Hi all - I was in the Volvo dealer today looking at a 2010 v50 with 90,000 miles and after deciding to purchase the car on the test drive after turning off the car the whole battery went dead. The doors would not unlock and the rear gate (electronic release) would not open.

Since the service department was not open on Saturday, they said they would fix whatever was required and took a refundable deposit. Initial research suggests that this is either (1) the battery or (2) the SCU (ignition switch), which are both fixable and not a sign of a systemic issues.

Any thoughts on whether the car is still worth purchasing? I am speaking with Service tomorrow to hopefully get the fault codes from the diagnostic testing, and will hope that it is a confidently diagnosed and fixed issue. But, of course, this makes me wonder whether I should feel comfortable buying. The car is a good price, and don't have many other options for finding this price/condition otherwise.

What do you think?

 

Just sounds like a dead battery.

 

I'm hopeful it's the battery as well, and don't want to make a big deal of a small issue, but want to have the confidence that I can consider the car one that will reliably start up. The battery is the only thing that makes any sense to my (beginner mechanic's) mind, since there just is no power but then it started with a jump. But if not the battery, it still seems like this behavior could only be attributed to a small number of potential parts.

Aside from getting new battery and error code print out, anything else I can do to gain comfort that I'm not missing a bigger problem?

 

Turns out the cable to the battery was loose. I've had the car for only a couple of days so far, but am already a big fan.

Am having some difficulty finding mats for it. I can find the rubber ones, which will do great for the winter, but for the rest of the year I strongly prefer carpet. Anyone have any sense of where I can get carpet mats, preferably OEM?

Thanks!

 

The dealer. But they aren't cheap.

 

Hi all - I've been driving my new V50 about once a week (my daily driver is the subway), and am really enjoying it. This site was very valuable in considering the purchase, so thanks.

One lagging issue is the vibration when braking at high speeds. My understanding is that this is likely the rotors, which shouldn't be too expensive a fix. But I don't want to go back to the dealership, in part because they were unhelpful when I identified the issue and because I'm sure they'd charge too much.

So, any recommendations for a shop in the NYC area???

Thx!

 

I just got a V50 about a week ago, too!

Mine is 2005 with 75K mi., and it also has vibration when braking suddenly.

If you were closer, I'd sell you my mats - I use floor liner all year around.

I'm thinking I should do the timing belt soon... 10 yr or 120k mi.

 

There are a number of on-line OEM suppliers that are generally much cheaper than a local dealer if you don't mind the wait. Tascaparts.com and myswedishparts.com come to mind. It looks like they'll be around $150. From my VIDA, it looks like there are several part #'s. One of them is 39866087 Probably different colors. Volvo's "term of art" is a "Mat set, textile." (You can get a copy of VIDA too, for free. Look for "VMware VIDA" in Google.)

As to the brakes, any mechanic (or yourself, if you're inclined) can do a rotor swap. No recommendations, sorry; I'm in MD.

THERE WILL COME A TIME when you need the dealer. Any electronic change, pretty much, needs to be installed with software, and only outlets with Volvo software subscriptions can do that sort of work. Also for replacing missing key fobs.

Also, look out for wet carpets. The sunroof drains on these cars clog/ come undone easily. It is a DIY fix.

 

I installed roof rails this weekend - previously it was a bare roof, which I don't prefer on a wagon.

Was a moderately simple process, though we took our time and measured carefully, which ended up paying off since the rails fit in the gap in the roof strips we cut quite snugly. Happy to provide the Volvo directions to anyone who is looking for the exact measurements and steps.