[badfish27]

HI EVERYBODY!
{Hi Dr. Nick!}

I am petitioning the good people of this site to bombard me with info on 2002 S60's. My 99 V70R died a tragic death at the hands of a Ford Focus, so I am looking for a replacement. I have found a few low milage 60's in my area (60k or less), but am having some trouble finding info beyond Edmunds and other on the reliability of these vehicules.
Are they as plagued as the 01's were? I know there are still electrical gremlins in this model year, but beyond that, how reliable are the tranny's, and the rest of the mechanicals?

Thanks for your time in replying, I have valued the opinions of many on here as I lurked on here and V70R (member) for years. flaming is always welcome

, as are solid responses. Cheers!

-Mike

 

[chillidawg]

Re: 2002 S60 T5 questions (badfish27)

I have an 02 T5 manual that I've had for almost two years and it has just under 50k on the odometer, the only thing that I've had to replace so far was a couple of bad ignition coils and the oil return line because it was leaking. Some of the rubber suspension pieces are starting to go but I think that's to be expected of a 7 year old car. From what I've read on this forum the automatics are plagued with problems so if you're looking for one, you might want to try to find a manual. The cool thing that I've found out about the manual T5's also is that only 15% that were made were manuals (at least that's what Carfax states), so for me it's kind of cool to think there aren't that many manuals out there. Also, from the mods that I've done so far, I have to say that I'm very pleased with the performance of the T5's. Good luck with your search!!

 

[Bender]

About to go into a meeting so a quick dump from me:

02 S60 - 110k - modded - its been awesome, but sometimes expensive. That said its ALL been mileage related.

More to come later.

 

[badfish27]

Re: (Bender)

GRACIAS IN ADVANCE!

 

[Bender]

Ok, I have had my car about 50,000 miles and I put that on in just over 2 years.

I drive a TON.

In that time I have had a few big ticket items, BUT they were all mileage related:
1) Timing Belt
2) Suspension components - i replaced the struts with Bilstein so I def spent more than I had to but I wanted the added performance
3) Slave Cylinder - this SHOULDNT have gone in my opinion, but it did. Oh well, the clutch still looked great after 109k.

ZERO electrical issues.

I drive at least 64 miles every day - its back roads, a major highway, a sh!tty highway under construction, AND stop and go city traffic. The car is a pleasure to drive in all of the above situations.
I get excellent gas mileage (average about 24.5, but now with my tune i am averaging above 26!) and can easily pull over 30 on a long highway trip.

Its a well behaved cruiser, but if you get on it, she definitely does what you want her to do.

I would strongly recommend a good condition T5 to anyone.

 

[chillidawg]

Re: (Bender)

I second that!! Although since I've done my tune, my MPG has gone down from 21 city to about 18, but that might be because of my lead foot!!

 

[backslide]

Re: (chillidawg)

Quote, originally posted by chillidawg »

I second that!! Although since I've done my tune, my MPG has gone down from 21 city to about 18, but that might be because of my lead foot!!

Weird, my MPG went up after my tune. I average 22 city and way higher on the highway.

I bought the car in late 06 with about 35K miles and it's currently at just mid-65K miles. As far as major issues go, on my 02 T5, the only things really wrong were:

1) sunroof controls got fried when rain got in somehow. Most likely clogged water runoff drains. Got them cleared out at the dealer and replaced the sunroof controls and it's been all good since

2) power steering fluid was leaking so I had to get the tank replaced.

3) had upshift flares, replaced the B4 Servo cover and it's been good

4) recently had the voltage regulator on the alternator go bad, replaced myself and it's good.

The only problem I haven't fixed is the driver's side electronic door switches. It's about $300 for the module and than another $150 for the software download. For now, I'm doing it ghetto style and just pulling the fuse whenever I park anywhere longer than an hour or else the battery will drain.

Suspension parts are probably on their way out. I'm saving up for a full suspension work-up so I haven't really checked. No timing belt change yet.

It's been a great car to me.

 

[02s60t5]

Re: 2002 S60 T5 questions (badfish27)

Hey neighbor! My '02 T5 (MT) was relatively trouble-free during the first three years of its life. The only issues I can remember were repeated trips to the dealer to correct drive axle 'pinging' (common problem,) and a glove box that rattled and needed to be squelched with some felt strips. I'm not aware of any significant electrical or mechanical weaknesses that would dictate steering clear of the model.

 

[Impulse922]

i've put around 15k on mine.. now around 68k i have a "urgent srs service" light that came on mysteriously around 65k(car has never been wreceked). Haven't had it checked out, but trouble free except that.

I'd be very weary of an 01 or 02 automatic.

 

[chillidawg]

Re: (Impulse922)

That Urgent SRS Service light usually comes on when you disconnect your climate control or radio with out disconnecting the positive battery cable first. It happened to me twice when installing an aftermarket head unit, and then when I took it out. The first time I had it cleared for free because I had just bought the car and I took it back to the dealership a day later, but when I did it again I just let it be because I'm too lazy to take it in to the stealership to get it cleared. I read somewhere in the forums that Volvo charges like $40 to clear the code.

 

[Impulse922]

Re: (chillidawg)

Quote, originally posted by chillidawg »

That Urgent SRS Service light usually comes on when you disconnect your climate control or radio with out disconnecting the positive battery cable first.

well, it just decided to come on one day when i decided to go out and eat mexican. I was told it could be a seatbelt receiver thingy. Not sure. I live 50 miles from a dealership now, but i am about to move to that town for school, ill get it checked out after i move.

 

[StarmanDXE]

My car has been pretty good to me. Got it about 6 months ago at ~110k miles. (I'm definitely getting a lower-mileage car for my next, but this was a nice pickup (T5M) for my budget). Issues so far (which you might need to worry about) include:

-The battery in the alarm module has gone south (as happens with a lot of these cars) and the alarm doesn't work (whoop-dee-do)
-The sunroof doesn't retract correctly (probably due to negligence of the previous owner)
-The suspension is really hard (but for ~115k miles, that's basically expected)
-The rear driver's side power lock doesn't go down on the rare occasion
-The radio pops when I lock/unlock the doors on occasion (probably due to the above issue?)

Other than that, it's been fine mechanically and all. Although, I hope to replace the vacuum lines soon as they are probably quite worn out. And I'm sure there are some other things which I would do if I were particularly performance oriented.

One other thing I've noticed is that the scroll wheel for the onboard trip computer is kind of fidgety. Anyone else notice this on their car?

And I second the better performance/better mileage with new spark plugs. (Better like "whoa!")

 

[JonathanL]

Re: (StarmanDXE)

My 02 S60 Awd has been good i got the car at 55000 and at 120000 now no problems mechanically. I did a timing belt at 75000 and very recently front struts. A world of difference you wouldnt even know they old ones were bad until you felt it after. but i did ipd upper engine mount and lower trans torque mount at the same time. and yes the before and after on some freshly gapped plugs is nice... my glovebox fits loose too and my sunroof does that they all do. http://********************/smile/emthup.gif