2005 S40 T5 M66 AWD rolling chassis for sale

2005 Volvo S40 T5 – 217 hp B5254T3 5 cylinder, M66 6 speed manual AWD 159K. Beautiful Rolling chassis – most likely has bent valves.

=== The 217HP S40 T5 ===
This pre-TPM S40 T5 is the rare 6 speed stick, 217hp, incredible handling “world” car with a nice shiny body is for sale. This car looks great, and when it ran, accelerated and handled great and I even saw an instantaneous mileage of between 39 and 44 mpg on straight level highway at 65 mph on its very last 88 mile run, even with (still) dragging rear brakes (see below).

The body has shiny original paint and it has been “clayed”, polished, and ceramic waxed. It is approximately 99% rust free (see pic of rust spot). Chassis is solid with some surface rust. It has a nice shifting 6 speed transmission, smooth clutch, good all weather stock sized 17″ tires on the stock rims (which have some surface defects), good battery, good radio, good heat, exhaust system is VERY recent, completely rust free and super quiet. There is a small banana sized rust spot on the top of the LF wheel wheel – on the interwebs I’ve seen two of these rust spots in the exact same place so maybe it is “common” to this S40 year? No A/C, fuse was good (“common S40 A/C clutch problem”??). “Next Project on my list” was to replace the current rear calipers which were still sticking even after cleaning/new bushings/grease did not fix the problem. So, included are 2 ready-to-install new calipers in boxes. The interior still needs the roof lining “common problem” properly fixed (glued up), the seats, floormats, and dash are in good shape, the interior is ok, the headliner is probably the worst part. There is a stain on the passenger seat (another “next project”). Doors, windows, locks, heat, stereo works fine. A/C doesn’t work.

This car was amazing to drive and was turning out great as my new daily, well, right up until it wasn’t. In its cleanest, finally-no-codes-anymore 88 mile final drive, and, almost immediately after some spirited driving that touched some gravel, I could clearly hear about 10 seconds worth of strange “pinging” gravel slinging noises from the engine compartment (probably the A/C belt shattering?), which went away with no codes showing. I immediately slowed down, listened, everything sounded ok, so I continued on, and literally less than a half mile later going steady state @ 50mph in 5th gear (~2000 rpm) on an slight uphill, narrow, twisty two lane road with really deep side ditches, suddenly the entire dash lit up and engine just stopped, fortunately happening immediately just as the first smooth pull-off appeared.

Timing belt was still on and on a quick first look appeared undamaged, no fluid losses (coolant, oil). Did not seem overly hot when it shut off, it did not make any breaking, snapping, thunking, or knocking noises, and was still full of clean looking oil. The engine spins freely but clearly has no compression at all now.

On the other hand, the AC belt is visibly shredded and see through, but it is still connected. The also completely-unshielded cam belt is clearly visible through the invisible inner shield (I have many more pics). Based on what I see, I believe the cam belt ate some gravel, and the valves (intake?) met the pistons with some expected unpleasantness ensuing. Ironically, making that inner fender belt-shield to fit closely with the dual belly pan was going to be very high on my “next project” list, I couldn’t stop thinking about it on that last drive as i finally was able to, for the first time, not get any codes on a drive and was now ready to button it up. Let me just take one last drive to make sure….

Needless to say, I got the sads about the engine situation. I had just spent over a year and a half and a pile of money and time and effort working out almost all the known functional issues with this P1 platform, had plans and new parts to fix the rest, the car had just passed inspection, i had polished and ceramic’d the paint so it looked great, and it responded by being comfortable, quiet, efficient, fun, and it drove beautifully. When the engine stopped, I was just at the point where I was going to “bolt on” a pile of go faster and stop quicker goodies to have an even faster AWD daily.

Unfortunately for me, I now I have to sell it as a good working, rolling chassis with a serious engine issue. At a minimum, it doesn’t have any compression and I believe from what I see is that, at a bare minimum, it’s going to need a pile of serious head work, but perhaps even more, maybe a whole engine. I don’t know – it happened at relatively low rpm, so there’s that. The only new code on VIDA is “Exhaust Cam Sensor No Signal”. One speculation has it that it could have been a failed new sensor (both VVT valves were just replaced to remove codes) but the timing with the gravel eating……so, yeah. I am curious to find out what stopped this engine, but not enough to take that new task on myself as this formerly working S40 was supposed to be giving me the luxury of time to fix my broken daily, so with my original daily still broken this otherwise great car needs to go to a new owner.

This bright white and beige interior 6-speed manual M66, AWD S40 T5 would be the perfect project base for someone who just crinkled their previous C30, S40 and just needs a ready to go chassis to put your still-good 5 cylinder engine in.
Or,
After checking for collateral damage, “just” fix/replace the head on the current engine, bolt on all the new parts in the trunk, and then have an awesome S40 T5 M66 AWD Volvo.

===

Here’s things I would recommended to do after purchase – from my long term list of “Next Projects”:

I would upgrade to all new drilled/slotted rotors with Z17 pads (for street) and SS flex lines while it’s apart. “While you’re in there…”
I would upgrade to 1″ larger diameter and half-inch wider tires to give a little more ground clearance and make the tires fill out the fender gap better without lowering it.
Refresh/flush all the other fluids/filters.

=== List of over $1500 worth of installed parts ===

($350) 5 new Bosch coils.
($330) New OEM Volvo molded battery cables and all engine system grounds cleaned and siliconed, new SS ground bolt with nickel based anti-seeze.
($250) Shiny new crisp projector headlights.
($220) intake and exhaust VVT valves.
($200) both o2 sensors.
($ 75) Recent oil/filter/airfilter.
($ 65) 5 Volvo OEM spark plugs.
($ 50) Full tank of gas.

=== over $1500 worth of new parts included and ready to be installed ===

($350) OEM Volvo steering interlock (spare, not installed or programmed because I tore the old one apart and “fixed” it).
($299) Aluminum engine belly pan from IPD+ and custom mounting kit (ready to re-install).
($200) 2 New rear calipers in the boxes.
($165) IPD racing polyurethane torque strut and a set of stiffness “adjusters”.
($100) Belt and tensioner 1.
($100) Belt and tensioner 2.
($ 50) Stock plastic engine pan for better protection (plus customized install kit to install both belly pans).
($ 50) Official Volvo 2005 S40 Wiring Diagram paper manual.
($ 50) Complete set of excellent condition owners manuals.
($ 50) Spare used key – not registered to car (yet).
($ 45) Better quality charcoal cabin filter.
($ 45) Factory Volvo battery harness to fuse box cable.
($ 35) New Haynes repair manual.
($ 20) Spare PCV diaphragm.
($ Priceless!) Shrink-wrapped S40 Volvo Life DVD

I have a current, clear Vermont title in my name, and one registered working key and another spare key ready to be programmed by online VIDA or a dealership. Included are over $1500 worth of S40 specific brand new parts in boxes and clean, nice documentation and a clean, shiny, titled car that just had over $1500 put into it. Needs engine work.

$2000 cash or cashier’s check. I don’t have Venmo or anything like that.

This S40 is located in north eastern Vermont just north of Lyndonville.
Being AWD, this car would need to be trailered or flat-bed’ed.

Volvo related: Ask about my 2004.5 S60R M66 AWD parts.

2005 S40 T5 M66 AWD