Teach me 2004-2007 Volvo S60R

I love the look of them. Took a short drive in a friend's manual, seemed fun. Long term, not sure.

Always liked the ones I drove. They are more grand touring than sporty, but I liked that you could shut the suspension "off" and just have a slightly stiffer S60 Clutches are closer to 4K, dealer cost on mine was 3K. I liked the fact that if you didn't have a screaming bright color or the body kit, it looked like a soccer mom mobile and no one looked twice at it.

Ok. I think you guys have scared me away from the S60R.

Necro Bump.. My buddy just picked up a 2004 S60R with 170K miles <$3K. Unknown history. What should he do?

Drive it like he stole it and then burn it to the ground when it breaks?

I've always been tempted by these because I love the look of them. The wheels, the different trim they have on them just makes the car appealing to me visually. AWD 300hp, what's not to like?

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Necro Bump.. My buddy just picked up a 2004 S60R with 170K miles <$3K. Unknown history. What should he do?

All the fluids. All of them.

And the timing belt and water pump.

Knurled wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Necro Bump.. My buddy just picked up a 2004 S60R with 170K miles <$3K. Unknown history. What should he do?

All the fluids. All of them. And the timing belt and water pump.

Just verified... He has no recipts or service records for the car. Except a clutch and timing belt at 110K.

It's an easy job to replace the timing belt on that engine. Really easy, as in merely a 2 hour job. Do it and replace the tensioner and water pump so they are known good.

Transmission fluid change. Disconnect the radiator lines and fully flush it out. Messy but not hard. Takes about 3 gallons to do it thoroughly.

Doing the rest of the fluids isn't a bad idea. It never hurts to reset the clock on a new to you car when it comes to the fluids.

Save pennies for a VIDA/DICE thingie in the future. But that's only he he's skilled enough to be doing the work that calls for it.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

Knurled wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Necro Bump.. My buddy just picked up a 2004 S60R with 170K miles <$3K. Unknown history. What should he do?

All the fluids. All of them. And the timing belt and water pump.

Just verified... He has no recipts or service records for the car. Except a clutch and timing belt at 110K.

How many YEARS ago was it? Over five, just do it to it.

As pointed out, timing belts on whiteblocks is usually silly-easy.

Volvos, like practically anything with all-aluminum engines for some reason, are really intolerant of lax servicing. The oil NEEDS to be changed on a regular basis, with a high quality synthetic oil (check for ACEA rating). IMO the Volvo service interval is acceptable for a nonturbo engine but shamefully long for a turbo engine. 3k max, not 7500 or whatever, unless you like crankcase sludge.

ipd has a special right now, $25 gets you the special filter socket and three filters (Mann, I think). That is a screaming deal. I pay $6/ea for the filters from NAPA and my filter socket was $24-ish from a tool vendor. ipd also sells filters by the case. ipd also sells a LOT of Volvo goodies. So does Pelican Parts, now. They are your friends.

The valve cover is also the cam caps. It's sort of like a structural bedplate oil pan, but on the top of the engine. This means you aren't going to just pop it off to have a look-see like a VW engine, since it rather holds the camshafts in place.

I'm unfamiliar with if that generation S60 turbo has variable cam timing. I can speak from painful experience that deferred oil changes are far more expensive than frequent changes with high quality oil if you have variable cam timing. (Oh well, I got the car cheap because of it, so I'm using the money I saved to fix the car, so it all balances out, right?)

Despite my occasional headaches, I think the driving experience is worth it, and I'd replace it with another in a heartbeat. I kinda like the under-the-radar performance and luxury - it's not boy-racer, it's not hey-look-at-me Mercedes, and it's not some POS VW. (I have three POS VWs already...)

Ha.. he just pulled a car fax and it looks like it has had dealer maint. up until he bought it.

As much as i love a V70R, i really wish they had made an s80 t6 awd wagon as well. An s80 wagon would be amazing.

In reply to Vigo:

You liked the t6? I haven't driven one but I know a lot of people hate them. They are great in theory but in real life they are still weak little things, not the Swedish 2jz you would imagine.

I prefer it to building a turbo setup myself, at least at first. I've been working on my mom's s80 for the past 110k (including 2 timing belts/water pumps etc) and still like the car.

foxtrapper wrote: It's an easy job to replace the timing belt on that engine. Really easy, as in merely a 2 hour job. Do it and replace the tensioner and water pump so they are known good. Transmission fluid change. Disconnect the radiator lines and fully flush it out. Messy but not hard. Takes about 3 gallons to do it thoroughly.

Awesome! I'll have Robyn call you when her 850 needs a timing belt. Thanks for volunteering! That was by far the worst timing belt I've ever had the joy of doing. My TDI is dead easy compared to the T5. There is ZERO berking room to work in that engine bay.

I agree changing the trans fluid is pretty easy. Granted, if it "needs" to be changed, changing it won't help it.

