ive been looking for a new car and came across this volvo that my friend had for sale. he actually had a few cars for sale but this one caught my eye.

now the day before i went to pick it up i did some research since ive never owned a volvo and it was quite clear that i was diving in to the pits of hell with this car that everywhere i looked, people just said "RUN". the thing is though, it was a deal. he took in a beat up 1996 maxima that i had that wouldnt even start as a trade in, so all im actually paying him for the volvo is $2,300. volvo drives good and only has 138k miles on it.

now, this forum is one of the places that i initially read about this car, amongst others. my question is, what kinds of things can/should i do to make it somewhat more reliable. what things should i replace before they break on me?

while i was researching i found a bunch of info but could really find the answer i was looking for. so far, my friend told me that the timing belt had been replaced already.

ive also read that the radiator hose is plastic, is this true for all 2000 s80-t6? if so, should i immediately replace that hose with a rubber one? or even a silicon one?

all help is appreciated guys, i already bought the car so all i want to to take some preventative measures before things begin to happen to the car.

p.s ive also read that it has many electrical problems as well, including problems with the cars computer. can i upgrade the ecu on this car?

again, thanks for the help guys. i will be frequenting this forum from now on, being that i am now part of the family

 

Hey Green Monster, welcome to the forum.

I don't think you have much to worry about with the '00 S80. I think it's a twin turbo which makes it a little harder to care for with more stuff under the hood but other than that you should be good. The '99 model was a mess but most of that stuff got fixed for the next year.

Just do the service that's in the manual and you should be fine.

 

The 00 is basically the same as the 99- not Volvo's best by any stretch.

I don't known where you heard the radiator hose is plastic, but it isn't. We don't see a lot of hose problems. Leaking radiators on the other hand, we see quite a bit.

 

thanks, kind of feel better. i mean, you cant even google "2000 volvo s80 t6" with out being bombarded with nightmare reviews and stories of how horribly unreliable this car is. so i just wanted to get an idea of the most common problems so that i can remedy them before they happen.

this isnt my first turbo car so im aware of the little extra maintenance that turbo cars may need, but, man, i almost didnt buy this car due to everything i read. that many people couldnt have been wrong.

anyway, thanks alot for the reply. ill be doing tons of upgrades on this car. maybe ill post pictures as i go along.

 

Who's "WE"

 

Welcome to the forum. Good luck with your "new"car.

 

"We" would be dealer techs. I haven't seen many hose problems, but that's just cars I've worked on. However, guys in the shop often know what others are doing, we talk. We talk to guys from other shops at training courses.