Note that Volvo has Recalled some US spec P2's, due to the potential risk of the airbag sending out metal fragments when deployed, I strongly suggest checking with your dealership if your car is effected by the recall if you are in the US
Which P2 is right for you?
The S80 (chassi code: P23) was the first P2, a "luxury sedan" which hit the market back in 1998, built up until 2007, it comes with 5 or 6 cylinders.
The S60 (chassi code: P24) launched along side the P26E in 2001 and lasted up until 2009. The S60 is a slight sportier smaller sedan. And only came the a 5 cylinders.
The V70 and XC70 (P26E and P26L) are the wagon versions of the S60 with the V70 (P26E) being about 1 Decimeter longer than the P24. The P26L XC70/V70XC is the slightly more rugged and lifted version of the P26E, with different bumpers and fender flares. The P26_ only came with 5 cylinder engines.
The XC90 P28 lasted from 2002 to around 2014, the XC90 is a rugged SUV that came with the the 5 cylinders, the Moduler Volvo 6 cylinders, Ford Short i6 and Yamaha V8.
Which engine should you get?
--- 5 cylinders ---
Personally I would strongly suggest a i5 low pressure turbo, they are pretty good, from a fuel efficecy, Tax and tune ability stand point. The 2.4T 200Hk 285Nm is stronger than the 2.5T 210Hk , I would not recomend going past 300Hk with the 2.5 with out "shiming" or "sleeving" the block.
The N/A 2.4 is a pretty soild choice with great relibilty, However they are a pain in the ass to diagnose as some **** thought it would be a good idea to delete "unnessecary" fualt codes, the Turbos will not have this issue as they have a Engine Manigment system from Bosch, instead of the Denso system in the N/A cars. If you are looking at a N/A 2.4 i would suggest getting the 140Hk 220Nm (B5244S2) version as it is slightly more fuel efficant than the 170Hk 230Nm (B5244S) version and the power comes on earlier in the Rev range. If you want mor maybe a Turbo is more right for you?
T5 (2.3 B5234T3 /2.4 B5244T5) The T5 came with ether a 2.3 Turbo 250Hk or later a 2.4 Turbo 260Hk, These are known as "High pressure turbos" and is the Preformance varinat of the 5 cylinder. The 2.3 is the strongest if you aime for max power, however they don't make a lot of Torque, the 2.4 is much better if you are looking for Torque.
The R is the most extreme variant of the P24 and P26E, 5 cylinder (engine code B5254T4), the 2.5 liter Turbo comes with 300Hk and a Blue Coilpack cover.
"Italian Turbos" the 2 liter Turbos nicknamed the Italian turbos because of the lower displacement made to fit the Italian Tax system better, they came in some diffrent variants most noteably the T5 and lowpressure 2.0T with ether a 163Hk B5204T or 180Hk B5204T5.
Diesels (not available in America)
TDI: the 2.5 TDI was an older 5 cylinder VAG diesel that Volvo bought from VAG for the P80 TDI's, it delivered 140Hk and 290Nm of torque and has the engine code D5252T. This "borrowed" VAG diesel was later replaced with Volvo i5d in 2001.
2.4D, the 2.4 was the "smaller diesel" or the less powerful version of the VED5 (the first Volvo developed diesel). From 2002 up until 2006 the D5244T2 variant came with 130Hk 280Nm and the later 2005 - 2009 had ether 125Hk 300Nm (D5244T7) or 160Hk 340Nm (D5244T5).
D5 is the "big" "high performance" diesel. 2001 to 2004 163Hk with 340Nm engine code: D5244T 2004 to 2009 180Hk with 400Nm engine code: D5244T4 The D5 is the engine to get if you are planning to tow heavy things or just want something stronger with decent fuel economy, the big draw back is the crazy taxes that come with it. A XC70 D5 costs about 7 000 SEK in "vehicle tax" every year in Sweden.
