Seeing the shed of the week S80 D5 on Pistonheads made me think it's about time to start a little thread on my new to me S60 D5.
It's my 5th Volvo S60/80. I started with a £430 S80 2.4 which I bought as a run around when I first got my Corvette C4. That was a great car, cost me nothing in 18 months and then I traded it in for £250 against an S60 D5 for £1200. That car was a poverty spec but it was twice as good on fuel and soon paid for itself. Fast forward a couple of years and I moved up again, this time to an S80 D5 manual. A sweet 2 owner car with 76k miles I sniped it on eBay by accident one evening for £1400. This was a nice upgrade, BBS wheels and all the options. I kept it for 5 years and did 50k miles at 50mpg, all it cost was oil changes, tyres and rear brakes. Insurance was as low as £80 a year at one point!
The £430 S80. This was one of the first on a T reg and so wafty with those 15” wheels!
The first S60 D5 Euro 3
The S80 D5, probably the best car I ever had
The C4 I sold. Since getting the C6 I just never really chose to drive the C4 but would never have gambled selling the C4 to try a C6.
And the C6. 458Bhp 6 speed manual, so much character for a modern car and incredible performance for the price of a new 1L Ecoboost focus.
Since selling my Corvette C4 of 7 years I spent some of the cash on my C6 to upgrade the wheels and brakes and was then going to be sensible with the rest. However after looking for a car for my Dad I was trawling eBay and looking at Volvo's again. There was the perfect S60 D5 which the seller had bought from the original owner and it was on just 68k miles. I had a week off from work and it was that lovely week in September. The car was in Scotland and I was in Cardiff. A couple of calls to the seller and he sounded genuine enough, he'd had some interesting cars and liked to try out a different but slightly left field daily car. I promptly put the S80 on Facebook marketplace and sold it to a young lad from Somerset for £1400. He'd bought a dog of an Audi A3 and just needed a decent car to commute in. My S80 had a couple of months MOT left at the time but he text me later to say it passed again without dramas and that he was enjoying the comfort and economy. It was nice to pass it on to him as I think he just needed to catch a break with cars/money at the time.
The S60 was an interesting spec. It had the BBS Eudora wheels, 4c active suspension, 6 speed space ball gear shift, inscription leather, xenon's and then the usual extras like the Dolby stereo, cruise, heated seats etc. I'd never seen one with this spec before and being so low miles and owners I should just buy it as the ultimate daily phase 2 car. It had a new set of Goodyear Eagle F1 and the original dealer plates still. A price of £3800 was agreed, there were a couple of marks on the bodywork and the belts needed doing. This was more than I'd paid for all 4 previous Volvo's before but a similar amount to what the wheels, tyres and big brakes cost on my C6 so it's all relative.
Some of the S60 photos from the advert, not one car park dink on the doors!
Anyway, the day after the S80 went I was on the train to Scotland. I thought it would be a nice little adventure from Cardiff. I had a 15 min train from my house to Cardiff central and then the troubles began. There was a tree on the line in Swindon so I couldn't get the decent train to Bristol and travel up. No, I would be on a 2 carriage valley lines diesel all the way up to Crewe, chugging along and stopping at every station, no A/C and late summer heat. Then I swapped onto the main train up to Edinburgh, which was late so I missed my connection to Berwick. Interrogated by every conductor as to why I was each train since the whole journey fell apart at the first hurdle. Thankfully I was grasping my piece of paper from Cardiff central ticket office telling me which trains to get instead. Meanwhile the seller was patiently waiting for 90 minutes past when I was meant to be there. I went through the delay repay process afterwards and got all of the £145 ticket price refunded at least.
When I turned up to see the car I was a bit of a let down. There was some etched in bird poo, the lacquer had gone on the roof rails and the mark on the rear quarter was more of a scrape than I expected. The rest of it seemed good though. I think the seller could just sense my disappointment when I first saw it and this is where our idea of clean maybe differed. He was a genuine guy and we amicably agreed to drop the price by £300. I wasn't about to endure the train journey back and the S80 was gone anyway.
Driving home was uneventful, I was hoping to take the scenic route down from Scotland but it was getting dark soon after the deal was done so I made a dash back to Preston and would take the scenic route down to Cardiff from there. The car had 6 CD changer in the dash and a 12 CD changer in the boot. Great for 2006 but I didn't have a CD on me and it didn't have the GROM Bluetooth interface fitted so it was radio all the way.
On the way home
Plugging in my Vida clone it was amazing to see just two error codes for the ECU, suggesting it had been remapped. Looking at the Vida live read outs it's making around 490nm torque and 240bhp. Whilst it's fine and gets 40mpg I'm not sure if I will get it put back to standard or go for the more modest Polestar map or similar. I have the Corvette for real performance and am more interested in reliability and economy with the S60.
