45 minutes ago, Ootohere said:

@Gaz Is the insurance actually 'much cheapness' on it, or much of a muchness? 

 

Just done it - £318pa with legal and RAC breakdown, which I thought was okay.  Could've got it £18 cheaper without breakdown.  Think it's about £60 cheaper than the Golf.

 

41 minutes ago, skomaz said:

Yeah you do...   Two dailies and a toy...

 

Encouraging is the last thing I need! 😂 

 

G

I had four for a while...   Not recommended due to cost and parking space requirements...

 

But three...   That's a different story all together 😁

Got driveway space for two, but a third would have to be on the road.  I've had three before, but never four.  Given the conversations with Mrs Gaz about this have got a little interesting shall we say, I think I'll quit while I'm behind.

 

G

10 hours ago, Gaz said:

 

I went a bit left field, and have ended up with this:

 

 

2010 Volvo V70 D3 SE Lux.  One owner from new (the seller),  33k miles, FVSH (Main Dealer), new battery and the only thing I could fault it on was slight perishing on the front tyres.  And it was only three miles away 😎

 

it did 299 miles between its 2022 and 2023 MOT's - selling because it's not being used.  All MOT's passed except for one in 2016 for tyre wear on one tyre.  All journeys were long trips picking kids up from Uni, no short trips.

 

I can get my mobility scooter in the back (seat off), with my folding bike, and not need to have the rear seat down 👍

 

Needs a good clean, but doesn't want for anything else.  We'll most likely keep the Golf and sell the Polo.  Don't need three cars.

 

Gaz

 

 

 

That I did not expect. 😊

Looks like a real gem. Enjoy! 👍

On 11/05/2024 at 06:23, EnterName said:

That I did not expect. 😊

 

No, me either   But I think it would have been daft to pass it up.

 

It's now on my drive, with nice fresh screenwash.  Tyres were at 26 & 27 psi, but are now up to where they should be - 38psi.  Good inside clean tomorrow, feed the leather, try to work out how to change the digital speed from kph to mph (cruise is in mph, but the main dash is in kph - seems odd), and try to connect my phone.

 

 

 

Diesel in the tank is going to be a year old, so I'm going to run that down and give it a tank of some nice fresh good stuff, whatever that might be.

 

Gaz

 

I had a nice day of car cleaning yesterday.  Vacuumed the interior - proper vacuuming, not just the usual whizz around; took two hours, but the results are good.  Then washed the leather, cleaned it (Gliptone) and fed it (also Gliptone).  I'll give it another feed in a few days.  It took a while to get the sticky residue off from the tax disc holder - looks like I've got a complete set of tax discs!

 

I think the battery might be improving as the auto folding mirrors started working out of the blue yesterday.  I've a 160 mile run to do tomorrow and probably 500 or so miles in the next few days, so that should be a litmus test.  Although I did notice one chap on the Volvo owners forum has had the low battery warning for three years!

 

One oddity I don't like. The analogue speedo is mph, but I can only have the digital speed read out in kph.  I've checked and there's no way to change it to mph.  Seems odd.

 

Gaz

 

@Gaz  Is it a pretty big battery in the boot?  

They can give up the ghost pretty quickly when they are getting to end of life.

 

Be aware of the Alarm on them. 

12 years seems to be about the life of them and obviously some might last longer, or might have been replaced by now. 

Main battery is in the engine bay.  I've read about some having a secondary battery but I've not found one (yet) - certainly nothing under the boot floor.

 

Ta for the heads up on the alarm battery 👍

 

G

Nice find and as you say too good to pass on.

 

Weren't the Yetis the same with the digital readout? Seem to remember some guys using the Australian diagnostic setting to get round it. Which was strange as my Yeti and my TT were/are both 2014 and the TT showed in mph fine. Coming back to me, I think it was because the Yeti only showed mph on the speedo.

Just crossed over 34k miles, so brimmed the tank with V-Power. Got 69 litres in it, and the car’s now reporting a range of 630 miles. Think that’s the most range I’ve ever seen on a car of mine!

 

It’s a very comfy mile muncher. At one point yesterday it was doing a steady 67.5 mpg - not just a flash, it was doing it over three miles or so on very nice flat roads around RAF’s Lakenheath and Mildenhall.

 

G

Second day of no ‘Low Battery’ warnings 👍

 

And another nice little bonus: With my scooter in the boot with both front and rear sections locked together (good for stopping anything moving or clanking together):

 

I can get my folding bike out of the OSR passenger door without having to move the scooter 😎:

 

 

This is great because yesterday I did a couple of laps of Sandringham on my scooter. And today I’ve cycled around Wells next the Sea, and Old Hunstanton 😁

 

Gaz

Looks like it might be new battery time.

 

I was told the V70 had a new battery.  It did, in February 2020 🙄  I took the seller at his word about it being 'new'.

 

On the Norfolk trip the low battery warnings stopped, so I presumed it'd been revitalised.  Turned out to not be the case as they started again three days after we got back.  It still starts fine.

 

My battery charger (old school - probably 40 years old) is at my Daughter's, who is in Thailand at present.

 

So I got myself a NOCO Genius5 charger/maintainer, and left the battery on charge overnight.  It was at two bars:

 

 

But by this morning was charged:

 

 

So I went for a c.30 mile drive.  Got home and the low battery warning came straight on again 🙄 And it's back down to the two bars.

 

I've set the NOCO to 'repair' mode now, so we'll see how we go.  I suspect I know where we're going.

 

The car's only done 2,000 miles between Feb 2020 and me picking it up, so I think the battery's probably slowly died of boredom/neglect.  No reason to think the car's not charging, although I've not yet checked to be certain.  I would think that it is, given it improved on the 580 Norfolk round trip, and was okay for a short while.

 

A quick look suggests a Varta or Bosch battery is around the £130 mark (direct from Tayna), so not too bad in the grand scheme of things.  I'm glad it hasn't got stop/start.

 

Gaz

 

 

 

 

Edited 24 June, 20241 yr by Gaz
typo

On 06/05/2024 at 13:28, EnterName said:

Do you know which is the version with port injection and which is direct injection only, as that would be a decision factor for me?

Well, the decision was made to go Swedish, but if the question still lingers, an easy way to ID is that all pre-FL are double injection (direct and port) and 6-speed, and valve in the exhaust. From FL all engines are single injection (only direct), and 7-speed. Some early FL had the exhaust valve, maybe only 6 months or so.

I debated long and hard on the subject, but at the end the added usability of the 7 speed made the choice for me. 2.5k RPM is 140km/h, 3k RPM is 170 km/h ... is like you could do it all day.

The (non-indifferent) drawback of the single injection is the need to look into doing some decarbon and intake clean and engine work at some point, earlier than the double-injected engine. But this is a one every tot miles job .... the usage is every day.

I still like the pre-FL looks, car looks more proportionate, FL became very 'edgy' with the slimmer lights and those awful fogs, but this is personal opinion ....

On 01/06/2024 at 15:06, Gaz said:

Looks like it might be new battery time.

 

I've given it best, and fitted a new Yuasa 5000 series today.

 

I'd charged it five times in total, with one 'repair' procedure, but within a couple of days it was back to 'low battery' warnings, which I don't want.

 

Managed to kill the plastic retaining screw on the battery box lid, which felt like it was made of cheese 🙄 (It had suffered some mullering before my time).

 

Gaz