2011 Volvo C30 ...Polestar edition??

I've been a faithful reader and lurker here for years.   I was afraid to post for fear that it might end badly, but here goes   

It followed me home.  Honest.   Late one night, about a month ago, after a little more than a wee bit of Jameson's on the rocks, I may have low bid on a 2011 Volvo C30 at an online auction in Portland, Oregon.  It's all a bit fuzzy.  Bidding ended at $800.  Tack on another $600 between fees and shipping to my company's work yard in Sacramento, CA. 

Here is what I saw before I bought the car sight unseen.  Somebody center-punched a pole.  So I thought I would call it the PoledStar project.   Polestar is Volvo's equivalent to AMG for Mercedes.  There is no Polestar C30 other than the prototype Jay Leno drove, and so did Jeremy Clarkson.  I'm open to suggestions. 

So, the delivery driver calls me  Sunday night at 11 p.m. to meet at my company's work yard at midnight.  All well and good, since the woman I wake up next to lately doesn't know I bought a (another) project car.  I planned to drop it  down to  yard 20 miles away, triage it, and then sneak it into my one car garage in a month or so to avoid the prying eyes of my crazy neighbors and their Home Owner's Association rules about no working on cars in your own damn garage.

The funny thing about plastic bumpers is they want to return to their original shape.  The rest of it...ahhhh not so much.  I must try and remember that next time.

The driver and I get it off the truck adn I proceede to remove  what's left of the bumper cover, swapped the spare tire for the cracked right front rim, and pulled the upper radiator support forward with a winch tied to the faithful 04 Porsche Cayenne's trailer hitch to open the hood before shooting this quick walk around at midnight.  After checking the oil level, I tried to jump start it with a spare battery, but it just keeps making solenoid noise, spinning eleectric motor, but no engagement..  The starter is directly behind the impact point, so I say a novena that it's just the starter adn not a cracked bellhousing or block. 

In addition to the obvious, it needs a piece of the upper motor mount (cracked), starter motor (cracked), right front control arm, spindle, steering end link, strut, right cv shaft, and Airbox.  If you hated the shaky cam feel of the Blair Witch project, look away.  Here is a first pass on the damage: 

Blair Witch shaky cam again.   I also believe in the therapeutic and copious use of swear words, as demonstrated here when checking out the Bonus Damage behind the right front wheel:    https://youtu.be/vDFXfGCCFVU

The car remained at the work yard for two weeks.  During that time, I swapped out the mangled lower control arm which thankfully bolted right up, and mostly went spelunking at my local pick-a-part after work, stripping bits off of a clean 2007 Volvo S40.  They got a kick out of the "Porsche guy" who would show up at 5:15, thirty minutes before closing and leave empty handed, until the last day when I wheeled out the crash bumper , radiators, fans, intercooler, hoses, wires, connectors, condenser, etc as a single unit.  It was literally everything in front of the engine that mounts to the chassis legs.  It always seems to work out cheaper that way.   That lump got stashed at the side of the house  on a folding table, along with the hood,  upper radiator support, and the rest of the right front suspension.

I started getting antsy with the threat of Coronavirus lockdown, so last Saturday evening, I rented a tow dolly, saddled up at the yard  and rolled into my quiet cul de sac at midnight.  Shennanigans ensued.  Two hours later, the car was in the garage over the lift.

Dragging a dead car onto and off of a tow dolly is a chore. Actually dragging it on was easy.  Sneaking it back off onto my short uphill driveway two weeks later was less than optimal.  That's a euphemism for it was a right PITA.  Which part sucked more: 1) the attempt at backing a tow dolly through an "S" turn (8th try was the charm) or 2) dragging it into the garage using wheel dollies, jacks, a gimpy come-along and, finally a lightweight electric winch?  Let's call it a tie.  It felt like an accomplishment, and you gotta celebrate the small victories.

That's all for now.  More carnage to follow soon.

Regards,

Brian C.

I just got my insurance auction black 08 C30 on the road and driving finally. Mine was also a front hit, although it was only cosmetic damage. Keep up the good work. I'm enjoying driving mine so far.

Diggin it. 

I love it! It's amazing how much damage can be hiding in those insurance auction photos, huh? I bought my Mercedes C300 to part out and was still shocked at how heavy the damage was when looking at it in person.