I booked it in ASAFP (F being feasibly) with Volvo Cardiff to have all the belts/tensioners/pulleys done for a competitive £520. Looking at the price of genuine parts it just wasn't worth bothering buying those and getting an Indy to do it. Over the next few weeks a few more niggles would come up and since it was such a nice foundation I thought I'd just really try to make it perfect. The was a little clunk when coming on/off throttle so I bought the top engine mount, a cheap and easy item to change. Slight improvement. Bought the two smaller mounts that hold the cross bar in place, slight improvement again. Did the bottom gearbox mount, got worse. With my vac gauge it was clear the rear vac mount was knackered and by doing the other mounts it really showed up rather than everything just being a bit sloppy. I made a little shopping list and got new Volvo OEM vacuum mounts, the Meyle HD drop links and polybush sub-frame inserts. At a friends workshop we spent a couple of hours fitting it all. Getting the new vacuum mounts in was awkward. The old ones had collapsed quite a bit. The vac fitting on the rear mount was one of those scratch all your knuckles, feel about with your eyes closed, come back 5 minutes later and have another go jobs.
This made a big difference to the feel of the car, even just starting it up the new mounts had made a difference. The polybush sub-frame inserts tighten it up a bit more without really penalising the ride. I popped along to the excellent Queens Square breakfast meet at Eastwood park, parking well out of the way in the mud. With the engine mounts done I started to chase a couple more rattles. The rubber grommets in the arm rest had been lost and I was impressed Volvo Cardiff could order them in for me, albeit at £7 each! The door sill trim was cracked, that was another £60 and a new headlamp washer and cover was another £60. I'd replaced it when I got the car and it lasted about 3 actuations before it left the chat again. On closer inspection the nozzle was missing so the cover had no chance. The interior A pillar trims were coming apart. They changed from plastic to fabric and the glue/foam goes and they can't be stuck back nicely so some plastic ones from an earlier car were a quick replacement. I fitted the GROM audio interface too, which I had in the S80 as well. It's great quality and allows you to use your phone for the stereo/steering wheel buttons too. I removed the period correct Nokia interface at the same time!
Squeaky arm rest
The most expensive rubber in the world
Old vs new
Interior is lovely now
PS I didn't stick the R badge on
These little touches really made a big difference overall to the car and it's a lovely thing now. I'm probably in it for about £5k now but hopefully it'll be a great daily car for a long time to come. The interior is nearly mint and it's tempting to get the roof rails re-lacquered and that scrape on the rear sorted out. It's a solid and reassuring car to drive and such a practical and ergonomic design. Whether it's 3x better than the S80 I'm not sure but as an interesting daily drive alongside the C6 I'm proud to own it.
It's my 5th Volvo S60/80. I started with a £430 S80 2.4 which I bought as a run around when I first got my Corvette C4. That was a great car, cost me nothing in 18 months and then I traded it in for £250 against an S60 D5 for £1200. That car was a poverty spec but it was twice as good on fuel and soon paid for itself. Fast forward a couple of years and I moved up again, this time to an S80 D5 manual. A sweet 2 owner car with 76k miles I sniped it on eBay by accident one evening for £1400. This was a nice upgrade, BBS wheels and all the options. I kept it for 5 years and did 50k miles at 50mpg, all it cost was oil changes, tyres and rear brakes. Insurance was as low as £80 a year at one point!
The £430 S80. This was one of the first on a T reg and so wafty with those 15” wheels!
The first S60 D5 Euro 3
The S80 D5, probably the best car I ever had
The C4 I sold. Since getting the C6 I just never really chose to drive the C4 but would never have gambled selling the C4 to try a C6.
And the C6. 458Bhp 6 speed manual, so much character for a modern car and incredible performance for the price of a new 1L Ecoboost focus.
Since selling my Corvette C4 of 7 years I spent some of the cash on my C6 to upgrade the wheels and brakes and was then going to be sensible with the rest. However after looking for a car for my Dad I was trawling eBay and looking at Volvo's again. There was the perfect S60 D5 which the seller had bought from the original owner and it was on just 68k miles. I had a week off from work and it was that lovely week in September. The car was in Scotland and I was in Cardiff. A couple of calls to the seller and he sounded genuine enough, he'd had some interesting cars and liked to try out a different but slightly left field daily car. I promptly put the S80 on Facebook marketplace and sold it to a young lad from Somerset for £1400. He'd bought a dog of an Audi A3 and just needed a decent car to commute in. My S80 had a couple of months MOT left at the time but he text me later to say it passed again without dramas and that he was enjoying the comfort and economy. It was nice to pass it on to him as I think he just needed to catch a break with cars/money at the time.
The S60 was an interesting spec. It had the BBS Eudora wheels, 4c active suspension, 6 speed space ball gear shift, inscription leather, xenon's and then the usual extras like the Dolby stereo, cruise, heated seats etc. I'd never seen one with this spec before and being so low miles and owners I should just buy it as the ultimate daily phase 2 car. It had a new set of Goodyear Eagle F1 and the original dealer plates still. A price of £3800 was agreed, there were a couple of marks on the bodywork and the belts needed doing. This was more than I'd paid for all 4 previous Volvo's before but a similar amount to what the wheels, tyres and big brakes cost on my C6 so it's all relative.
