Underwhelmed with T5 performance

I have to disagree on this.

I have two cars with one insurance company and another two with a different company. Each insurance company has confirmed that the NCD is associated with each individual car and that any losses would only affect that one car. Three of them have protected NCD.

This year I am going to transfer one of the cars NCD to my wife so that she will have maximum NCD under her own name.

Maybe I just ask the correct questions as insurance companies do not always tell you everything that applies.

Some insurance companies will even let you use you company car 'accident free' years to earn you NCD if you change from company car to private car.

Karl

[Al115]

Right, I'm off tomorrow to my local performance garage to get the turbo boost pressure checked. They tell me it won't cost me more than £20.

Thanks for the advice.


Alastair

Just to add to this thread that seems as though it will run forever, and further to my last 2 comments relating. On a local motorway, with a normal on ramp, and a rolling start, I achieved 110mph before I actually joined the 1st lane, I am sure there are not a lot of vehicles that can achieve this performance, (unless its a Volvo of course.)
Dave
V70 'R' AWD

[Al115]

Right, I've been driving a non-turbo V70 T5. No wonder it felt slow!

My garage fitted a boost gauge to it this morning, and we went for a drive... nothing. Then they checked that the turbo is free to spin (it is), and that the actuator actually does move the wastegate around (it does).

Answer - take the turbo out and send it away. I think this might be expensive.


Alastair

Ouch! Sorry to hear that.

Thanks to all contributors for a decent thread as well. Maybe being too harsh and need to wellie it more often. Did manage 150+ briefly the other day so the speed is lurking in there somewhere. Wold consider the RICA remap (£500 I think) - anyone had this and can recommend (Bear in mind it's an auto).

Thanks

Yes, had the RICA chip done with an auto box, you can have it done via the Vadis System at Harratts main dealer in Wakefield, should take 3 or 4 hours. They download your program e-mail it to Holland and then get a new program e-mailed back which they upload as easy as that.

Give it a go, great mid range punch and improved top-end but make sure you put some decent plugs in and run Optimax.

Enjoy

[Ross9]

Had a quick read through this thread, glad to see the problem with the original posters T5 was diagnosed, a boost guage is always the first thing you should fit to a turbo car, it prevents this sort of carry on.

But, I see he was not the only one who wasn't impressed by the T5's performance, I was surprised at this as I was led to believe these were very fast cars.

So, I took the liberty of perusing Parkers website for some simple performance stats, not the best I agree with only 0-60, BHP, and top speed listed, standing kilometre, and 30-70 through gears is a much better indicater, even 0-100 would do. I looked for various T5's, the S80 wasnt impressing me at all, tried the lighter S60 and even at 250BHP it cant burst 7 seconds to 60, heavy I agree, but surely theres somethign amiss here. The 850R only gets 6.7??? Now either Parkers have got this wrong, or I'm forced to agree that perhaps the mystery and legend of the T5 is much more alluring than the reality. Now if any of you have performance stats, 1/4 mile, or any of the figures I mentioned above I'd be interested to see them. As I said 0-60 isnt the best test in the world, in fact its pretty crap, so I'm assuming the Volvo's weigh in at enough to cause this to be sluggish in comparison to the BHP and torque output. As I say, any figures you can direct me at will be appreciated.

Now, onto the feel, here I agree totally, a car can feel faster or slower than it is, ever sat in an Elise, feels like a go-kart, cause it is, it also feels like your going faster than you are. I am not surprised the Volvo is the opposite, a lot of the problem will be in teh standard boost controller, it probably allows the wastegate to open slightly as the turbo spools up meaning ti takes more time to achieve the set boost level, which varies due to various conditions I assume, your best bet to sort this, without spendign lots of money is to find out what sort of boost the standard engine will take, make sure the ECu can fuel it and is mapped up to this point to avoid running lean, then get rid of the standard Boost control valve and use a device such as a Dawes Device, or GBE valve, to control the boost. These are not bleed valves, which are nasty things, but pressure crack valves for want of a better description, coming in at £40-£80 max they are brilliant value for money, keep the octane up and the fuelling looked after, ie dont let injectors clog etc, and of course dont exceed what the standard pistons and con-rods can take, and it will feel like a different car, the wastegate actuator sees 0Psi boost until you hit the preset level and the valve cracks open, so it builds boost much more harshly, you'll feel it do it, and the car will actually be a smidgen faster even set at standard boost.

My fingers hurt now, discuss.......

Ross

As far as I know turbo Volvos are designed for motorway work. My 2.0T does about 8 secs for 0-60. However, it also takes about 8 secs to get from 75 to 100 (in 4th), or 80 to 110 (in 5th), or 90 to 120 (in 5th). At motorway speeds you hit the loud peddle and the neddle moves quite nicely. In the car however you feel / hear very little. It's what scares my other half a bit as the speed can creep to quite a fun level without you realising it.

Stu

Hi all,

An interesting topic. I have just traded in my 96 850 T5 manual for a 97 V70 T5 with an auto box. Have to say that though a much smoother drive, the V70 doesn't feel half as lively as the 850.

Maybe I just need to get used to the auto box - its just that when you put your foot down, there seems to be a lot of delay from the gearbox, and its difficult to sense the turbo effect, unlike the 850 where it was pretty obvious!

As discussed though, much of this is perception. Usually, I am travelling much quicker than I thought.....

[Al115]

...the problem with my particular car turned out to lie with the cat (apparently the interior has collapsed to some extent, and all the baffles have collected and are blocking the airflow). The back-pressure from this prevents the turbo from spinning.

Alastair