New V70 owner: advice needed!
 

Hey folks, I have just bought my first Volvo. It's a (fairly lowly) D3 136bhp 5 pot SE Geartronic, in 2013 face-lift form. It has therefore just turned 9 years old and has just of 93k miles on it. 5 years of dealer history, + 4 years of non-specialist servicing. It doesn't seem to have had a tough life with its one previous owner.

Although I have had a couple of gremlins, my main question is about preventative maintenance... what I should have done to ensure it's lifespan.

It is due a service, so that's a given. It has, as far as I know, never had cambelt, aux belt, and tensioners done. I assume that's a wise move? Quoted £500 by a local Volvo indie specialist.

Same goes for a service of the Geartronic. Never been done as far as I can see. Been quoted £250 to 'take as much out as possible' or £400 to fully flush.

Any advice on further measures?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Meant to ask, is the Polestar upgrade worthwhile on this engine, and can it be done by an indie?

Hello and welcome to V70 ownership. I'm new to Volvo too, but so far so good for a 15 year old car.

With just one owner and what sounds like a fairly consistent service history you should be well placed - assuming that the servicing has been properly carried out.

Advice to get cam belt, aux belt and tensioner done is regularly quoted for reliability. Info on here suggests that the aux belt is every bit as important as the cambelt because if it fails it can throw debris into the path of the cam belt causing that to fail.

Likewise transmission fluid change is recommended by many. Some go for full flush, others for one or more dump and refill. Lots of info on here and on YouTube.

Other than that, regular oil and filter changes using good quality parts and fluids should give you happy motoring! No point buying a quality car and fitting poor quality parts. Good luck!

Thanks, all very helpful. I would always change both belts and tensioners having had a similar issue on a Mondeo many years ago!

You should get all belts done straight away if they have never been done. If it was dealer serviced for the first five years the Aux belt should have been changed but I would still get it done asap

Polestar can only be carried out by a main dealer

The Geartronic oil change sounds expensive and from how you describe the proposed work it would amount to only one sump dump and refill. Since most of the oil is trapped in the torque converter, the sump dump is nowhere near the full charge and it is practice to repeat this procedure at least three times to reduce the content of used contaminated oil in the box. Costs you in oil and is time consuming as the box has to be run between oil changes to mix the old and new oil and then repeat again and again. After three sump dumps and refills the law of diminishing returns starts to set in and it becomes less cost effective to do much more.

I have the Polestar optimisation. It must be done by a Volvo main dealer as it is run from the Volvo mainframe in Göteborg. It isn't cheap and it won't turn your car into a track car but on my 215 bhp D5 XC70 the output is raised to 230 bhp and the gear changing points are altered as is the steering settings. As these factors are electronically controlled their characteristics are simply altered by tweaking the software. On your lesser powered engine the results would be greater than on mine. Dealers sometimes offer reductions in price but even if there is no current offer, you could always ask for a discount and you might very well get one. I am very satisfied with my Polestar upgrade as it markedly changes the way the car drives and I wouldn't go back to how it was originally. The other advantage is that it is a Volvo product and insurers look more kindly upon it. Check out the specification of the upgrade on Volvo's accessory website.

Thanks. I will ask more questions, but could it be that the extended procedure you describe is the £400 option, whereas the single drain is the cheaper one? The quote was from a Volvo specialist who came recommended and seem to have decent reviews. I'm finding specialists are not that common, as they are for VAG and other big names.

The 136bhp 5 pot could use a little extra zing so I will consider the Polestar upgrade. I have just come from a 220bhp petrol Skoda Superb, so although the V70 does pretty well, it is taking some getting used to! Far more comfortable and the ride is lightyears better though.

Thanks, yes it's first on the list of jobs to do. There was an invoice included for a 'belt' from the independent too, but it was cheap and nondescript! I'll do the whole lot in one go.

I just checked Volvo's website: https://engineered.polestar.com/uk/p...automatic-2013
and they are saying Polestar would give you

Torque (Nm)
+14%

Peak Power (hp)
+20%

So it looks like you'd get 163 bhp and 0-60 would drop from 10.6 secs to 9.9 secs.

There seems to be a dealer deal for £555 until the end of September. It's not cheap but worth a haggle if you're really interested.

Thanks, yes I saw that the other day actually. The numbers aren’t huge but I suspect it might make quite a difference on the D3. I’ll get a main dealer quote for the other work and see if there’s a deal to be had maybe.

Just referring back to the transmission flush and cam/aux belt and tensioner for a moment... is there wisdom in using an Indie Volvo specialist for either of these jobs, or are they straightforward enough than any decent workshop can doing competently, assuming the original parts are used?

https://www.avalon-cars.co.uk/ over in Sywell come recommended by a friend but they are a good 40mins from me (prices quoted were from them). We do have a well trust local garage here (https://www.rsdlimited.com/) who used to look after my 5 series. They are however, more of a VAG specialist. Just wondering which way to call it.