C30 General : Thinking of joining the C30 T5 club!

[bracken752]

Hi all,

After a few months of coolant issues with my Alfa Guiletta I'm thinking of selling and replacing her with a lovely C30 T5 - my budget will be whatever I can get for my alfa which I think maybe sub 5k (Damned Italian cars!)...

So I have done the normal googling of "Volvo C30 t5 problems" / reviews etc etc and but is there anything I should be aware of when buying a older / higher mileage c30 t5?

From my understanding the C30 T5 2.5T engine is pretty bulletproof (same as in the Focus ST?) but should I be aware of anything like coolant problems / brake issues / leaks / rust etc? I know I maybe asking stupid questions here but clearly I didnt do enough research on alfa G's as I didnt realise that Coolant / head gasket issues were so common .

Any help would be greatly appreciated even if its just pointing me to another forum or another site as youtube reviews / general reviews seems pretty lacking when it comes to used C30's .

Regards
Brack

[2.4TSE]

My wife is the second owner of her C30 T5 SE Sport R-Design, bought at three years old and 50,400 miles and now at 145,000 miles and over eleven years old. Fantastic car - especially in Passion Red.

• It's now on its third a/c condenser (the same part as fitted to the Ford Focus so easy to source but they only last 4 or 5 years)
• One blown loudspeaker
• Nearside front wheel bearing needed replacing a few years ago (Design fault allows water past the seal, fixed with a later assembly design as now fitted)
• Both rear dampers replaced soon after we bought the car (one was weeping)
• Both rear anti-rollbar droplinks replaced earlier this year (cheap and quick to fit)
• Ferrita back box and tail pipes fitted last year to replace the original assembly that was just starting to blow
• The T-Tec upholstery on the driver's seat bolsters is starting to crack and peel from use; a well known issue

Apart from tyres and routine servicing per the book, I think that's about it - in eleven years and an additional 95,000 miles.

The Front suspension is still all original and the rear the same apart from the two listed items. The car rides and handles taughtly and wears it tyres well and evenly. Even the clutch and driveshafts are original too despite the car having a hard early life: the car was used extensively for towing a 1200kg caravan (of which I know exactly which model from Google Street View of the first owner's home) and from receipts that came with the car, which caravanning sites (mostly in the hilly Lake District so making the car work hard, but also down in Cornwall - a long way from its then home in Scotland).

An astonishingly reliable machine that still puts a smile on our faces whenever we drive it.

I hope you find one you like and have the same ownership experience.

[bracken752]

Thank you for the response! That list is alot smaller than I would have thought and as you say most of it is 'easy' to fix really in the grand scheme of things.

I will add this to my list of things to look out for but looking good so far

[marc]

If you want a lot more info, follow the link in my signature below...you’ll find no end of help.

Good luck with the search.

[bracken752]

Would love to join but no got an activation email in 4hours :-/ (checked spam etc) guess ill wait

[poiuytre111]

Only thing I would add is that you should be aware that the 2x serpentine belts are as important to change (with idlers) as the cam belt, as their locations means that a failure can take out a perfectly good cambelt, with attendant disaster. Probably common to a lot of Volvo 5 cyl engines.

[marc]

Originally Posted by bracken752

Would love to join but no got an activation email in 4hours :-/ (checked spam etc) guess ill wait

Let me know what username you’ve chosen for the site and I’ll have a look.