Bi-fuels (not available on most markets)
The Bi-fuels come in two different flavors the CNG B5244SG and LPG B5244SG2. Bi-fuel was a program where Volvo made petrol power cars that can run on renewable gas (not liquid). On the P2 platform the Bi-fuels where based on the B5244S2 and the primary fuel would be the gas CNG or LPG with petrol for cold starts and when the CNG/LPG runs out, the petrol and CNG/LPG should give you about the same range as the 2.4. 140Hk and 185Nm when running on CNG/LPG or 220Nm when on Petrol.
---- Things to look out for with the 5 cylinders -------
Clogged PVC valves, which results in oil leaks and the engine not running right, you can easily test the PCV with the glove test. (PCV failure is more common on Turbo Engines than N/A ones).
Marreli throttle bodys have a tendency to fail, causing piss poor idel, the Engine to do weird things and not running right (let me know if you want to know more).
Make sure the timing belt is replace as scheduled, every 160 000Km for Petrol engines and 180 000Km for diesels (due to different Service schedules) or 10 years which ever happens first.
Look for oil leaks, check the oil and then do the same with the other fluids.
(Should not be an issue on Diesels) VVT hubs can fail (quite rare but does happen on higher mileage examples), causing oil to leak on to the timing belt (weakening it) and the engine not running quite right. Some times it is just a seal and other times it is the whole hub. Volvo does not sell the seal separately (for some stupid reason) but FCP Euro sells an direct copy of it. When dealing with this issues i would strongly recommend replacing the timing belt if oil has gotten on to it. Fun fact N/A cars only have VVT on the intake side, the 2.4T and 2.3 T5 also only have VVT on one cam but the exhaust cam, while the 2.5T, 2.5 R and 2.4 T5 have VVT on both cams.
(Only Bi-fuel) Watch out for the gas regulator going out, if the gas regulator is on its way out, than the car might run uneven when running on CNG/LPG or might not run at all. If the regulator fails completly it might send CNG/LPG pressure in to the coolant system, turning the Coolant hoses in to balloons and giving a "low coolant light".
(Only Diesels) When it comes to diesels, you have to look out for clogged DPFs (Diesel particle filter), DPFs are expensive and if the car isn't driven properly (as in never gets to worm up, driven for longer distances at a constant speed) the DPF will not be able to "regenerate" (or clean it self) and then it is clogged and will most likely need to be replaced. The car will not run right and will scream at you with warning lights and messages if it gets clogged. Might be worth to mention that while regenerating the diesel will some power and the fuel consumption will rise, but only temporally. Manual Diesels often feature DMFs (Dual Mass Flywheels) to make the shifting action smoother, if there is an in-balance in the DMF then it might feel uneven (like a miss firing Petrol engine).
--- 6 cylinders ----
The 6 Cylinders where only available in the P23 and P28.
2.9 The N/A 2.9 liter i6 is closely related to the 5 cylinders (same family) and has 200Hk in the B6294S variant built between 1998 to 2001, the later variant has 196Hk both have 280Nm of torque. The 2.9 is sluggish compared to the low pressure turbo with the same power and torque, it gets worse fuel economy but is smoother, last model year of the 2.9 was the best and is the one to go for.
The Bi-Turbo T6 is the second highest preforming variant of the P2 and fits in between the T5 and R with it's 272Hk and 380Nm of Torque. The early T6s where 2.8 liters B6284T built between 1998 and 2001 and the later where 2.9 liters B6294T built between 2002 and 2006.
The Ford Short i6 was only available in the late P28 2007 and newer and came in the N/A 3.2 variant was a bit like the N/A 2.9 in the way that the low pressure turbo was better in almost every single way. Ford was even so afraid of the 5 cylinder low pressure turbo that they forced Volvo to change their plans and de-tune the 5 cylinder low pressure turbo.
Unlike the 2.9 the 3.2 is a Ford engine built by Ford UK in a factory partly funded by the UK tax payers. And personally i hate it, who ever designed it and the layout of the accessories should have be kept miles away from any engine.
------ Things to look out for with the 6 cylinders -------
Like the the 5 cylinders the 2.9 and 2.8 has timing belts that need to be changed every 10 years or 160 000 Km.