Some of the S60 photos from the advert, not one car park dink on the doors!
Anyway, the day after the S80 went I was on the train to Scotland. I thought it would be a nice little adventure from Cardiff. I had a 15 min train from my house to Cardiff central and then the troubles began. There was a tree on the line in Swindon so I couldn't get the decent train to Bristol and travel up. No, I would be on a 2 carriage valley lines diesel all the way up to Crewe, chugging along and stopping at every station, no A/C and late summer heat. Then I swapped onto the main train up to Edinburgh, which was late so I missed my connection to Berwick. Interrogated by every conductor as to why I was each train since the whole journey fell apart at the first hurdle. Thankfully I was grasping my piece of paper from Cardiff central ticket office telling me which trains to get instead. Meanwhile the seller was patiently waiting for 90 minutes past when I was meant to be there. I went through the delay repay process afterwards and got all of the £145 ticket price refunded at least.
When I turned up to see the car I was a bit of a let down. There was some etched in bird poo, the lacquer had gone on the roof rails and the mark on the rear quarter was more of a scrape than I expected. The rest of it seemed good though. I think the seller could just sense my disappointment when I first saw it and this is where our idea of clean maybe differed. He was a genuine guy and we amicably agreed to drop the price by £300. I wasn't about to endure the train journey back and the S80 was gone anyway.
Driving home was uneventful, I was hoping to take the scenic route down from Scotland but it was getting dark soon after the deal was done so I made a dash back to Preston and would take the scenic route down to Cardiff from there. The car had 6 CD changer in the dash and a 12 CD changer in the boot. Great for 2006 but I didn't have a CD on me and it didn't have the GROM Bluetooth interface fitted so it was radio all the way.
On the way home
Plugging in my Vida clone it was amazing to see just two error codes for the ECU, suggesting it had been remapped. Looking at the Vida live read outs it's making around 490nm torque and 240bhp. Whilst it's fine and gets 40mpg I'm not sure if I will get it put back to standard or go for the more modest Polestar map or similar. I have the Corvette for real performance and am more interested in reliability and economy with the S60.
I booked it in ASAFP (F being feasibly) with Volvo Cardiff to have all the belts/tensioners/pulleys done for a competitive £520. Looking at the price of genuine parts it just wasn't worth bothering buying those and getting an Indy to do it. Over the next few weeks a few more niggles would come up and since it was such a nice foundation I thought I'd just really try to make it perfect. The was a little clunk when coming on/off throttle so I bought the top engine mount, a cheap and easy item to change. Slight improvement. Bought the two smaller mounts that hold the cross bar in place, slight improvement again. Did the bottom gearbox mount, got worse. With my vac gauge it was clear the rear vac mount was knackered and by doing the other mounts it really showed up rather than everything just being a bit sloppy. I made a little shopping list and got new Volvo OEM vacuum mounts, the Meyle HD drop links and polybush sub-frame inserts. At a friends workshop we spent a couple of hours fitting it all. Getting the new vacuum mounts in was awkward. The old ones had collapsed quite a bit. The vac fitting on the rear mount was one of those scratch all your knuckles, feel about with your eyes closed, come back 5 minutes later and have another go jobs.
This made a big difference to the feel of the car, even just starting it up the new mounts had made a difference. The polybush sub-frame inserts tighten it up a bit more without really penalising the ride. I popped along to the excellent Queens Square breakfast meet at Eastwood park, parking well out of the way in the mud. With the engine mounts done I started to chase a couple more rattles. The rubber grommets in the arm rest had been lost and I was impressed Volvo Cardiff could order them in for me, albeit at £7 each! The door sill trim was cracked, that was another £60 and a new headlamp washer and cover was another £60. I'd replaced it when I got the car and it lasted about 3 actuations before it left the chat again. On closer inspection the nozzle was missing so the cover had no chance. The interior A pillar trims were coming apart. They changed from plastic to fabric and the glue/foam goes and they can't be stuck back nicely so some plastic ones from an earlier car were a quick replacement. I fitted the GROM audio interface too, which I had in the S80 as well. It's great quality and allows you to use your phone for the stereo/steering wheel buttons too. I removed the period correct Nokia interface at the same time!
Squeaky arm rest
The most expensive rubber in the world
Old vs new
Interior is lovely now
PS I didn't stick the R badge on
These little touches really made a big difference overall to the car and it's a lovely thing now. I'm probably in it for about £5k now but hopefully it'll be a great daily car for a long time to come. The interior is nearly mint and it's tempting to get the roof rails re-lacquered and that scrape on the rear sorted out. It's a solid and reassuring car to drive and such a practical and ergonomic design. Whether it's 3x better than the S80 I'm not sure but as an interesting daily drive alongside the C6 I'm proud to own it.