Even if the whole project goes pear shaped, it's still cheaper than a therapist.  I can pop out there for a few minutes and pick off one little thing at a time or get a few hours to dig in.  Staying vigilant against shipwright's disease, I'm keeping my list of "while it's apart" things to a minimum.  The PCV is incorporated into the oil filter housing, goes bad, and results in a whistling/whining sound and the engine leaking fluids like a Stage 3 Ebola patient (too soon?).  Rather than drop $200+ for a Volvo replacement, I ordered this guy from Russia with love for $15 plus shipping for a total of $27.01. :

The main positive battery cable passes through the starter and continues straight on to the alternator as a single wire.  Cheapest new one is $120.00.  Ahhm, nope.  The span between the starter and battery got mangled badly, so I had to cobble up a substitute.  The Pick-n-Pull offered up a solution.  The S40 they had uses two separate wires.  One from the battery to the starter and a second from the starter to the alternator.  I grabbed one, the other had been cut by whoever pulled the alternator.    And with that, in goes the starter, from this:

to this (ooohh  Shiny, sorry about the flash) :

I bought a new starter ($200 from FCP Euro) rather than a junkyard piece because it's buried in there, and not something I want to do twice after it's all put back together.  I hooked up the spare AFM and plugged the ECU back in, turned the key, and It jumped to life  in half a heartbeat.  With no radiator, I only let it run for a few seconds then switched it back off.  Block and tranny have no cracks, and the engine runs fine.  That's a huge relief.  

In reply to untchabl :

That's great to hear.  I followed your build closely,.  These were on my radar as a neat project  for my 17 y/o daughter's first car, but your build re-stoked my interest.  You and your painter friend did one helluva job with the bits on the swingset.

Not much to report, waiting on the UPS & FedEx elves to bring me a few little bits and I'm a little short on time.    Rather than just pop the cap off the combined PCV/Oil Filter housing , I removed it because the engine is an oil covered mess.   The entire  black plastic top can be removed with, say, a couple of strategically placed butter knives. 

So then the top went into the sink and washed, washed, washed.  This freed up the internal check valve inside the cover.  Also, no surprise, the diaphragm under the cap was  shredded.  The milky residue in the  PCV body attests to a lot of short trips where it never got up to temperature.  Yucky.

Cleaned it all up, and hit it with a lick of rattle can primer and  grey metallic caliper paint kicking around in the garage.  Rear rubber gaskets showed up in the mail, waiting to  on the replacement diaphragm to reinstall.

Hey here' s a quick clip I forgot to post showing the extent of the hit with a measurement device:

These are beautiful cars, to my eyes. Just quirky enough, just refined enough. I'll be following your shenanigans.

Didn't you say you're on the board of the HOA? That should help.

That's what got me as well.  I'm not sure about the face-lifted front end, I think the original was just right.  And really, the C30 is all about dat ass.  I'm a sucker  for a P1800ES.  And, Yup, I'm VP of the HOA.  One of the old bitties across the street strong-armed me into joining as only they can.   I'm sure this has something to do with the penguins in grade school.  It's like Sister Nicotine of the Holy Smokes grabbing me by the ear, and telling me I'm reading the mass every Wednesday at 7:30 a.m.   But who's laughing now, huh, I ask you?  

And in 2006 or was it 07, the S40, the C30's kissing-cousin and pick-n-pull donor for this project had a  change in the diameter of the lca ball joint.  It got bigger in later models years.  I was wondering why it went in so easy., and a little loose.  The control arm.   The junkyard arm was the first thing I swapped in so the car could be moved.  IPD has a new one for $60 so that's on order.

BrianC72gt said:

There is no Polestar C30 other than the prototype Jay Leno drove, and so did Jeremy Clarkson.  I'm open to suggestions. 

Beautiful car. Following. Always loved this.   However, there is a Polestar edition. One guy on my street has one. I am not sure what year. His wife also has a Canary Yellow 850 T-5R wagon. 

Wow. Yeah, totally digging it. Great score. 

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

First off, I meant to call this the Poled-star edition...it hit a Pole.  And yes sir you are correct, there was a Polestar tune that added..scratches head...was it 30 hp..up to an even 250.hp, with a Volvo provided re-flash of the ecu.  The Polestar prototype I was thinking of was a  distinctive blue, AWD, 400 h.p. monster that showed up on Top Gear and in Jay Leno's garage.  They never offered  THAT one for sale.  

There are guys swapping bits off of other Volvos to create an AWD S40, but I've heard at least one builder say its a little bit clunky and not nearly as good an AWD system as the ones in an Audi or Subaru, so why bother? 

