T5 gone. D5 purchased!

[a lex]

So my bargain T5 is gone...... The economy was doing my head in and it had a definite re-occurance of a PCV problem and I *think* I could hear some rod knock in there too :s punted it on here in NL to a local for £300 more than I paid after 5months and 6kmiles. Not a bad result

Ive been watching eBay like a hawk for the last week...... Finally made a bid this morning on this facelift D5(163) SE. 2004, FSH, 150k mles. 7 seats and a manual box, Just what I wanted

All for the grand sum of £2350. Picking up on Wednesday, if it all checks out surely a massive bargain???!!!!

[stephenevans99]

Well Done.....it's so satisfying seeing a 800 mile range when you top up.

[y2blade]

Very nice
welcome to the Dark Side.

[T5frankie]

nice motor, i was looking at this

[Chad]

Excellent buy, looks a nice car.

[a lex]

nice motor, i was looking at this

31 bids, so quite a few were - really surprised I took it at 2350.

Theres a really nice black 04 pre-facelift on eBay at the moment too. HIDS, TV, the works. Looks spot on. I was really saving myself for that one, but I have the feeling itll go beyond my ultimate 3k budget.

[S1mon]

It's amazing how cheap these cars are going for now!! Not so long ago it was difficult finding a V70 D5 for reasonable dosh, but higher mileage examples are bargains. Yours...well, I'd be worried about a knock on the door by Mr Plod for daylight robbery!!

[t5_monkey]

it'll be an epic bargain, or epic money pit!

2 grand is proper cheap mind you.

[lance]

Bargain that a 3k plus car all day long

[a lex]

So I have the car, after a 19hr trip yesterday its on my drive in NL.

Firstly, I couldnt have timed yesterday better; im shocked at how well it worked out, although I am gathering a decent amount of experience in the area by now, this being my 4th car ive travelled to the UK for.

Train: Rotterdam to Schiphol. I had built myself a 25min buffer on the train journey in case of problems, which turned out to a good idea as only 1/2 the normal services were running between Utrecht and Schiphol. Delay = 15min.

Plane: Amsterdam to London Southend: Straight in to the airport, through security, made the long walk down to gate H1, 10 min wait in the boarding gate and then on the plane. Perfect timing or cutting it fine, cant decide!



Southend: The airport is a bit of a shambles. Spanking new building and no-body knows how to run it. First held outside the terminal on the tarmac for 20mins and then locked inside the customs area as someone forgot to unlock the doors! Changed €3000 in to 2381GBP (OUCH!) and took the hire car, which was 20quid more expensive than the train and got me there in an hr, rather than 3 1/2!! The car itself was a 3-cyl VW Polo, I really liked it

Dealer: Nice chap called Nick, selling it for the owners who traded it against a BMW. He was kind enough to help e get the hire car back to the rental location

Drive!: Quick blast to the ferry in Dover, no traffic and had time to stop off at Tescos and stock up on Apple Juice (Strongbow). Check-in closed at 5.15pm - TOA: 5.05pm. Nice
A 2hr ferry ride followed by an equally simple motorway cruise on this side of the water.



Distance: 350miles
Average Speed: 73mph
Avg. mpg: 49.9mpg

__


Right, the car. Ive spent the whole day on it, since 9am this morning. I feel as though I have moved it away from toxic and in to the realm of hygienic. I can certainly commute in in tomorrow without too many personal hygiene worries :hehe: Its still a long way from great though. Ill need to get a leather restore/repair kit to take care of the passenger seat and rear bench - apparently wear from baby seats. Ive got most of the grot out of the hard to reach (and not so hard to reach) places. Theres been a dog in it at some point and lots and lots of smelly children I think.

The car has clearly been used as an appliance without much thought to its appearance!

Ive given it a wash, about 3kg of mud fell out of each wheel arch. There are car park dents and scratches all around it - the fairest thing to say is that it looks great from afar, but far from great. Theres plenty of things for me to be getting on with on sunny weekends anyway.

The front parking lights were U/S, now fixed. Its topped up with oil (0w-30 FS). On checking the PAS fluid its very, very low. When the dealer opens tomorrow ill be getting a litre of the correct fluid and topping up - itll be interesting to see if that has any affect on the steering pulse.

There are no receipts to go with the car, just a few printouts of work done whilst it was a fleet car and a service book. Im going to write to the previous owner and ask if she can fill me in on some of the details. Its clearly been looked after mechanically - its wearing 4x Hankook V12 EVO tyres with about 4mm on the front and 6mm on the rears. The rear brake pads look brand new and are from Pagid. The engine bay was a little dirty (now cleaner), but there are no signs of leaks of any kind. Air filter isnt new, but isnt old, commensurate with about 10k miles since last service.