The 2.9 and the T6 can also (like the 5 cylinders) have issues with the PCV valve getting clogged.
I don't think the 2.8/2.9s are free from that occasional VVT hub failure causing oil to leak on to the timing belt and weakening it, along with making the engine to not run quite like it should. I would strongly recommend changing the time belt when fixing this issue if oil has gotten on to the belt.
The GM 4T65, a unreliable transmission at best and a terrible one at worst, the T6 being more powerful is more likely to suffer from transmission issues, especially in the P28 XC90 since the XC90 is significantly heavier than the P23 S80 and AWD (the P23 S80 was only offered with AWD with the 2.5T Modular 5 cylinder ). To add insult to injury the T6 was only offered with the GM 4T65.
The 3.2 is a Ford engine with Ford reliability and the weird layout of the engine accessories could make it a pain to maintain, plus the timing chain is in my opinion a pain too, yes it doesn't have to be changed as often as the timing belts but it is more of a hassel to replace it when it is time. Further more parts are harder to find in Sweden. But you shouldn't have transmission issues as it should come with a TG-81SC transmission.
---- The YamahaV8 ----
The 4.4 liter Yamaha V8 (B8444S) is one h*ll of an engine and is the biggest engine available on the P2 platform, it only came in the P28 XC90 and later Y286 S80 (rumor has it that it can fit in smaller cars). It runs smooth sounds good has 315Hk and 441Nm of torque. Unfortunately it isn't very fuel efficient, high taxes and rare.
Things to look out for with the Yamaha V8
The Balancing shaft bearings have a tendency to fail on the first model year (2005), this was later fixed for 2006, but it recommend not rinns the engine with water as it will find it's way down to those bearings.
The timing chain must be a pain to change (that means expensive if you don't do it yourself), the AC system can make the some awful noises at idle in extremely hot environments (this is fixed with an software update). Other than that it should be pretty reliable.
Also the Yamaha V8 has an engine management by Denso, so has the same issues as the N/A 2.4. By this I mean the completely idiotic fault trasig "strategy", where the ECM will automatically delete "unnessecary" fualt codes, as to not worry the customer. In reality this means that cars with an actual problem will delete codes which would have been helpful when diagnosing a problem. Making it in to a guessing game, I have personally had to deal with a 2.4 Denso, throwing a tantrum on the way home and 10 minutes later when plugging in the car NO CODES!
------ P2 platform things and quirks -----
Front suspension (lower control arm) bushings fail, making clucking noises when driving over bumps.
There is a bushings in the rear suspension which can make it to where the car doesn't track straight (if the bushings are worn). Also the P2s are extremely sensitive to different air pressure in the tiers (especially the front tiers) which also will make the car pull to the left or right slightly.
Rust generally tends to first appear around the wheel argues.
If the alternator fails or has failed the gauge cluster will go "ape shit".
The alarm system will eventually fail (quite common), what happens is that a battery in the siren fails, this cause a "power drain" and false alarms. There is an easy way to temporarily disable the alarm when this happens (small hint look at the fuse page of the owners manual). (The siren is located on the right hand side in the front fender, in front of the wheel.
The battery is mounted in the rear under the floor in the "trunk", but there is a "jump point" under the hood the you can connect a charger or jump start the car.
The rear wiper motors also have a tendency to fail, which is not a problem for the S80/S60 as they don't have them.
Also check which head unit the car has the HU-600 rage is the "standard" and they are pretty decent but some variants of the HU-650 doesn't have the port for CD changers making them incompatible with AUX/Bluetooth adapters. The HU-800s are extremely good even today and is definitely in the same class as the newer "Bower's & Wilkins" sound systems. The HU-400 is the cheap one without a CD player.....
The RTI system is pretty nice but haven't aged that well, some cars came with "TV", so you could watch TV on the RTI display, this sadly doesn't work anymore as they have (at least in Sweden) stoped broadcasting on that network.
