13 years & 115000 km with my Volvo S60 D5: Is it time for a new car?

I must say, being in a busy profession and having only a two car garage, it is getting a bit difficult to maintain the car and carry on from where I am right now.

BHPian psispace recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

13 years 115,000km update

And we now enter year 13.

Had to change tyres in June 2024. They had run just 21000 km. The Continentals don’t seem to last even as much as the Michelins. My preferred size of 225/55/R17 were now available on the Michelin 4STs, so reverted back to those. Damage 55,000/- for set of four.

Finally got the engine mount replaced as the vibrations were getting annoying. Damage 52,000/-. It was only after replacing it that I realized how bad the vibrations were on engine startup earlier. Its much silent and smooth now.

I had delayed updating this thread so that other pending works get over. However, that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. Wait any longer and we are nearing year 14 !

As was expected, the car has started showing its age. However till now, she had never left me stranded on the road. Even with a broken alternator belt, she had enough juice to limp back home or to the service center. This time I was travelling with my family and we were stranded in a remote place as she developed a fuel pump failure. As I couldn’t reach out to my service engineer, I got desperate and contacted an FNG nearby in Thrissur. They exclusively service Volvo cars and came highly recommended. I was able to leave my car near a shop whose owner was a good samaritan. The FNG were quite professional and had my car collected within an hour of contacting them. They got my fuel pump repaired and I also got my annual service completed with them. Damage – 42,000/- .

Things went fine for a while until the fuel tank started leaking on filling full tank. I wouldn’t even have noticed it until a petrol pump attendant pointed it out to me. Had to send the car back again for pump reassembly. Apparently the leak was from a faulty O-ring which they didn’t replace as it seemed fine. The O-rings were replaced but however the leak persisted. This time after receiving the car, even the right headlight leveler was malfunctioning with the low beam permanently at its lowest setting. On contacting them, I was told procuring the sensors for the leveler (which are on each wheels) will be difficult.

After this, my confidence in this FNG was broken. So I had the car sent to service center at Kochi. Apparently some jugaad was done while reassembling the fuel pumps cables to the coupler. This may have been done with the good intention to save me unnecessary expenses. However, this resulted in only more down time for my car as the work was not up to mark. Also I have to now replace the entire fuel pump.
I had to shell out 15,000/- just to get the old tank reassembled and the car sent back so that I can use it till the new parts arrive.

While waiting for the fuel pump (which has now taken more than a month to arrive from Belgium), one or more of the ABS sensors have also conked out. My trusted service advisor subsequently resigned and moved abroad. I have only started getting acquainted with the new service advisor. With all repairs pending, I am restricted to use the car only for short local trips. This is without TCS or ABS. All Safety system warnings come on every time I start the car. The service center at Kochi appears overburdened with lots of pending services. My car being an old model also seems to be pushed down the pecking order. This is causing even more delay. The service center have started a Whatsapp group now which included me, the local service technicians, secretary, local and regional service heads to address my problem. Hopefully all this will be sorted soon.

However, I must say, being in a busy profession and having only a two car garage, it is getting a bit difficult to maintain the car and carry on from where I am right now. I had planned to delay purchasing a new car till 2026 after my son would have finished school and joined college. However, I am seriously contemplating biting the bullet now and preponing that decision. It would be sad to see her go though. Maybe after unlucky year 13 is over, things may settle down.

I will update here soon once works are done.

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