It drives very, very smoothly. Its much more supple than the T5 and has none of the shakes or rattles. There are no steering shimmys or wobbles all the way through the speed range = happy Brakes feel fine and dont pull or grab. There are no codes stored in the ECU, so everything seems happy enough there. The clutch feels good. The aircon is nice and cold. The dash clocks seem OK and without fault and the music system works as it should.

The pollen filter was nasty, so a new one has been ordered from eBay. Once I had removed the old one the force of the air through the centre vents improved considerably.

In many respects its a bit of a step down from the T5 - it certainly was in better cosmetic condition, although I think mechanically this one is stronger. The T5 was certainly better specced with the various option packs.

The D5 is a nice motor, but its made me appreciate how fast the T5 was...... however I cant argue with the economy and fingers crossed the cost savings its going to bring.

So, well done for reading - some pics:

All this from just the boot - you couldnt see the carpet in places:



The whole under bench area was thick with dirt like you see at the top of the picture



Old pollen filter:



Worst leather on the rear bench:



Passenger chair:



Front cabin:



I still need to steam clean the boot, but at least now its not a bio-hazard:




So, thats what you get when buying one of the cheapest (if not cheapest) D5 facelifts

[a lex]

Engine bay:



Headlamps need a polish to restore clarity:



Exterior:

[stephenevans99]

Fantastic post....Well Done for making the trip !!

It always makes me laugh when there's a car for sale a few County's away and potential buyers say 'It's too far away'. You traveled half way round the world for yours !!!!

[M-R-P]

Well done mate, she looks like a stunner. Being a facelift model, she wont have the electrical gremlins that the older models were dogged with. And if you get the windows tinted and a spoiler on it, it will look the mutz nutz!

[local-looney]

Well done mate, she looks like a stunner. Being a facelift model, she wont have the electrical gremlins that the older models were dogged with. And if you get the windows tinted and a spoiler on it, it will look the mutz nutz!

nice looking car and martin,such encouraging words!!

[y2blade]

lol only realised that you were posting on PH too when I saw the pics!!!!

following with interest, she was filthy wasn't she!

[M-R-P]

nice looking car and martin,such encouraging words!!

Well Shane, that D5 is the car I would have next, and a very good example too.
Besides, I'm feeling good about mine at the moment as I have a number of things in the pipeline for the big sweed which I'm quite excited about

[The Flying Moose]

Well a job well done in the end. If it can manage the 350 mile trip home without niggles or at least without encountering any then I think bar the little cosmetic things mentioned you have a good en!

In some respects I wish I had gone for a V70 again but when I looked the premium they demanded over the S60 was quite considerable.

[a lex]

Ive done a few things with the car today:

- Re-positioned the rad top hose, you could see in a few of the pics that it was going shiny from rubbing on the bonnet sound-proofing. I loosened the jubilee clips and rotated the whole thing by about 10 degrees.

- Topped up the PAS with Pentosin CHF11s fluid. €22 per L from Volvo You can get it for about 8gbp per litre in the UK, its just not available off the shelf here in NL However, a short test drive suggests a HUGE improvement. Fingers crossed that continues and if so, ill look into getting a PAS fluid change/flush done.

- Re-positioned the rear wiper - you can se it was a little droopy in some of the pics. Its now sitting nicely where it should be

- Tried to change the small yellow side market light found in the front clusters - its blown on the drivers side. No chance, because I dont have the hands of a small child. It looks like it will be do-able if I remove the airbox, so thats a job for another day.

Still, some useful and practical improvements taken care of

[a lex]

A few more things taken care of today. Ive started a basic paint correction, im about a million miles away from being an expert on this, so im claying, polishing and waxing. Its has quite an affect, which is encouraging - but with so much metal real estate its going to take a while to do! Ive also started on a more thorough cleaning of the leather.



Re-positioned wiper:









I also decided to bite the bullet and remove the airbox to get at the annoying blown bulb - my car OCD was getting the better of me. Once the airbox was out it was a reasonably easy job, but still a PITA.



All that removed, to get at this:



Ive also got a letter in the mail to the previous owner to ask about history and ordered some new Euro number plates. Im currently watching a few auctions on eBay for genuine Ovlov carpet mats.

[foammanmark]

Well done mate, she looks like a stunner. Being a facelift model, she wont have the electrical gremlins that the older models were dogged with. And if you get the windows tinted and a spoiler on it, it will look the mutz nutz!

It'll look something like this:-


I've just averaged 43.8mpg with this car, and it's a manual 163. I've not reset the OBC since early December, but my journeys are mainly long motorway jaunts.