S40 2008 Water pump, cam belt and head gasket change

[woolybear]

Morning all,

I'm currently in the process of buying an S40, 1.6 litre diesel. 2008 plate. From a dealer (not a volvo one). It's not the DriveE model.

The dealer only just had it in, so hadn't looked over it. But everything seemed ok, drove it for about 20 mins and had no issues, no noises etc...

He said all his cars come with a full service, 6 month warranty and 12 month MOT. I've put a deposit down and he's put in for a service and it needed a new water pump/cambelt. They also found it needed a new head gasket (guessing the two issues are related). My question is, is this just the start of endless issues with the car so should I just walk away? Or in most peoples experience does the car usually run fine after all this work?

I've been looking for a while now for a car under £2000 and it's obviously a minefield, I viewed a Honda Civic which wouldn't even start and the bloke wondered why I didn't want it!

The dealer seems to be very honest about it all and it comes with a fairly good deal, plus I really like Volvos!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[T5R92011]

The 2.0-litre petrol is the engine to buy in these cars if you want the most reliable vehicle with the cheapest running costs and the least maintenance items to replace and with reasonable performance.

ALL 2nd hand diesel cars in your price range are almost certainly going to have problems because they are from an era where diesel engines have a tonne of anti-pollutant technology strapped to them to recycle exhaust gases back into the engine and to capture and burn off soot from the exhaust.

If you just want an engine that works, and doesn't go into "limp home" mode whenever you put your foot down, the 2.0-litre petrol is the one to go for.

My friend's 2.0-litre petrol is currently showing an average of 31.8mpg on the trip computer. She is on a low wage and has never once complained that her 2.0-litre petrol Volvo is expensive to run. It has never gone wrong in 3 years of ownership, and it has a timing chain that never needs changing.

Modern Diesel engines are 3x more likely to have issues than a petrol engine as they are much more complex. So my advice to anyone who is considering buying a cheap diesel made around 2004 onwards, is dont bother, and get a petrol instead.

Also have a look at the Hyundai i30.

[woolybear]

Thanks for the information. But I'll be using it just to get to and from work, about 10 miles of A Roads and 20 miles motorway. So I wouldn't get the MPG out of it that I'm looking for if I chose petrol.

[andy_d]

Originally Posted by woolybear

Thanks for the information. But I'll be using it just to get to and from work, about 10 miles of A Roads and 20 miles motorway. So I wouldn't get the MPG out of it that I'm looking for if I chose petrol.

using a diesel for short ish trips , which that IS , is a SURE fire way if racking up HUGE bills for DPF enabled ones,
you also WONT save that much in fuel costs
you WILL spend MORE on servicing , if you bother that is, and LOADS more on fixing it if you dont with such short trips

cancel it and as TW says go find a 2.0 Petrol,your Wallet WILL thank you

[woolybear]

So if I went to the petrol engine over the diesel, the miles I'll do every year and the extra tax for the petrol engine it would work out £700 more every year in fuel and tax. That's if I was getting 31mpg from the petrol and diesel 50mpg.

The engine in the car doesn't have a DPF, so that's one less thing to think about. Maybe a new EGR, but it would still work out cheaper. I'd do all the servicing myself so cost would be kept to a minimum.

But back to the original question, does anyone have any issues after having a head gasket change? Is it the start of never ending issues or is likely to be fine after that?

[Welton]

It's not 'normal' for the headgasket to go on these, it's certainly not a maintenance item anyway....

We run a 1.6HDi with a DPF and the car gets THE WORST kind of use for a dizzler....only do about 7k miles a year, only short journeys, only ever gets £20/£30 of dizzle thrown in the tank (has the eoloys fluid additive system - supposed to do 'big' fuel ups all the time).

Anyway after all this, at 10 years old and 80,000 miles I had the DPF and additive systems code-read to see what's going on there.....The DPF is 'only' 30% full of Ash (more than acceptable) and there's still 66% left of the eoloys fluid it left the factory with....in the words of my diagnostic man "plenty of life left".

The only thing I do religiously is change the oil every 6 months, I've just done it's 13th oil change since we got the car about 6 years ago - THIS I'm convinced is keeping the emissions under check.

The average MPG over 6 years has never changed from 43mpg.