Not a huge amount of progress, the PCV rubber finally showed up, so new gaskets around the back and the diaphragm on top. 

In test fitting the new crash bar, I noticed the driver's side frame rail was tweaked inboard by about an inch.  I always try to move metal on the broken pieces first, then cut those off /remove them so what remains isn't beat up.  Dusted off the porta-power 10 ton and  push push, tappy tapp tapp with a bfh and a couple of cold chisels   The hand pump was misbehaving, so I unboxed the air over hydraulic foot pump.  Wow, SO much easier.  But with great power, comes fractured cast iron offset fittings. After abusing the bent crash bar with the non-compressible  nature of hydraulic fluid under great pressure and a mapp torch,  I cut the smoldering  center out of it to better position the ram between the  end pieces bolted to the rails.  The sawzall wasn't making any headway, but the 4 inch angle grinder made short work of it.  Guessing the crash bar is also some variant of  High Strength Steel (HSS)  Light, thin, but tough as nails.

Same drill, push, tap tap. I had to push it a half inch past where I wanted it, relieve the stress with some tapping, until it finally sprung back to where it should be.  The new crash bar fit perfectly.  Couldn't use heat on any part staying on the car, because that's a no-no with HSS. It is formed under all kinds of magical conditions what with pressure, heat, vacuum, and a shard of a dragon's horn.  It looses its temper & strength if you heat it up too much.   

I'm going to have to make some kind of tram gauge to check for symmetry, and should probably track down some detailed frame dimension info. Still, I did a lot of looking, measuring, trial fitting, etc,  so I'm pretty sure it is spot on.  If multiple redundant nervous observation from multiple vantage points counts for anything, it should be good.

Here's a look at the original bits before removal:

I should have taken work in progress photos, especially  of the safety line around all  the bits under pressure and the porta-power, but here are the broken crumpled bits sitting on top of the new ones for comparison.

Passenger side of crash bar (before):

Driver's Side (before-ish) :

Below is the new bar.

Here it is from another angle:

And finally a before and after with the radiator, shroud, fan, controller, intercooler and A/C condensor slipped in from below.  They all rest in a lower cradle - two bolts straight up at either end. 

Before:  

After   

There is still plenty of plumbing and wiring to do, and then the upper support - a combo radiator/light/hood latch support -that got mangled to hell and back.  It's unique to facelift (2011-2013) C30's & maybe C70s.  No joy at the pick-n-pull.  And my local wreckers don't have them either.  I'm guesstimating it back into shape with percussive therapy.  If it all lines up, groovy, if not, its an easy enough part to swap out.  Slow and steady.  Peace.

I have a 2011 C30 for sale in Sacramento.  Going to pull the motor soon, then I have a drivetrain-less C30 with DMV backfees due, so might want to part it out.

My sons V50 T5 overheated, the plastic radiator tank thingy cracks and leaks and there is no coolant level sensor, so you don't know its about to overheat until it does.

In reply to nimblemotorsports :

I've read about the lack of coolant level sensors in Volvos which seems crazy.  I was wondering if the windshield fluid warning  could be re-tasked for a coolant level sensor.  If I could find a tank of similar dimensions then it should be pretty easy.  Either that or come up with an extra little red light in the dash and wire it all up.  I don't have room for a shell, but I might be in the market for some bits.  I've yet to try my hand at plastic welding the front bumper.  We'll see how that goes.  If beggars can be choosers, what color is yours?  Regards,  Brian

In reply to BrianC72gt (Forum Supporter) :

It is SIlver,  you can find the ad on GRM and Sac CL to see pics of it.   For someone like us, we know better than to drive a car that is overheating, but my kids?   I think I read that the temp gauge is also a more on/off switch too, so you don't see it getting hotter and hotter, but it will just jump to overheat, not sure about that, but might want to check.

btw, I have parts from the S40 I pulled the motor from to put in the C30, have radiator, not sure what else anymore since I'm trying to get rid of all my junk.

Wish I could keep mine, but can't keep 19 cars anymore.

BrianC72gt said:

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

First off, I meant to call this the Poled-star edition...it hit a Pole.  And yes sir you are correct, there was a Polestar

 

Makes sense now.

In reply to nimblemotorsports :

That car is too pretty and complete to part out.  I'm sure it will go to a good home soon enough.  Thanks for the offer.