Hello all!

My name is Aaron. I live in Vermont and I am actually Subaru enthusiast myself, though I have always admired Volvo. I recently worked on a 2001 S40 and wanted to join here to ask a few questions. My nephew has the car now, but I will surely be working on it more in the future.

The story goes like this. I had a friend who offered to sell me the car with 91,000 miles in early 2015 for $650. It had a salvaged title, but clearly the only major damage had been to the front and rear bumpers and it had been repaired fairly well. The car allegedly leaked some oil and needed minor repairs, but I figured I could fix it and sell it for a profit.

It ended up sitting for over a year because I didn't have the time to work on it after relocating for a new job. My nephew recently needed a new car after his 1992 Volvo 740 was too far gone to repair and inspect. So, I decided to fix up the S40 for him, but this is where the somewhat lemon part comes in. For every repair I thought the car needed, a far more sinister and expensive repair was waiting.

I thought it had an oil leak, most likely from the turbo oil return line seals. It may have that, but it is also burning oil at a very fast rate. I believe the PCV system needs an overhaul. An apparently common issue. Expensive as well, unless I can manage to clean it out sufficiently.
I thought it needed front sway bar links, due to some racket when going over bumps. While it does need them, upon inspection I found that the top coil of the front left spring had sheared off, and was actually the main culprit for the noise.
I thought it needed an accessory belt tensioner pulley from the sounds and jerking motions it was making. It did, but after replacing it I discovered the alternator pulley bearing is going bad as well, also clicking loudly.
I thought it needed new tires. It does, but the rear brakes also completely locked up from sitting, to the point where the pads might as well have been welded to the rotors. I'll blame cheap metallic pads, but after a fair bit of work I did get them replaced and salvaged the rotors.
I also made my own tools to turn in the rear caliper pistons, which I will be posting a video on if anyone is interested.

Other items needed were a mouse chewed air filter from before I bought it, an oil and filter change of course, a fuel filter just for maintenance, and an accessory belt due to unknown age and condition. With all the above taken into consideration, and even with a broken spring and old brakes, the car runs, drives, and stops absolutely wonderfully and has no noticeable engine issues. Other than the occasional noise over bumps or when turning from known problems, you would think it was in premium shape. My nephew and I love the interior and power and most everything works, except for the motorized antenna someone ripped out. I'm hoping it will end up a great car for him given the fairly low mileage.

There was one other thing. After repairing what we could before he had to take it on an out of state trip, we went to get gas. I walked out of the store as he was filling up and he said to me "There is one more problem." I looked down to see a torso sized pool of gasoline spreading across the ground. The filler neck had completely rotted out near the opening as it sat. He ended up kludge fixing it with a rubber couplet, metal screen, and steel cement. A hopefully very temporary fix, but for some reason filler necks for these four years of S40 seem more expensive than any other Volvo gas filler in existence.

Well, I know this is very long, but I hope someone gets some laughs reading it. Had I known all the problems to come, I may not have bought the car, but I still like it overall. Any responses and questions welcome!

 

 

That is one salty car!

 

Low mileage isn't always a good thing. Hope the timing belt has been changed.

 

@firebirdparts It certainly wasn't as happy as I was hoping!

@ES6T I'm really hoping the same! Is the manual specified service interval 100,000 miles? I did have a look at the belt by popping open the cover and it looks nice and clean, no cracking, but that can only tell you so much. That said it doesn't look like the worst timing belt job of all time, though I'm sure taking off the crankshaft pulley must be a pain. I hate working in the cramped space next to the tire well.

 

105,000 miles or 10 years. It isn't usually the belt that fails, it's the idler or tensioner. I would do the kit if you cannot verify with the previous owner when it was done.

 

Thanks for the advice. Would definitely do the full kit if I went to the trouble to change it. Have learned that lesson on other cars.