New S40 owners

Enjoy the car, don't beat it 'till it's warm, take it easy the last mile or three, let it idle for 15 seconds or so before you shut it down if you have been driving hard, use top quality oil, change it ever 3000 miles, don't let them sell you the paint protection etc or an extended warranty, and buy it before the end of the year--this is one of the better times to buy--not too many folks buy cars now, and some dealers will want to move the iron to set good end of year numbers...

3000miles?? Maybe until the first oil change... But after that go with what the manufacturer recommends, minus maybe 1/4 of that mileage to be on the safe side... With modern oil and filters even sports cars can go long times between changes.

Thanks Steven for all your recommandation. I'm going to order the car this week with 205/55 16' tires. In terms of comfort , I 've read that 17' wheels are not recommended. Concerning the audio system , i'm a bit lost.There's a CD 6 in dash wich i don't really like , and Volvo doesn't propose a CD changer . I'll see with my audio retailer wich solution we can find to add a CD changer.

Best Regards

ART

"Steve n Holly" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

Sure--best luck!! I love the way the center stack looks on the new s40.

Someone else said to use synthetic oil--and that's a fine although expensive idea. I suggest Mobil one rather then Castrol because Mobil One is a true synthetic while they do some hanky-panky with the Castrol synthetic--and I have used castrol dyno (biological derived) oil almost exclusively since well before oil came in bottles! (used to come in paper or even tin cans 1 qt or I guess 1 L --one needed a special 'tapper' to punctured the can.)

I think with the precautions I suggested you will be fine with conventional oil, and while I admit my 3000 mile change interval is very anal, I am a big procrastinator! If I aim for 3000 Miles I might get it done in 4000 or

4500! Yes stretching the changes out to 5000 miles should be just fine, but 7 or 8000 miles is too long, especially for a turbo.

A big issue with oil changes is how fast you rev the engine--and turbos have impellers and compressors and bearings that spin real fast, and how long you drive--if you take a lot of highway trips you might well go for10,000 miles. I would not do it because the cost of an oil change where I get it is 20 bucks (US), and I watch them to help avoid mistakes, but even 30 or 35 bucks is not too much if you go for a change every 5000 miles MAX with conventional oil in a turbo.

Synthetic oil will allow you to be less careful about the precautions like slow under 3000 RPM warm ups and careful shut down.

I will further admit that my slow and careful turbo warm up and shut down procedure dates from back in the 1970's when turbos did not have a water jacket as they do now--what USED TO happen was that the turbo was spinnin' real fast (100,000 RPM) and ya shut the engine down.

The turbo kept spinnin' and gee with out fresh, relatively cool oil flowing through it the oil got real hot and turned into coke or some such goo and boom buy a new turbo time.

Now the water jacket surrounding the turbo bearings will avoid this issue, and I guess one could just shut down with no precautions like I suggested.

In the end, it's your car, and your money. I reflected on my old skool suggestions and well, I guess you do not need to idle the motor for a those

15 seconds before shut down to allow the turbo to spin down a bit, but I would try very consistently to stay out of boast for the last mile or two.

Quite the contrary. If synthetic oil is better, the turbo will be coasting much longer before shut down and the removal of lubrication would be much more harmful. Hence you would have to wait longer after stopping before shutting down.

If the synthetic oil is not better, then you would have to wait the same amount of time.

It is only with oils that are worse that you can shut down sooner because the turbo won't spin as long.

Actually Volvo is quite conservative. On my first 850, I changed oil at the recommended interval, 10,000 miles, with the ordinary oil the dealer used and after 180,000 miles, there was no oil consumption. I never had to add oil over the 180,000 miles I owned the car. No problems either.

On my second 850, I am up to 120,000 miles doing the same thing with no problems.

However the synthetic oil is much less apt to coke up....

I never had an oil coke up. In my garden tractor and other air cooled engines, the oil tends to get thick and look like crude oil, but it has never tasted like coke ;) I use "motorcycle oil" in my air cooled engines and the thickening is minimal. By the way, the motorcycle oil is not synthetic, it is genuine motor oil.

Coking is really only an issue on turbocharged engines, the turbo shaft gets very hot and decomposes the oil over time leading to a nasty baked on sludge. Synthetic is much more resistant to this and as expensive as turbos are I use it with them. For N/A engines I always run ordinary motor oil, synthetic is a waste of money for those IMO.

Thickening on a garden tractor engine is largely due to lack of an oil filter to clean carbon and other byproducts from the oil, it's different than coking.

Much as I truly do respect the knowledge you have shared with the group I must respectfully remind you, sir, that events that are not within ones own experience can still occur!

I thought the CD player was a 6-disk in-dash changer, like you said?

It is mostly due to the fact that air cooled engines do not have thermosats and run hotter than water cooled engines. That is why using oil for air cooled motorcycles solves the problem. If it was the lack of an oil filter, then using a different oil wouldn't help.

Speaking of one's personal experience, have you ever used motorcycle oil. It is much cheaper than synthetic oil.

From what I heard you can't add a changer(not even an aftermarket) unless you do some sort of fm modulation type thing. Some people have tried to add an IPOD but can only do so with the iTrip. Also, I don't think the stock stereo can be replaced with an aftermarket because of the interior setup.

I'm not sure but if you are planning on buying an aftermarket system, I would look into it.

No I have not--I share the same car you have--a 850 20 valve no turbo--I think any old oil is fine considering my change interval. My other car is a Acura Integra with a 1.8 dhoc, again a very complex car by historical standards, but just a run of the mill mill as far as lubrication requirements are concerned--perhaps a bit better then run of the mill in other respects. :)

If I had a true high performance vehicle I would be sure to try out your idea!

Does motor cycle oil hold up for as many miles as car oil--I would think that when designing the trade offs they would say--well it might rev to 9000 but how many miles does someone do on a bike--also the hot soak of a hard working water cooled engine with the A/C etc on on a 100 degree day then parking in the sun--is that a significant consideration for lubricant life?

From my quick look at the crutchfield site I agree, but in a year...who knows!

My experience with motorcycle oil is only in air cooled engines where regular motor oil can't take the heat. I haven't checked to see if it has the necessary additives for todays engines. My point was that regular motor oil can be designed for hotter engines. However since regular motor oils hold up in today's water cooled engines, they can't be getting too hot, even with turbos. Synthetic isn't the only game in town. Synthetic oils are good, but they may not be worth the extra expense.

Yes unfortunately you can not change the audio system with an aftermarket. If you get a system failure , it needs to be repaired or replaced by Volvo and could be not available. Then you have to wait ....... That's why my idea was to add a CD changer . Concerning MP3 , didn't give it a try yet. IPOD + iTrip = not my favourite car audio system , but it works well.

Continuing my search....... Regards ART

"zbh" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@adelphia.com...

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