I’m a new Volvo owner – just purchased a 2013 S60 T5 AWD Platinum. About to teach my kids to drive, and decided that my 7-passenger Jeep Commander would be an inappropriate first car for them. So I started a search for a used car with these parameters:
- Small(ish).
- Not a 7-passenger SUV.
- Not a mini-van.
- Not a Subaru (No offense to anyone, just…not for me)
- Within a budget (Cash deal)
- Private seller (this was not a hard requirement, but at my price point, I wanted to get best bang for buck)
- 4WD/AWD (I’m in New England and we get white stuff).
- Traction control
- Titled in my state (to avoid multi-state DMV stuff)
- Clean (not rebuilt) title.
I came across this 2013 S60 T5 AWD (with a LOT of miles on it) and I didn’t know much about it, so I did some reading. My father had 2 older Volvos, both with 300k+, and we wrenched on them a bunch back in the day. I ended up test driving this, liked what I saw, and we agreed on a price. Seller drove it to my house, parked in driveway, no fuss no muss. The seller only had it a couple years and I really don’t think he did much maintenance on it over the ~20k he put on it according to carfax, so I think we’re a little behind on some stuff.
This was a back and forth for me – with the limited budget I had, something had to give. In this case, I got a “newer” vehicle than most I was looking at, but at the expense of getting a car with 170k miles on it. While it would be nice if this gave me a decade, I will be perfectly happy to get 2-3 years out of it while I teach my kids to drive.
Anyway, second day of ownership, still hadn’t driven it (thanks to DMV scheduling appointments). Get this lovely message as I’m sitting in it familiarizing myself with the 32,302 buttons – “Low battery charge Power save mode The audio system is switched off to save energy. Charge the battery”. Pop the hood, throw a charger on it. Now battery charger says that the battery is dead (no good), so I remove the charger, close the hood, with the intent that I’m going to take it to get a new battery. Warning on dash that the hood is open. So I check, it’s latched (both left and right). Go to open it, and ….. yeah, the drivers side won’t unlatch. After sorting out DMV stuff, I get it to my shop, they throw a battery in it, (they lubed the cable/whatever as well). But the warning is still there (changes to red when in gear). Next day, scrapped one of my Jeeps (2002 Liberty) after 19 years of ownership, and used that cash to help with new tires – got Firestone Firehawk AS V2 tires and a 4WD alignment – big difference.
List of things I have to deal with
- Hood switch (I may just jump a wire across this if it becomes a PITA) I’m going to handle this first, because I think it may affect other stuff.
- Remote via buttons works, but the pull/open, push handle to lock stuff does not, suspect perhaps related to hood.
- Before I replaced the battery I had sensus completely go away (black screen). I did the ol “hold the power button for 10 seconds” trick and it worked, and the problem has not recurred. I’ve chalked this one up to low battery gremlins for now.
- Remote start works, but as soon as I push unlock, the engine shuts off. Again, not sure if this is related to the hood bit or if you have to do something different if remotely started, but will deal with that later.
- When turning the car on (I think they call it position 1, on but not running?) I usually get a low battery warning despite having a new fully charged battery. I need to research this one further. I’ve read that there may be a second battery (NiMH maybe?) somewhere that powers this?
- Seller only gave me one key, I will not feel comfortable until I have two. Called local dealer and they want nearly $900. I researched this a little bit but I guess I’ll have to research a bit more. At the end of it, there are two keys programmed for the car, so I’ll want to get one removed anyway.
- Backup camera janky (seems with warmer temperatures). Sometimes wavy, sometimes blue screen of death.
- Going to try to put magnets on the wires
- If not, I’ll buy the freaking equalizer
- Spare tire – bought donut w/ kit, but need to work out something for it. Side note, WTH Volvo, no spare tire? You should be ashamed.
- Currently just sitting in trunk, not ideal, need to strap it down or whatever.
- Saw the $300 foam insert from Volvo, but not particularly jazzed about losing storage vertically.
- Passenger rear seat buckle dysfunctional (ordered part already)
- Couple days ago I lost interior blower for a time (the display worked properly, but fan did not come on at all). Resolved itself without intervention and has been fine, keeping an eye on this one. Watched a YT video about replacing the “resistor block” (probably PCM actually) and removing the gas pedal etc. Not stoked about this.
- Plugs/Coils on the short list, will do this in the driveway.
- There is a sticker that the timing chain was serviced, however the sticker is busted and mileage doesn’t show. I have some records, need to go through this and figure out when was last done; very probably this will end up being on the short list. I suspect I don’t have the records for this.
- Small coolant smell occasionally — checked floor near heater core where the carpet would normally get wet, nothing there. At a minimum I’ll do a flush/fill. I don’t see any obvious leaks.
- Need to update maps (hopefully Sensus updated to a point where I can do this myself via USB) – just need to find a bigger USB stick somewhere in my house.
- Trunk doesnt pop open (it is “allowed” to be open but doesnt pop up) even when pressing the trunk button 2x. (very low priority)
- Totally want to do TFT 2014+ swap on the instrument cluster, but this is truly unnecessary.
- Looked into the aftermarket Carplay gizmos, these seem to be more trouble than they’re worth.
- And a couple from Mrs Blu
- The sticker on the steering wheel does not have a blue background anymore (ordered)
- Front grille upper slash missing (bought/installed)
- And finally a couple questions/observations.
- Is there supposed to be some audible chirp or horn when the doors are locked/alarm engaged via the remote? If not, I find this lack of clear indication frustrating.
- I love the sport mode. I’ve told my kiddos they are not allowed to use it.
- Anyone else annoyed about the proximity locators while sitting in traffic? like if someone gets too close to rear bumper you get startled by a beep?
Thanks for taking the time to read this mess. Look forward to interacting with y’all!
-Blu