Nice! I have a black C30 T5 as well. It's just my daily with no mods, but it's gone almost 150k without many hiccups. One tip I have is to rotate the tires often. I rotate mine with every oil change because the amount of factory set negative camber in the rear cups tires in a hurry. There are aftermarket control arms that will "fix" this, but at the cost of handling. It's not worth the hassle in my opinion.
Also, the battery is made by Interstate. Unless you feel like paying your local Volvo dealer over $500 for one, the Interstate store is the place to go. None of my local parts stores have a correctly sized (dimentionally) battery for my car. The hood wont even shut!
Good luck. You bought a nice car with some funny quirks. Keep your timing belt in nice shape and it will live a long time!
V6Buicks said:
Nice! I have a black C30 T5 as well. It's just my daily with no mods, but it's gone almost 150k without many hiccups. One tip I have is to rotate the tires often. I rotate mine with every oil change because the amount of factory set negative camber in the rear cups tires in a hurry. There are aftermarket control arms that will "fix" this, but at the cost of handling. It's not worth the hassle in my opinion.
Also, the battery is made by Interstate. Unless you feel like paying your local Volvo dealer over $500 for one, the Interstate store is the place to go. None of my local parts stores have a correctly sized (dimentionally) battery for my car. The hood wont even shut!
Good luck. You bought a nice car with some funny quirks. Keep your timing belt in nice shape and it will live a long time!
Can you let us know if any known problem areas? Were there years to stay away from ? 2011+ has different head lights right ?
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
I am not exactly an expert, but I can share the experiences I've had.
1. Fuel rail pressure sensors. I'm not sure why a port fuel injected vehicle even has this, but they are a common failure point. They're cheap and cause CELs, but they don't really cause the ECM to derate the engine or anything like that.
2. Timing belts. From what I've seen, more Volvos seem to go to the junkyard because of snapped belts than collisions. Do not wait to change it! Depending on how you drive it you may even want to consider changing it early. I especially recommend this on manual transmission and city (stop go) driven cars since the belts are shocked and loaded up harder and more frequently. They are a bit of a hassle since you have to undo the motor mounts, but you don't need any special tools and can definitely finish it in one night without a lift. I've gotten by without needing a cam holder in both of my timing belt installations.
3. Air conditioning (if you care about that). I'm a wuss. I love my AC and the C30s have problems with slipping compressor clutches. It's a very easy fix though. Just pull the clutch off with the right tool, and remove the shims needed to get you in spec.
4. HVAC blend doors. I've never bothered to dive into this because I keep my AC on auto to avoid confusion in the system. Sometimes the blend doors do not operate like they are supposed to and just move continuously until it finds the right spot. This can take many key cycles and run time. It also causes the air to blow inside the dash instead of out of the proper vent, and ultimately resulting in no heat or AC. I've heard that it is sometimes remedied with a software update, but mine is because of a bad door actuator. Fixing mine requires the entire dash to be pulled out, so I will not be fixing this. As long as my AC continues to work in auto mode I'm happy.
Yes, the facelift cme out in 2011. I don't know of any particular versions to avoid other than the base model 4 cylinder because they're just undesirable. They didn't seem to change much over the car's production span. I know there was a big power jump in the T5s from '09 to '10, but I don't know what caused it.
I had a 2008 C30 with the 6 speed manual. It was built to about 315hp and 375 lb/ft. All bolt on parts and I never had any trouble with the car. In the 3 years I owned it the only repair I made was to the radiator hoses (I would replace yours - if it fails it can take the engine with it). My car rode on Eibach springs with Koni Str.t shocks, had adjustable SPC rear camber arms, a Snabb turbo inlet pipe, stock airbox and filter (people say the stock box is good up to about 350hp and does not make the annoying turbo psssssshhhhh when you let off the gas), a big ass rear sway from Corksport (made for a Mazda 3), a big intercooler by Do88 (awesome company out of Sweden - all the parts are very well made and fit very well. This was a huge performance adder as the tiny intercooler gets heat soaked very quickly), 3" stainless downpipe and exhaust from Elevate (the exhaust was fun, the downpipe is needed to get more out of the turbo) and finally I had a Stage 3 tune from Shark Performance (Hilton and Elevate are some other folks who will tune these cars).
