I then have a start of the Stage 0 records. The rest can be done over time. That car has about 145k miles on it currently. As I have been typically doing around 4k miles or less annually over the last 8 years with the Toyota, hopefully it will last a good long time with care.

It is funny how these things go. My young friend has his 02 XC70 which I did a lot of remedial work on prior to him getting, he loves it. His girlfriend bough BlackLab247's excellently maintained 03 XC70 and loves it. BlackLab replaced that one with an 06 or 07 XC70 which was a real good find and it is now I understanding working well. Then another buddy after a long search by both of us bought an 07 V70 T5 I found on the West Coast. A couple of teething issues but again loves his new ride. Now I've joined the party! All this in less than a year!!

Now I was offered an 06 V70R with a lot of work done including new 4-C suspension.............. Hm! Maybe one step too far!

Neil.

[yanga001]

Passed on my s60 to the next generation of Volvo fanatics. Met an 18 year old who already had an 04 v70 r and an xc70 under his belt. One blew up and he was looking for another car. Dropped it off Friday and can say I will miss that s60, but it was for a different time in life. Crazy that a kid born in 07 is 18 now.

Handed the car off with my collection of spare parts for the p2, and will focus my time on the 98-00 vehicles I have up north.

[Antoine240bk]

...

My car has decided to blow the heater core yesterday morning in town, what suddenly left me with a nice pool of coolant on the passenger side. Hopefully i could park right away.
Far from my space and tools , off the car to a Volvo garage and expecting a hefty bill coming.
Oh well, i went to the garage this morning and they started to remove the dashboard to get the heater core out and inspecting the hoses connections. Passenger seat and Carpet out to dry. The Volvo tech tried to find an alternate way to remove the heater core but looks like no other ways to do it...

On the V70 i did it myself, it was at 270.000km, now on the XC70 it is at 291.000km