Vince's xm - 2.1TD daily driver

[Vince]

Id love a newer shape V70, S60, S80 with the D5 engine. but it appears they are so prone to both engine and gearbox problems its scaring the life out of me.

If you look on autotrader you will see people running businesses replacing engines and boxes in these. As you know, to run a business you need demand. my local Volvo independent specialist says they are great cars, but the V70 classics gave less problems....the only issue they say is finding one.

Ive also started looking at Saab 9-5 estates...the TID models. They are slightly dearer to buy, but there are a hell of alot more around.

Depending on how things pan out in the coming weeks i might be taking a break from vehicle ownership for a few months? Sell the xm, get a bloody job, try to build up some savings and then buy something else.

See how it goes....

[robert_e_smart]

The D5 is a great engine. I love mine. I was driving a friend's s80 taxi last week, 310k on the original engine, and going strong.

[citroenxm]

The D5 is a great engine. I love mine. I was driving a friend's s80 taxi last week, 310k on the original engine, and going strong.

Sounds like my Xantia HDi Robert... 285k on original engine! And still going very strong!

[Vince]

Hello all....just checking in again

So, after about a week or so, the xm fingers crossed should be ready tomorrow dinner time ish I hope!

It would appear that at some point in the cars life its had a few things broken off in the engine compartment and also some jiggery pokery with some studs that relate to the seating of the fuel pump?

What it all boils down to is being a good job that my citroen indy had a spare engine and pump on his garage floor to be able to rob bits off and transplant them onto my engine. Its been hell he says and he will no doubt have cursed the day i brought it in, but as he confesses, he isnt one to do a half arsed job so it will be right when it finished.

As is stands im going to be keeping it for a short while as stated and after a few days on the bus / walking / paying extortionate public transport costs it will be nice to get back into the old girl and enjoy it again

When it does eventually go up for sale whoever buys it wont have half an idea how much money and tears have been spent on getting this car recommissioned after its layup whilst SORN'd

In all the buyers guides etc that exist for these cars, the thing i would underline in bold is KEEP IT IN REGULAR USE AND DONT PARK IT FOR MONTHS ON END

Fingers crossed for tomorrow's pick up. Im at my wits end with this fuel pump malarkey Not to mention my wallets end

[captainhaddock]

Hear hear! Couldn't agree more. Use it ore loose it

One of my neighbors just dumped-traded his 2007 Volvo after having been quoted a 1500 euro for MOT repair. I don't know what for, didn't dare ask because: he bought another Volvo! But it's all money we're talking. You cannot expect to drive a top class car for little or nothing. Even a 2cv, will cost you money.
Wish I 'd know that mechanic of yours, he seems like a dying breed! Do ask him what he transplanted, we could all learn from that Vince!

[jorgy]

Well today i picked the newly refurbed pump and when i asked the guy "What did it need, how bad was it"? His answer was "It needed everything, it was f@*ked" But now it is apparently perfect and tuned to as good as new
Oh well, £240 lighter in my pocket but the pump looks great, all new and shiny

Hi Vince

Is that right that they charged £240 for the pump refurb? Is that not a good price for this job?

Thanks
George

[Vince]

Hello all,

Ok, so the xm is back on the road and running like a dream...finally

Firstly, Jorgy, the pump refurb cost me £200 after all on a cash sale. The garage labour was another matter but we settled on £200 again for cash, though that was because ive known the owner for years and he knows my current predicament, plus i felt so bad with the amount of extra grief he'd gone through that ive agreed to clean his car up again for him...his series 2 xm

So, what transpired was as follows:
Pump gets taken off after a full strip down of the cambelt area. Coolant reservoir was taken off too and the cooling system flushed and changed also along with fitting a new cambelt. The ribbed belt was like new so it was decided to refit that.

At that stage Paul states to me that he doesn't know how its been running as the pump was running 2 teeth out of timing....? Irrespective though, I ferried the pump to the rebuild place for it to be refurb'd

The next day i collected the pump to be told that the pump had been overfuelling for a long while and internally everything that could go wrong with one of these pumps was wrong. It was trashed BUT, it had been fully rebuilt internally and was now running 100% like new again So, I dropped it back off at the garage.

The garage then rebuilt the pump and belt assemblies, timed it up to perfection and then tried to get it running. It wouldnt run at all and was not happy . Smoking terribly and no power at the pedal. The engine was dumping coolant and overheating and vibrating like mad. Overall it would only just start but then not idle under its own power. The conclusion after alot of head scratching was a timing problem, so more work went into the pump timing trying all manner of tweeks and tucks, but still no dice

After a day off the nightmare it was suggested to just use the old second hand pump that was there and try that thinking the timing is right so it must be something with the pump.... wasnt too happy with that option as for all i knew that could leak either straight away or shortly after refitting so id wasted my money on the refurb.

In any event, the next morning i spoke to the garage to be told that by pure luck they had found the underlying problem all along

On the engine there are 3 studs that the pump locates onto. You then bolt it up onto them. With both pumps removed (ready for the swap) it was noticed that there are actually 6 holes in the stud flange, 3 pairs of 2 next to each other. On my engine sometime in its life the studs had been removed and refitted into the wrong holes

So that explains why it was 2 teeth out of timing at first, why it was always such a noisy engine, and why it wouldn't respond to a correct timing set up once rebuilt

Once the studs were correctly fitted again, the refurb'd pump went straight on and it ran / runs like a top

[jorgy]

How good Vince.... I went through similar, had the engine not running properly for years, and thought it's as such (noisy, vibrating, un-torquey), till I fixed a couple of silly things and it runs like a dream now!

[captainhaddock]

Wo it wasn't running right for a long time.....Might as well start enjoying it now

[Eddie nuff]

Be interesting to see what fuel consumption you get now.