T5 - Another 'not yet a classic' Bloggy.

[Paul240480]

Hehe, thanks for the reply GHT. My thread title agrees with you, but it is 'Practically' a classic

Joking aside, of course you are correct.

My idea with this and my previous 240GL, 480T auto & 850GLT is to buy 'cheap but good' & now that I have a little more time, to learn and improve to the best of my ability.

I took the 240 on at 15yrs & sold it at 30yrs. IMO it was in better nick' when I sold it & it has gone to an enthusiast
The 480 too & that, now with its current owner is nigh on mint There are threads on here for 240 & 850, that were, I think enjoyed. They are still 'live' tho' photobucket 'lost' all the images when they pulled the plug on 'free' accounts
The 850 is slogging on and is being used a tip runner and removals 'lorry', the current owner reckons it just won't 'die'.
Yes, I take on what could be considered as a 'banger' but surely happy folks like me help save them and ease them towards classic status wherever possible.
TBH, I'm not sure if I can do that with this current T5, as it has a case of (unusual on these) tin-worm on the underside that might beat me into submission, we shall see.........
Cheers!

[Paul240480]

The final run to home was made with T5 starting perfectly. So now once I'd got it home it was time to have a better look at things.
I needed to get it re-registered onto French plates.
On checking the V5, found that Sec' K was incomplete. That was a bugger as it, if complete proves European Conformity & should be accepted in The Prefecture as such.
Not having Sec' K meant going to Volvo France for Certificate of Conformity, 140 Euros for a sheet of paper detailing most of what is already on the V5, thats French red tape for you.
Headlamps needed to for 'driving on the wrong side'. To be honest the lamps on it were 'shot' anyways. One had a stone hole & the reflectors were dead.
I got a set via the French forum for not too much.


On checking all lights in readiness for the Controle Technique (French MOT) I found a duff fog lamp.

The holder had clearly overheated at some stage Gave it a good clean up & much to my surprise:

Note to self made to source at least some new bulb holders.....
Now the intermittent no start issue. I decided to have a look at the antenna ring on the ignition. I found it had for some reason a zip-tie round it

I removed that and then saw one of the terminals was quite bent.

So I got onto Parts for Volvo & ordered a replacement (Volvo OE) & hoped this would resolve the random no start issue..........

[Paul240480]

A week or so later the new antenna ring arrived & was quickly installed.


It fired up just fine once fitted, I hoped that was the issue.

Next on the list was to go for the Controle Technique.
It passed 1st time. Though had advisories for rust on the floor pan and struts. Marc, the tester took me underneath to show me. There was certainly more than I'd seen on a Volvo of this age. In fact it looked as though it may have sat in long wet grass for a time...... Marc said it was 'solid' but just wanted me to see.
Oh, also noted was the exhaust pipe being rusty, it was certainly past its best! It was an 'OE' one and 'Ive no doubt it was the original as they do last 18-20yrs. So could'nt really complain there.

So need a lot of cleaning up ,rust killer and Waxoyl !
At least I could now get on with re-registering.....

Which, as you can see was done.
A few days later I returned to the car after a run , went to start & ....... nothing, nowt, zilch. Well, that is to say, key to 'ignition on' dash lights etc, but turn to start and nothing, dead as a dodo!
So much for a new antenna

[Luxobarge]

Looking good!

OK, so as previously stated, if it doesn't crank then it won't be the antenna - you know that now anyway eh?

Did you jiggle the gear lever around? Assuming it's an auto, then if it thinks it's in anything other than D or N then it won't crank - worth looking at, if it's this and it persists then cleaning or replacing the PNP switch is the way to go. Could be a number of other things too, but I'm trying to think of common faults on these models.

Your antenna ring connections did look dodgy, so I suspect that you've dodged a future issue by replacing it, so still not wasted money IMHO.

Cheers!

[Paul240480]

Thanks LB.
After this issue reared its ugly head again, I suspected that trigger wire on the starter to be the culprit. Tho' I did run the gear leaver through the positions sometimes when it happened. The thing was that it ALWAYS started 'if eventually' and once running it was 'spot on'.
Touching wood, it seems to be sorted now. I did clean up the trigger wire, but it did do the no start thing once randomly over the following months.
However, after we got back from the best part of 2 months in the UK (in The Jalopy ) the battery was very weak, even tho' it started. I gave it a charge and it was fine, but a few days later it was very sluggish & on 11.4 volts. So decided to get a new one.
Now whilst it was out i pulled the battery tray too. This revealed a couple of very cruddy earth straps going into the inner wing. So I cleaned these right up before replacing the tray & new battery.
Result of that has been that it has started on the button every time since, must be best part of a year now I reckon . The history file shows it to have been an issue for many years & I suspect that's why I'm the 10th owner One garage even replaced the starter due to it.
Off to touch some wood now......

[Luxobarge]

Excellent diagnosis Paul, very much sounds like you might have found it, and if those earth straps were weak, who knows what other maladies it might have caused either now or in the future? I've heard of this fault on these cars, although not very common well worth sorting - and a free fix eh? The best sort!

