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Volvos and timing belts

JTC

JTC

PFM Villager...
I’m planning to buy my neighbours Volvo V60 Drive which he’s owned since new (now just over 105k since 2012). Car has really been looked after but service suggests it needs a timing belt change.

I’m just curious how good Volvo timing belts usually are; the replacement interval is 180,000 km which suggests they may be a cut above other belts. I’m prepared to get it replaced, and have factored this somewhat into my offer, but since replacement will add 20%+ of the proposed sale price, it’s worth seeing what the incidence of Volvo belt failure actually is.

Any Volvo-savvy mechanics here?
 
Good Afternoon All,

Did I tell you about the time the fuel pump drive belt failed on our old A6??? Regularly serviced, Audi recommended replacement of said belt at 75k miles, failed at 62k one night driving back from Aberdeen.............

Not a Volvo and not a cam belt but........

Regards

Richard
 
Whoops, accidentally pit this in Audio :) - mods, can you move? #seniormoment
 
I suspect it’s not the just the quality of the belts but the torturous life they lead and some engines will be an easier load than others. I had a Volvo C30 Drive with the Ford/Peugeot 1600 Diesel (16 valve head) and it had a ten year or very high mileage life. I seem to recall that its eight valve cousin had a different set of criteria for its cam belt.
 
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As with all timing belts always better safe than very sorry! It does appear to be quite a long service interval for a cam belt though even if they are made frame better materials.
I would say though my cousins experience would suggest an original belt even if it’s fitted by someone local.

I had a cousin who ran a number of large cheap cars over the years, big diesel Volvos, BMW’s and Mercs with the latter two makes tending to fail spectacularly.
He did though settle on running an old Volvo S60 auto diesel (5 cylinder) for around ten years and it never let him down. Regular fuel and oil filter changes and brake pads were really all that was required but one day his local mechanic who’d been looking after the car and doing its annual mot asked if he’d ever done a cam belt on it as he knew he’d never done one. Cousin says no but if it’s due one lets do it.
It was likely well overdue so mechanic starts to pull the cover back only to see multiple thick and thin strands of cambelt which have polished every metal and plastic bit they’ve been in contact with for some time! The belt was between half and two thirds its original width in places, how it held on they didn’t know but it was a pretty good ad for an original Volvo belt. He said “Volvo” was still visible on the belt in places.
New Volvo belt and I think he also replaced the tensioner pulley as well (maybe even the water pump if it was cambelt driven not sure ) and figured he’d scored.

Still running it today though as with all these type of cars it may be one major fault away from the breakers yard!
 
It is literally a lottery.

The manufacturer will test and then calculate at what time and mileage they can be (something like) 98% certain that 99.8% of belts will still be serviceable. And that will be the recommended change mileage/age.

A few in every thousand (at those perecentages), will fail prematurely.

There is no way that they can recommend a realstic change interval that is also all but 100% guaranteed to avoid all in-service failures.
 
From what I read on the Volvo owners club forum (I have a V60 Cross Country), Volvo seems to spec OEM parts to a high standard. Even Volvo windscreen wiper blades are said to wipe better and last longer than replacements from, say, Bosch. So hoses, belts, and consumables like brake pads seem to be of better inherent quality. Not sure how that will go as things move forward, but there seems to be a germ of truth in that for past models like the V60 in the OP.
 
Years ago, I bought a 2.5ltr V6 Vauxhall Vectra with money borrowed from my mother. It took me a couple of years to pay her back, and not long after paying her, the cambelt broke, and it was written off. £4000 down the drain :(
I'd never take that risk again.
 
IIUC, the Drive has an interval of 12 years / 144k miles. It's getting close to both so I would swap out now for peace of mind.

Volvo will rinse you out for the work, so find a good indy.
 
£500ish against a £2.5k car feels expensive but it is a whole lot of car for that money and it’s been well looked after. I think the timing belt oversight is as much due to covid as anything. I just have to think of it as a £3k car that’s had everything done :)
 
Thinking about your proposed purchase, if I remember correctly the Volvo V60 Drive might have the same 1600 Diesel unit my C30 had. It’s a great engine but works hard for its living. Just treat it to a new belt and hope everything else is good. I drove a S60 Drive once as a loan car and I was astonished at how brisk it felt considering its size and its modest engine. Do bear in mind it will have a DPF and occasional good long runs are essential to keep its DPF in good health. Think at least 25-30 minutes at (uncluttered) motorway speeds or the engine/exhaust won’t get hot enough for the DPF to do its thing.
 
Mileage is a poor measure. My car has done 60000km in 7 years. Unfortunately about 1/3 of that is crawling back from work about 5km taking an hour or more (it takes 10 minutes going in), so a lot of engine revolutions. The same revs at motorway speed would probably be 150k km or more
 
I have always had the timing belt and water pump changed on any 2nd hand car I have bought unless there was an invoice for it showing a replacement time within 24 months of buying it. It is especially so in the case of interference engines, pity my daughter didn't follow this procedure on her old Peugeot 206 :rolleyes:

I watched a Youtube video on a PSA diesel engined van that showed how the camlobes on these engine are press fitted on the shaft, not forged, when the belt lets go the lobe is inertia rotated away on the shaft, that allows space for the follower to break so when the piston hits the valve it is pushed it up hence no bent valves, only relevant followers to be replaced along with a new camshaft, no wrecked engine or head damage.
 
Vinny said:
It is literally a lottery.

The manufacturer will test and then calculate at what time and mileage they can be (something like) 98% certain that 99.8% of belts will still be serviceable. And that will be the recommended change mileage/age.

A few in every thousand (at those perecentages), will fail prematurely.

There is no way that they can recommend a realstic change interval that is also all but 100% guaranteed to avoid all in-service failures.
Click to expand...

I agree with everything but the first line, based on my experience of working on structural analysis of timing belts for an OEM. They are tested against various duty cycles that try and represent the use of a particular belt on a particular engine. These tests consist of dummy engines, ie driven by electric motors but on the right pulley/span dimensions, and using a running engine. There are many duty cycles per engine per country, so the testing is expensive and time consuming. My job was to simulate the fatigue of the belt tooth using NLFEA.

Obviously when in production they do spot tests, in my day to ~100,000 miles equivalent running, so I'd say the service intervals quoted are pretty good. Change more often for more peace of mind my all means - I have no specific information on the vehicle quoted.

CHE
 
AIUI you will find VAG cars have different change intervals in different markets. My Skoda Octavia 1.6 diesel has to be changed at 5 years regardless of mileage. In some markets it is simply mileage.
 
Does the Volvo have a cambelt cover that can be easily removed to examine the condition of the belt? If so, that might yield clues on how much of a punt you're taking in not replacing the belt.
 
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