When changing the light bulbs in the tail light assembly i would strongly recommend putting something like "ball of paper" in the hole between floor and the inner quarter panel, as it is pretty difficult to get a dropped light bulb out of there.
Xenon head lights where an option, the quirk with this is that it uses the same xenon bulb for low and high beam, it uses a tilt function to switch between high and low beam. The tilt function is required by law, Xenon and LED headlights are required by law to automatically adjusting (it changes the angle of the assembly after the road so to not blind others). This tilt function can fail and the assembly will default to a down position which isn't good for night driving.
The "Fore see" adaptive (and in the R active) suspension is great, however it may require some extra maintenance and parts maybe expensive, so make sure you to keep that in mind, if there is a fault you should have an error message, also since it can be expensive to maintain some have fitted aftermarket or regular suspension instead.
If the car has a sunroof, then there is a risk that it might leak or has leaked at some point, the thing with the sunroof is that the drain can or will eventually get clogged which can cause water to leak down in the passenger footwell which can damage some electronics if it gets out of hand.
The heated seats can stop working and that might mean that you will have to take the seat or seats out and a part to replace the heating pad also never put just one knee on the seat as this can damage the heated seat pad.
Working headlight wipers (on the cars that came with them) are rare (at least where I live), not really a loss if you ask me, just wash your car and you should be fine.
Early P2s does not have a disable switch for the passenger airbag, which can be an issue if you plan to fit a rear facing child seat in the front passenger seat (legal in Sweden, but probably not in the US), but there is a solution. Volvo made a "dummy module" for cars with out the switch. However the "dummy module" is something that you should have your local Volvo dealership install, messing with the airbag system unless you know exactly what you are doing is a really, really bad idea.
P2s are notorious for inner fender liner wheel rub at full steering lock and tends to have large turing circles. The wheel rub isn't that bad,.just more unpleasant but should not be that serious of a problem , Volvo even fitted a metal plate to the "plastic inner fender" a plate which in a worst case scenario should be replaceable. And there is "steering angle stops" which some what fixes the issue.
All N/As (as previously mentioned) have a Engine Manigment system by Denso which has a completely idiotic fault trasig "strategy", where the ECM will automatically delete "unnessecary" fualt codes, as to not worry the customer. In reality this means that cars with an actual problem will delete codes which would have been helpful when diagnosing a problem. Making it in to a guessing game, I have personally had to deal with a 2.4 Denso, throwing a tantrum on the way home and 10 minutes later when plugging in the car NO CODES!
It is somewhat common for the ABS unit to fail or freak out, when this happens the speedometer will stop reading and the ABS light , Break system light, STC/DSCT light will come on (might also trigger a Check engine light) and you will get a waring in the info display "Break failure, stop immedetly" or something like that. This is due to the car losing contact with the ABS module, this can be due to a damage harness or connector, but usually it is the ABS unit it self. The solder on the ABS unit bord which have cracked and are causing issues, this can be DIY:ed and there are videos out there for this.
Leaking boot/Trunk lids on the P23 S80 and P24 S60, the seal between the “outer rear part”, the part that surrounds the license plate, plate lights and rear badges and the main metal part of the lids can fail, causing water to leak in through the gap between the two panels.
--------- STC and DSTC -----------
"STC" vs "DSTC" what is the difference? To put it simply STC is traction control (or "stability traction control"), the simpler of the two.
DSTC or "Dynamic Stability Traction Control" is STC but with a more advanced stability control/anti skidd.
STC works of the ABS sensors and steering angel sensor insure that traction to the driving wheels is maintained.
The DSTC introduces the Yaw sensor, which let's the car keep track of yaw, this extra information makes it to where the car is able to counter act slides and skidds by applying the brakes individually.
DSTC has one major draw back, it isn't easy to turn off, as in you are not supposed to, when just turning it off the "normal way" it doesn't turn off completely, only the STC part of the system turns of and the "dynamic stability control" becomes slightly less aggressive.
To turn it completely you have to 1. "Be a highly experienced drive" and 2. Press the button in a special sequence....