Ian,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CPrcPJPHdk&feature=youtu.be

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emsa-w-n93s

The former has you just laying the coolant tank back out of the way. The latter has you removing the top brace for easy access. Best is to do both.

Other than getting to the crankshaft nut to rotate the engine and align the marks, it's all done from the top.

In reply to foxtrapper:

I'll try to look at those tonight. There was no room to get the belt around the lower pulley. Zero. Maybe we're talking about different engines/cars... hers is a '96, but I was under the impression the engines/bodies are pretty much the same.

Do you remember if the water pump is driven off the timing belt? She thinks it's leaking as all of the hose connections are dry.

My father's former mechanic has an S60R, but he is a Volvo master. His recommendation was to get nothing other than the S60 of the new generation cars as most of the others are hassles. Not sure that includes the R.

Dad has a S60 2.5T. The thing hauls nicely. Only real issue with it is the turning radius is horrible.

Aye, waterpump driven off the timing belt.

I'm a little baffled by the trouble of getting the belt around the lower pulley. Not saying you didn't have that trouble, just don't understand it myself.

I've done 850 & S/V70 timing belts, if the right engine mount is shot/collapsed, it's real hard to get the timing belt between the crank pulley and engine mount. Good time to replace the engine mount too.

Local indy Euro/Volvo mechanic my folks use, often only does the belt. I thought dad was getting a steal when he told me how cheap he got the timing belt replaced for. I was ready to hand dude my keys, then I saw the invoice, dad only got a belt. I expressed my concern, but dad was content.

I do it all, belt, idler, tensioner, tensioner pulley, water pump, gasket, bolts, and the next one is getting cam seals too. It's an interference engine after all, no reason to give it any opportunity to kill itself due to neglect.

My 850 is due by age, I've got everything in a box in the garage to do it, just got to make time and room in the garage. It's been a while, last time I did it spoiled me, I had the engine out of the car on a HF furniture dolly, I had plenty of room then.

Hmm... might have been the engine mount. This was about 4 years ago, so my memory of exactly why/how it was a PITA is vague. I just remember trying to get the belt off and going, "WTF? This is NOT possible??" The clearance was less than the thickness of the belt. I don't remember if I removed the engine mount (right side mount removal is SOP for TDI's, so I wouldn't have balked at removing it).

Regardless. Not my problem anymore. She just finished replacing the PCV assembly - had the entire intake apart. Looked like fun. She has it all back together and is now starting to realize why I had so many weird tools. Her collection is building. She has a severe distrust of mechanics (hell - I probably wouldn't BE here if it weren't for her getting me back into working on cars back in 2002), so it wouldn't surprise me if she decides to do the timing belt herself next time. Or sooner if it all has to come apart anyway to get the water pump out.

I didn't have much trouble with the s80, which is one of only two cars i can think of to have a straight six mounted transversely. It's kind of amazing that you can fit six cylinders and a transmission all in a row and still have the amount of room that it does. I guess the s60 engine bay is narrower than the s80 by more than one cylinder's width.

Ian F wrote: In reply to foxtrapper: I'll try to look at those tonight. There was no room to get the belt around the lower pulley. Zero. Maybe we're talking about different engines/cars... hers is a '96, but I was under the impression the engines/bodies are pretty much the same.

They are not, by far. Completely different animals.

chiodos wrote: Old folks need not apply to "performance" models. Dont get me wrong I know everyone can have a need for speed but I hear everyone bitch about stiffness and harshness but damn....maybe im just used to actually stiff cars

Since this popped up again: the R Volvos have exceptionally harsh suspensions because the FOUR-C electronic suspension programming sucks balls. It overreacts to sharp impacts, which does not improve performance one bit. The fix is to move the accelerometer from the front strut body to the chassis.

""

foxtrapper wrote:

ProDarwin wrote:

He's got some valid points. The Volvo turbo is rather slow to spool up, so an automatic leaves it in boost 100% of the time. Manual shifting on the other hand, has you waiting for it to spool back up with every shift. The R has the edge over the T5 for performance, but not by much. And that edge comes with a heck of a price tag, both initial cost and repair cost. So you can tune and fiddle with the T5 a lot more easily and for a lot less money than you can an R model.

If the turbo is so slow to use why does Porsche use the same K24 in it's 911 turbo or Gt2?

Streetwiseguy wrote:

ProDarwin wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: I love Volvos. I hate R's. They are too low, too coarse, the tires are too big, many of them have George Hamilton dyed leather seats, and turbo Volvos should have an automatic trans. Find a T5 instead.

Its a Volvo. A Volvo. They are designed for comfortable, reliable, long lasting, high speed cruising. R's do all those things worse. Want a hot rod? Buy a BMW.

I've demolished may BMWs and S4 in my R. The T5 doesn't have the same turbo and can't handle the same amount of boost the R can. Brake from 130 mph and tell me which car you would rather have.