The result was a car that was surprisingly fast, handled surprisingly well for so little suspension work and was faster from 30-100 than a lot of cars on the road including the owner of a 2009 Aston Martin who was probably pissed when he got home. They have very little chance of winning any kind of standing start drag race as they are geared wrong for that sort of thing.
I sold mine to make room for a 2015 Volvo V60.
Check out c30crew.com for the answers to any questions you have. Those guys are all very helpful.
Seaway
New Reader
2/13/19 10:04 a.m.
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
The headlights are different between the 2008/2011.
Make sure you do the timing belt, tensioner and water pump. At the dealership it's about $1000. I never rotated the tires on mine, I just bought cheap Nokin Zline A/S tires that are about $75 a piece and will outperform a lot of the higher cost tires out there. I was able to get 35,000 miles out of a set of tires.
I drove mine hard every time I started it up and it seemed to be fine with it. Your mpg's will suffer if you stay in the boost all the time, but it's worth it. Once you get past about 300hp, you can spin those front tires in 4th gear if you get on it.
Started sanding the fenders and bumper over the weekend but didn't get finished.
I recently happened up a 2008 C30 which has overheated and is in need of repairs. I'm assuming an engine swap would be in order? Are there other cars besides the C30/S40/V50 that have an engine that is compatible or can be made so with parts from the original?
V6Buicks said:
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
I am not exactly an expert, but I can share the experiences I've had.
1. Fuel rail pressure sensors. I'm not sure why a port fuel injected vehicle even has this, but they are a common failure point. They're cheap and cause CELs, but they don't really cause the ECM to derate the engine or anything like that.
Hahahahaha. No.
They have a fuel pressure sensor because the fuel pressure is computer controlled. And when the sensor wigs out and reads super high, the computer will cut fuel pump and injector pulsewidth to compensate, making the car cut out briefly. Before it acted up long enough for me to be able to verify that the fuel pressure was okay and it was a sensor issue (took about a month, maybe two), it would cut out for up to ten seconds, which is forever when it happens when you're trying to pass traffic and suddenly find yourself having to coast on the median.
It will happily run with the sensor unplugged, at least.
3. Air conditioning (if you care about that). I'm a wuss. I love my AC and the C30s have problems with slipping compressor clutches. It's a very easy fix though. Just pull the clutch off with the right tool, and remove the shims needed to get you in spec.
It's not just C30s, it's all Volvos with whiteblocks. They all use the same compressor that nobody sells a clutch for (just compressor assemblies), so when the gap opens up, the coil overheats and stops engaging. Only happens when it's hot, which of course is when you need A/C the least.
Going to revive this thread since I've actually started working on the car again. I replaced the timing belt, spark plugs, passenger side motor mount, accessory belts and coolant reservoir a few months ago. However, I've been slacking on the body and paint work due to my lack of experience in that department. A good friend of mine has helped me with the body work as our schedules have allowed. Yesterday we got the fenders and mirror caps painted and cleared. Had an issue while painting the hood so we have to sand it again and repaint it. Still have to finish some body work on the front bumper then we can prime and paint it as well.
I'll update the thread with some pictures tomorrow when I get a chance to upload them.
Saw not one but two of these in the past week. One local, and a brilliant red one with Florida tags hauling ass yesterday. Kind of far from home and they were headed north.
Also saw a Leaf for the first time yesterday morning, and it struck me how the rear looks a lot like a C30 with less glass. The Leaf looked amorphous, where the C30 is striking. Makes me appreciate their decision to do the glass the way they did.
Here is a picture of our painting setup. Yes, we did paint everything outside hanging from an old swing frame. Overall, the paint job turned out pretty good, just a few small things in the clear that will hopefully buff out. I wasn't wanting a perfect paint job anyway, this is going to be a DD that sits outside and gets driven.