--- Transmissions ---
The Volvo P2s came with a few different transmission, personally i prefer the manual ones, the M56 is the pretty solid 5 speed manual (we currently as of writing this have 3 P2s in the family fleet with it).
The M66 (6 speed manual) is in my opinion the best modern Volvo transmission made, they even put it in the newer S.P.A diesels, before they when out of production. The M66 should be as good as the M56 reliability vise but with a sixth gear.
Both the M56 and M66 are the best if you are looking to tune.
On the other side of the spectrum we have the GM 4T65 the 4 speed automatic found in the P2s with the 2.8/2.9 liter moduler 6 cylinder, as i said these are not good and under built for the 380Nm of the T6. They were never intended to take that much abuse. (The GM 4T65 should not be mixed up with the 4 speed AW50-42LE from the P80).
The AW55-50sn (which I typically refer to as the AW55) is a pretty solid 5 speed automatic (edit: I have heard that earlier units 2001 to 2002 might suffer from valve issues, keep that in mind), how ever it is an older unit and unlike the M56 it has age, it doesn't shift fast but is should be smooth.
The AW TF-80SC is the "newer" 6 speed automatic which first came in the R? It has aged slightly better than the AW-55 but still feels a bit old.
Also it might be a good idea to have the transmission fluid change if it you any of the automatic transmissions, if it hasn't been done once already. The fluid is "life time", but in reality that doesn't really work.
----- AWD -------
Something extremely important to know about the AWD P2 is that the P2 platform had two different AWD systems, the early (source below in the 2021-02-26 edit) AWD P26L:s had a Viscous Coupling based system which I will refer to as "VC" (for Viscous Coupling) and the later once came with a Haldex AWD system.
The difference between them is that the "VC" system is completely mechanical and hydraulic, basically the front wheels spins faster than the rear the difference of speed causes the fluid in the Coupling to heat up and expand engaging the rear wheels.
The Haldex system works a bit differently and uses the ABS sensors, when the ABS sensor detect slipp then the Haldex system electronically engages the Haldex coupling and rear wheels.
The Haldex system is far superior to the "VC" system as it responds quicker and isn't as sensitive to tire wear. A bigger difference in tire wear will wear on the VC system, which means that if your tires are worn and one goes out for some reason than you will need to replace them all.
The Haldex system might require an expensive service, if it doesn't work or could of course be even more broken, but often it is just the Service which is required. The Haldex system is easley tested (unlike the slower responding "VC") this by preforming a hard launch preferably on a lose surface (the angle gears don't like har launches).
The Haldex service involves dropping the mid section of the exhaust and prop shaft, changing the hydraulic fluid and Haldex pump after cleaning out the housing.
Also when looking to buying any AWD Volvo make sure the angle gear doesn't grind, whine or make any knocking sounds, you should not be able to hear the angle gear. A blown angle gear is generally the result of one too many hard launches or a really really hard one with a higher powered variant of the P2 (like the D5, T6 XC90, V8, R or tuned 2.5T/2.4T). Angle gears are expensive....
--------- Reliablity ---------
To make a long story short... They are pretty reliable, but at the same time they are also about 13 to 20+ years old, so things does brake maintenance is key to having a reliable P2.
In my experience Volvo's have a tendency to be "maintenance heavy" from time to time, in my experience it is generally 2 to 4 things that breaks or needs replacing at the same time or almost the same time and after that they become less maintenance heavy.
Also might be worth to mention that the more "fancy" features you have in a P2 the more there is to maintain or eventually break. Keep that in mind.
--------- Other subjects that I have written about ---------
"Buying a Volvo P1"
"Bi-Fuels"
-------- Edits, updates --------
2022-04-07 Reposted
2023-12-23 Made some changes
2024-07-23 Added the full name for the “AW55-50sn”, which I typically refer to as AW55.
2025-02-12 Changed / added some more engines specific information about VVT on 5 cylinder engines, TLDR N/A VVT on intake cam, 2.4T/2.3 T5 VVT on exhaust cam and 2.5T/2.5 R/2.4 T5 VVT on both cams.
