Hey all,

Been off the Volvo train for a bit but couldn't stay away. Picked myself up a 2000' S40 T4 Manual for $3K as a cheap little beater daily that I can still have some fun in.

After a flight to Adelaide and a 3 day, 1800km trip home (shout-out to the missus for coming and helping with driving) without the car skipping a beat I'm ready giving the car a general service with oil/filter, coolant etc. Getting some new RE003s because I don't tolerate crap rubber and starting the work to give her a little bit of TLC as the car is a bit rough around the edges. Exterior trims will get repainted due to fade/peel. Will sand back and re-clear coat the spoiler due to clear coat peel too. Car has some hail damage too but that's whatever.

I half suspect it's had some work done as the car seems too quick for 147kw. Buyer said it has either EVO or WRX suspension on it and was set up for hill climbs. That tracks cause the ride is pretty rough, not that it bothers me though. Brakes are also supposed to be EVO/WRX and stop on a dime.

Couple of things I want to do aside from the general service and TLC items.

New shift knob + boot. Anybody know the thread of the shifter and what knobs would fit? New blacked out ebay grillLooking at intake options for more induction noise. Anything out there or am I looking at custom? BOV/CBV. Are there any options for this? Coming from a boosted Stagea daily I'm missing my turbo sounds so anything that gives me a little bit of noise without affecting spool would be tops.

There's a Voldat service sticker on the windshield too, so might give them a buzz to get some history on the car. Maybe they can shed some light on any mods that may have been done to it.

Cheers all.

Ah, that’s Ballast’s old car. Not a bad bus, and yes, it does go very well for a “stock” car. I have owned several T4s, and that car and my silver one are head and shoulders above most.

It is a SuperTouring one, which basically just means that it has the blacked out headlight surrounds and fake carbon fibre on the dash. It also had the ugly straight spoke SuperTouring wheels, but Ballast replaced them with the much better looking BBS T4 wheels.

He bought it from a mate who had inherited it from his parents (?) and then Ballast sold it to some joker who ran the rego out and tried to jack up the price by 50%. Seems that they must have had a long, hard think, because $3k far more realistic.

Your car has Evo 6(?) Bilsteins in it, and Evo3 front brakes. Ballast ran it at the SDMA hillclimb when he lived in Canberra, and it was a fair bit quicker than it “should” be.

It may also have the extended lower control arms from my old race car, to give some negative camber on the front. Rego is gonna hate you if they are still in it.

No thread on the gear lever. The factory knob is pressed on and is supposed to be there forever. You’ll need to track down one of the aftermarket knobs that use grub screws, or cut your own thread onto the shifter.

Did you get any of the spares?

Seeing a lot of quotation marks here haha. But yeah it's a solid bit of kit, the drive home was a trial by fire and it didn't let me down. Bilsteins are definitely still in it and for sure has some camber on the front. My rego guy is pretty loose so shouldn't be an issue.

Based on that info I'll just cut a thread onto the shifter and get a basic Civic Type-R shift knob or something similar. Should be easy enough.

And got a boot full of spares. Cluster, trims, suspension bits and what looks like a couple of spare ECUs maybe. What's the go with tuning the things? All Volvo tuning options seem to be for P1 S40s and newer. Nothing for the poor T4 :(

  • Spac replied to this.
    Steadfst

    Seeing a lot of quotation marks here haha. But yeah it's a solid bit of kit, the drive home was a trial by fire and it didn't let me down. Bilsteins are definitely still in it and for sure has some camber on the front. My rego guy is pretty loose so shouldn't be an issue.

    Based on that info I'll just cut a thread onto the shifter and get a basic Civic Type-R shift knob or something similar. Should be easy enough.

    And got a boot full of spares. Cluster, trims, suspension bits and what looks like a couple of spare ECUs maybe. What's the go with tuning the things? All Volvo tuning options seem to be for P1 S40s and newer. Nothing for the poor T4 :(

    There was a place in Perth advertising that they could do them, but I have never tried.

    Other option is to get bits sent over from the UK, with all of the joy that comes with that…

      a month later

      Figured I'd use my existing thread rather than start a new one.

      How on earth do I get a new key for these things? Have tried multiple places with no luck and now the dealer isn't sure they can do them. Any suggestions?

      Existing key is still working if pretty banged up. Just need it cloned.

      See my thread on this forum for " Replacement Keys" under my name.

      Cheers Peter

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