Put the fenders and mirror caps back on yesterday. Was going to pull the car outside and get some pictures in the sun but the battery was dead so inside shop pics will have to do.
Hopefully we can get the hood and bumper done in the next couple weeks. I'm really looking forward to driving this car.
Got the fenders and doors buffed yesterday. Going to end up buffing the whole car eventually. Really happy with how the paint job turned out overall.
WOW!!
What did you use for paint and equipment?
In reply to Knurled. :
Paint is PPG Deltron, pretty sure the clear is SPI. I'll have to ask my buddy what kind of paint gun he used. He shot 3 coats of paint and 2 coats of clear. Everything was sanded down and sprayed in primer then sanded again before paint.
JoeTR6
Dork
10/27/19 12:03 p.m.
That looks great.
The professional painter that shot my TR6 drove a C30 in the factory burnt orange color. He did a similar repair job and drove it as a daily driver. I really liked it.
Knurled. said:
V6Buicks said:
In reply to mr2s2000elise :
I am not exactly an expert, but I can share the experiences I've had.
1. Fuel rail pressure sensors. I'm not sure why a port fuel injected vehicle even has this, but they are a common failure point. They're cheap and cause CELs, but they don't really cause the ECM to derate the engine or anything like that.
Hahahahaha. No.
They have a fuel pressure sensor because the fuel pressure is computer controlled. And when the sensor wigs out and reads super high, the computer will cut fuel pump and injector pulsewidth to compensate, making the car cut out briefly. Before it acted up long enough for me to be able to verify that the fuel pressure was okay and it was a sensor issue (took about a month, maybe two), it would cut out for up to ten seconds, which is forever when it happens when you're trying to pass traffic and suddenly find yourself having to coast on the median.
It will happily run with the sensor unplugged, at least.
3. Air conditioning (if you care about that). I'm a wuss. I love my AC and the C30s have problems with slipping compressor clutches. It's a very easy fix though. Just pull the clutch off with the right tool, and remove the shims needed to get you in spec.
It's not just C30s, it's all Volvos with whiteblocks. They all use the same compressor that nobody sells a clutch for (just compressor assemblies), so when the gap opens up, the coil overheats and stops engaging. Only happens when it's hot, which of course is when you need A/C the least.
Yoooo ease up a bit. Like I said, these were just my experiences so results may vary. It may be more common for the car to de-rate. However, I just had a CEL, and my car ran fine. Sorry for not saying it that way. I also didn't wait a month a fix it though. The sensor was replaced in about the time it took to ship the part. lol Perhaps mine happened to fail differently from most others, but my car took me to and from work without a hiccup for a couple days with the light on. Once I replaced the sensor and cleared the code, I was all set. shrug
As for the AC. Yeah, its a whiteblock problem which also makes it a C30 problem. FCP sells a clutch, but at that price I'm sure glad I didn't need one. https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/volvo-a-c-compressor-clutch-s40-v50-c70-c30-30733821 I have one more shim left in mine, so hopefully I can pull that one out if I ever have this problem again. If not, no AC it is. At 171k I figure this car has done it's duty anyway. It's certainly depreciated enough. 
What's the scoop on this restoration? Seeing this thread made me not want to get rid of my car yet.
Finally got the front bumper and the hood painted a couple weeks ago. No pictures of the progress though. I'm in the process of finishing up an engine swap in a truck I bought. Once the truck is done, I'll be finishing the C30.
Finally back to work on the C30. Test fitted the bumper and headlights yesterday. Gaps seem good. Plan to get everything permanently installed Thursday/Friday since I'm off work.
Been slacking on updates. Got the car put together and been driving it for a little over a month. I've put about 1,200 miles on it so far and I'm really enjoying it. Did put some used wheels and new tires on it this week.
That turned out fantastic! Looks really good. I assume the titling process went well too?
That looks great. Nice work.
In reply to jfryjfry (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah, no issues with the title stuff. DMV inspector came out and all they care about is checking the VIN number on the car. No receipts needed for any parts unless the car is 8 years old or newer.
