New Owner/User | C30 T5

Steadfst

hamsandwich;128738 wroteVolvo 8699465 is the part required, $15USD from fcp, I have ordered by not fitted yet.

Is that part for a right hand drive car? That shop is US so presumably their parts would be for LHD and the shifter mechanism would be opposite. Push from left to right for geartronic instead of right to left?

hamsandwich

I looked into rhd/lhd but could only ever find the one part number for it, I was just going to spin it around. If you google image the part number you can see the little magnet that triggers manual mode.

Philia_Bear

Steadfst;128764 wrote
hamsandwich;128738 wroteVolvo 8699465 is the part required, $15USD from fcp, I have ordered by not fitted yet.
Is that part for a right hand drive car? That shop is US so presumably their parts would be for LHD and the shifter mechanism would be opposite. Push from left to right for geartronic instead of right to left?

99% sure it's the same for lhd and rhd

Steadfst

Alrighty. Haven't touched this thread in a while but I've been noticing the vacuum pump more regularly recently. Went away for a while, now it's back most days.

Opened the hood to take a look and found something terrifying.
https://imgur.com/B0KDmel
https://imgur.com/GNE8Xw7
The lines from the pump are the problem, in that they don't exist. They've been corroded away almost completely.
Therein ends the mystery. Gulp...

So when I bought the car it had a bad smell, took it to the mechanic and it ended up being a bad battery. Pretty simple problem overall, but it had been leaking acid and as the battery got hot it turned into vapour, hence the smell and also RIP lungs.

Now, I assumed the mechanic would've done his due diligence and cleaned the battery tray and immediate area of residue buuuuuut, evidently not. The lines are corroded in that area and there's plenty of residue on the battery tray, surrounding bolts and even top of the vacuum pump itself.

Took out the battery and gave everything a thorough clean down to avoid any further damage. But either way, I need new lines. I think I might just replace all the lines on the right aside of the engine bay, just in case.

cubic25

Jesus Christ!

What is with these cars and batteries?!? I go through one every three years. I've put it down to engine bay heat. It gets bloody hot under there.

Ex850R

Batteries, yep, could be right.
Maybe get a good quality gel one.
A battery shop like Battery World.
2 to 300 bux. Well worth it, will last ages and much abuse.

timbo

I went with an optima in mine and haven't looked back (about $320 trade)

Steadfst

I've owned the car for about 6 months now, and thought I might do up a little list of problems and niggles that I've noticed/have come up during ownership.

Front-right headlight failing intermittently (still haven't gotten around to seeing whether my model actually needs the ballast I bought.) If not I'll throw it up for sale on here if anyone needs one. It seems to get knocked out over hard bumps. Still don't know what exactly it is.

Right blinker has always been temperamental. Used to stick on sometimes if you flicked it back yourself to softly, like it doesn't register the switch. Now it's taken to both sticking and not engaging at all. Also sometimes starts the right blinker when the stalk click back from the left.

Shocks need replacing all around. Rears are mostly all right, but the front are nearly toast and I'll do them all when they get done. This is expensive yes, but i always intended to redo the suspension regardless of the condition of the stock setup. So no biggie.
Also the bushes need doing. These pretty much go like clockwork no?

The shifter blind for the gear selector has collapsed. Cheap fix and fairly easy to do. Would like to have some control over gear shifts. Ideally I'd have bought a manual, but none were available in my price range and I needed a car ASAP.

I think that's about it.
The rest is general maintenance (next service incl. the timing belt) and the "issues" are superficial at best. Mostly electrical gremlins, which I expect of a Euro car.

Overall though, still love the red machine.

AshDVS

Shocks dont need to expensive for them, even for decent stuff.
Yell if you want some pricing for a few different options.

Philia_Bear

timbo;134124 wroteI went with an optima in mine and haven't looked back (about $320 trade)

Mine has a volvo branded battery in it.... appears to be the original one still

Philia_Bear

Re blinker issues

Stalks are well known to fail... mine did
Sourced from Volvo Aus for $108aud had next day

Steadfst

Philia_Bear;136023 wroteSourced from Volvo Aus for $108aud had next day

Perfect, thanks for the pointer.
Need a rear wiper assembly too, will get it all at once.

AshDVS;136019 wroteShocks dont need to expensive for them, even for decent stuff.
Yell if you want some pricing for a few different options.

Was just going to go the easy performance option, grab a Bilstein B12 kit and call it a day.
But if you've got some better options, I'd rather buy from you than some random ebay seller or the like.
Was looking at doing shocks, springs, bushes etc. in the coming months. Front tends to crash a little over potholes, so maybe strut tops too? Could be a number of things.

