Other S80 Problem: S80 Early Clutch Wearout

[Smith2000]

Hello fellow Volvo owners, any comments or advice welcome on the following...

I'm a fairly recent comer to the Volvo stable, having bought a 3yr old S80 2.5T just under 2 years ago. It had 38K on the clock then, and two years later only has 52K. Its a 54 plate very early 2005 and is a 2.5T petrol model in manual.

Up to recently I've really liked the car. I knew I was buying something that could cost a bit to repair, but the concesus seemed to be that Volvos were fairly bulletproof and should at least last.

Well, just recently the clutch has started slipping under power. Most noticable on the motorway in a high gear, floor it at 2000rpm or so and the clutch will break free and the revs will climb to 3500 without the road speed matching. It still accelerates, just not as good.

My independent Volvo chap has it booked in, and IF it needs a DMF, the total bill is £1350. Ouch. Main dealer would have added around £300 to that.

Seems a lot for a car under 5 with 52K on it. Has anyone else had experiences of early wear out of clutch, particularly with DMFs on this type of car? Most of my other cars (Nissans, Vauxhalls etc) have done double this age and milage without clutch slip. Could it simply be that the first owner was particularly hash on clutches? I don't think I am overly harsh.

Currently feeling a bit sore about the Volvo reliability thing. I didn't expect a bill of over a grand after doing only 12K of miles on a car costing ten times that. Beginning to worry now if other expensive things are lining themselves up to go - Turbo, oil seals, cylinder gasket etc. Does anyone have any comments?

Cheers,
Lyndon

[John_C]

First don't get paranoid about your car because what is a wear and tear item has failed at an unusually low milage - it's an easy thing to do once you've been hit with a bill but I absolutely promise you that a prematurely worn clutch does not make your turbo more likely to fail

It's one of the joys of buying a used car unfortunately, you have no idea how the previous owner used it, maybe they liked to leave their left foot resting gently on the clutch pedal, maybe they were really, really bad at hill starts and lived on a steep hill, or maybe you've just been unlucky and got a car which had a weak clutch from the factory.

Cheers,
John

[111]

I thought it was just the D & D5 that had a DMF!

[Smith2000]

Originally Posted by 111

I thought it was just the D & D5 that had a DMF!

I wish. I've been told it is, but my mechanic had to do some digging, said that my 2005 model was on a changeover period between using them and not using them. Also the 2.5T is a very torquey engine, akin to the deisels. So maybe thats it. It is all to easy to kangaroo when mooching around town in traffic in a low gear.

Interestingly the 2.4T is rated at the same power, just less torque. But show it a long drive ahead on A roads or Motorways, and you get out at the other end so much less tired or stressed than other cars (such as my old Primera) its just great.

To John: cheers for the words of wisdom. Accept that is the thing with second hand cars, you never know. Its getting fixed anyway, so I guess its best just to relax and see what happens. I'll keep it for some time yet. Even with a bill like that each year, its still less than the depreciation if I swapped it.

Cheers guys,
Lyndon

[Clan]

Clutches are simply not a problem on the big volvos , they really do last indefinitly in almost all cases .... It would seem you have chosen a car which has had bad treatment , You will soon tell when you have a look at the old one , if the friction material is just worn down to the rivets its wear caused by heavy over-use maybe the owner had a steep slope he reversed up out of his garage each day and was deaf so unable to hear the excessive rpm , been there seen it all before ! .. , the same if it is broken up in pieces abuse in that case ... If the centre plate looks ok with lots of "meat" left on it then its probably a mechancal problem with the pressure plate , very rare ...
dont forget to change the hydraulic release bearing ( another £100 i know ) ...