I recently did a similar thing on our Morris Minor - always found that the "first start of the year" was a bit of a saga, usually needed additional power, easy-start etc. none of which should have been necessary. In the end I found that the main power feed for the whole car is taken off a single brass spade connector bolted to the starter solenoid, and although looking quite bright and clean on the outside, was horrendously corroded underneath the bolt head. The clue was that it was giving 12+V right enough when sitting there, but it immediately dropped to around 7-9V under any sort of load, which was enough to run the car on a good day, but not enough to give a decent spark when damp and cold. Cleaned it all up and it maintains full battery voltage under any load now, and the car leaps into life straight away. Very satisfying fix!

Cheers

[Paul240480]

After a few months of all being good, another snag reared its ugly head
Had a nasty hot burning type niff coming through the vents. (seems to be a theme their what with The Jalopy )
A quick glance about revealed nowt.
Then at next start up the fan blew for all of 2 seconds then the little orange lights flashed and the unit shut down. Classic knackered blower motor symptoms I gather.
I knew an oppo' on the Volvo forums was breaking a T5 which; it turned out had the same blower unit. I bagged it and also his fog lamps

Fitting , I found a doddle, about a 30 minute fettle:

out with the glove box - 6 T25's

Then you can see the motor unit.

The wiring looms, the grey block and the black 'banana' just unclip from the motor unit.
Remove the 4 T25's and the motor will drop out with a wiggle to get past the looms.
Pull off the connector & its free.

Then its just a case of slipping the new unit in & connecting it up.
......and with a bit of luck, no more 2-second blasts followed by flashing lights and a dead fan. Should light up like this, oh an blow too, lol

I have to say that this was a pleasure to do, having replaced the rheostat on the blower on my 2004 Ph2 V70 where you need to adopt this position:

[Paul240480]

Onto the next things then. The underside & a blowing exhaust. By 'feel' the 'blow' was on top of the silencer. Very little room between it and the floor pan to attempt any repair. That said the rest of the exhaust was very rusty indeed. They last about 15 - 18yrs on these, so I suspected this to be the original system. It was certainly a Volvo unit with the classic single 'clam' silencer.
I looked at a Volvo replacement, but 2 things put me off.
1) The price 600 quid or so.
2) Fitting - they are a single piece from the cat-back a go over the rear axle. The car needs to be on a lift high up to get the angle to feed it over said axle.
The saying goe's that Volvo fitted the exhaust pipe then built the car around it!
So I settled for one of these:

A Jetex (Simons - same thing I gather) Stainless Chromium (whatever that is) .
Beauty of these is an 'extra' join, so getting over the axle is a doddle
To get the old one off over the axle I took my angle grinder to it & chopped it!

Here you can see the holes in the top of the 'clam'.
Once it was off. I went over everywhere I could get to with a wire brush on my 24v drill. Attacking as much of the rust as I could. Then used various hand wire brushes where I couldn't get to with the 24v. The good news was, that it was just surface rust. No holes to worry about.
Then I sealed the end of the cat & jet washed the underside. I then let it dry in the summer heat for 2 days. Then painted rust killer everywhere possible. Once that had dried, I hit it with 3 rattle cans of a waxoyl type product I found in a local motorfactor store.
Once that had dried I set about fitting the Jetex. That was a doddle &, I found a perfect fit.
Out for a spin & it sounded lovely if a little 'boomy' when accelerating compared to the OE' unit.
But as this was 370 quid delivered I can live with that

[Paul240480]

So, since the exhaust, not a lot to report. Starting remains 'on the button'

I did go for an overtake the other day, which embarrassingly turned out to be a kangaroo-ing no power debacle . I swiftly pulled back in and limped home......
1st thoughts was that the electronic throttle module had given out on me, not good at all - infact would probs be 'game over' for me

Anyways I slept on it & thoughts went back to my old 480 Tub. The turbo pipe quite often popped off on that thing.

I had a peek & guess what:

I think you can make out exactly that!
I popped out & got a shiney new set of assorted jubilees, stuck one on & T5 purred back into life, phew!

I'm now up in Silloth , Cumbria in my ahem, newer Volvo. Last week daughter face-timed me to say her Pug was playing up & she needed the T5 for her 60 mile commute for a few days.

4 days later she reported all was good, and she said, "one day this idiot in a Saxo VTR was tailgating me like a prat, I left him for dust once the cars ahead cleared".
Then she said, " But Dad I preferred driving the Tank"
She was referring to my old 240GL, which is still running & now 30yrs old. That's my girl

[Paul240480]

Looking ahead now to Controle Technique time in August.
I recall Marc, the tester telling me that the left headlamp only just satisfied requirements, reflector going home. Both lamps were 2nd hand from a French Volvo forum I used and were cheap, so not complaining.
Also the rear right brake 'dust shield' was rusting out, about a 1/4 of it had gone.
These items, brand new should arrive tomorrow from Parts for Volvo.
I've also had a knocking noise from the front drivers side suspension & noticed the outer side of that tyre wearing badly.
Whilst Chris (my mobile mec') was over doing my vans brakes I got him to have a squizz.
After a quick spin to 'listen' he then lifted that corner, he found the ball joint knackered and also the strut top mount too That'll be why my tyre is wearing un-evenly then
I have ordered a pair of suspension arms & a top mount, received today. Just waiting now for Chris to book me in.
Once that's done I guess tracking will be required?
Then new rubber for the front end & hopefully Mister Tester will be happy..........