AshDVS

@Steadfst, these may be of interest if you're looking at going with a kit -
https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/8762/bilstein-b14-coilover-kit-volvo-p1-c30-s40-v50#latest

c30c30

If you're gonna put a battery. Go big... Century DIN75LHMF (910CCA).

Also if you've got an auto, for the love of god change the fluid. Mine was fooked at 55,000km. Stock ATF is dino. Penrite make synthetic ATF that lasts. If you're still looking for a tune, I can vouch for the Elevate canned tune. It was put together by Autotech (the Swedish tuner, not the company, which he sold, and may or may not be selling the same tunes).

Steadfst

c30c30;136981 wroteAlso if you've got an auto, for the love of god change the fluid.

For sure. That's a good habit to get into before increasing the power, though the AW55 is pretty tough from what I've read, so long as you keep it under around 350hp. People seem to have troubles after that.

I also remember reading somewhere that the transmission needs to be retuned/reset for new fluid, as the fluid is a "lifetime" type and the trans is designed to adapt to the changes in viscosity as the fluid ages.
I think it also said the dealer needs to do the flush because they have the codes for the trans retune etc.

I could be wrong there, I read it a long while ago, could be missing details. Feel free to correct me.

c30c30;136981 wrotef you're still looking for a tune, I can vouch for the Elevate canned tune. It was put together by Autotech

I've heard good things about their tunes. Get a good little boost in power for relatively cheap.

I've also been looking at Shark Performance's tunes. They offer tunes depending on the level of support modifications you've got. I'm not a fan of the whole "stage" mentality, but their "Stage 3" tune (Intake, exhaust, downpipe & intercooler) supposedly nets 310hp/230kw and 500nm+
Anyone had any experience with them?

timbo

If the claimed 230kw is at the wheels it's not possible on a stock k04. Real world Aussie dynos suggest the K04's Max out at about 190kw

c30c30

It's pretty easy to reset the fluid hot counters with Vida and a China dice! You can also do an adaptation if that is required. At 55,000km my fluid was toasty and yet the hot counters only had 1 hour logged! The fluid is actually pretty easy to change yourself if you're happy with the dump and fill approach. You can use a tom thumb pump through the dipstick. The pan holds 4L so perfect for 4L of Penrite ATF. After about 3 or 4 goes the fluid should be good enough.

Elevate used to sell staged tunes, but now they just sell their stage 3 tune as the only one you'll need. Makes sense, the ECU can adapt!

C30 crew used to be split on whether Elevate or Shark had better tunes, but if you go there now you'll find a really long thread of people complaining about various issues with Shark tunes. I don't think I've found anyone with a problem with the Elevate tune. I'm pretty happy with it. It makes hugely more power. Fuel economy has improved. It's still torque limited in 1st and 2nd, but that's only really an issue for the top of 2nd on a high traction surface. Usually grip is the limiting factor.

Ex850R

Hilton tunes?
The pump and fill for auto fluid is best way.
Maybe Shemtek does tunes too?

AshDVS

timbo;137308 wroteIf the claimed 230kw is at the wheels it's not possible on a stock k04. Real world Aussie dynos suggest the K04's Max out at about 190kw

This may be measured in 'US-hp', which will all know is a different unit of measure.

Steadfst

timbo;137308 wroteIf the claimed 230kw is at the wheels it's not possible on a stock k04.

Nope, that's crank hp. The comparison on their old site (new one is still under construction) noted a before of 230hp and an after of 310hp. 300whp+ would absolutely need a k16 turbo.

300-310 crank works out to just over 250whp with a 15% drivetrain loss. Or 190kw~ which seems to fit with the limits of K04. Either way, I'm thinking Elevate is the way to go, there's just seems to be so many happy customers.

c30c30;137309 wroteIt's still torque limited in 1st and 2nd, but that's only really an issue for the top of 2nd on a high traction surface. Usually grip is the limiting factor.

Stock it seems to limit boost to 7.5psi~ in 1st and 2nd, so is that still a hard limit for the tune, or does it scale as the boost is increased?
For example stock seems to cut boost by 25% in 1st and 2nd, with the tune is it cutting 25% of the new boost level, or still a hard limit of 7.5psi?

Ex850R;137313 wroteHilton tunes?

Ex850R;137313 wroteMaybe Shemtek does tunes too?

I'll have a look.
Alternatively I could just put her on a dyno and get a proper dyno tune, though that's more money.

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