Polestar upgrade

[vonRypp]

Originally Posted by Hadajag

I fully agree Ihave an XC60 B5P 2022. In my case it is far better than the ZF autobox in my previous Jaguar.
Von Rypp seems to be the only recent model petrol owner to claim a Polestar improvement. All others who claim benefits seem to be Diesel owners.

All the time when I come to a full stop just before entering a roundabout and then when I’d like to squeze myself into the circle, the car hesitate for around half sec before engaging the gears and reving up the engine. It’s annoying as hell, especially when the traffic is heavy and you have a little window of opportunity.

Sometimes it also jerks when I am closing to a full stop at the red light. Like when I am downshifting too harshly in a manual car and the RPM difference is too big. Maybe, I have a faulty software, but the car has only 2000 miles and I have read similar problems with petrol cars as well not just diesels.

[vonRypp]

Originally Posted by techwatcher

They could sell a passenger door mirror separately, and if you go back 40 years, car manufacturers did exactly that. Times have changed and standard specs have improved, but all manufacturers offer optional extras. Again, it's another revenue stream.

It is highly unlikely that Volvo have produced '****ty' transmission software deliberately so they can sell Polestar upgrades. I suspect the majority of Volvo owners have never heard of Polestar and wouldn't be interested in the upgrade if they had as they are content with their vehicle's performance.

Yes they DID when 95% of the vehicles did not offer it (I used to have a Mercedes-Benz W114 280CE from 1973 and the passenger side mirror was the most expensive option on it and definitely the most useless due to its tiny size ), but not anymore. In this segment (BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, etc) for every single full size vehicle they are offering have "mode selector". Volvo is the only maker who removed this feature. In addition Volvo is the only brand who is asking money for a SW OPTIMISATION(!!) which doesn't give you any extra power and not a single hardware piece is replaced, doesn't change the gas mileage (as stated), etc. It's just a patch which should have been standard for every car without branding it as "Polestar".

Otherwise, I really love my car, but this annoys me and experience it as a capital rip-off.

[C320]

We had the Polestar optimisation carried out on my wifes 2019 XC90 T5 over the Christmas period (offer price of £555) and we're happy with it - definitely feels more drivable since having it done. Yes, the performance gains aren't huge, but it feels more drivable & spritely which is what counts I guess, it's not supposed to be an all out sportscar!

The £300 offer from the Carlisle dealership is amazing, I don't think I'd be as impressed at the list price of £700 though!

[Franko1960]

Originally Posted by lat002

Just got the Polestar upgrade today from Rybrook Volvo. They said it was on offer at £409.90. Great improvement on my diesel (D4) largely getting rid of lag when accelerating out of corners or pulling onto roundabouts. Noticeable increase in mid range acceleration. I'm expecting improved stability on cornering in the wet as it's supposed to put more power through the rear wheels than the standard setup (the car is AWD). Initially, my jaw dropped when I saw the post from ZenSpeedmaster about https://spaycetech.com/ but I'm rather uncomfortable about tweaking the electronics using 'Orbit' as the electronics seem pretty complex and I don't know enough about them. I'd be bound to mess things up. As Kenp8257 said it's a lovely car and the money is worth it to improve the drivability and I also intend keeping it a good while if possible.

So is he saying you can activate Polestar optimisation via this software?
This software costs $150.00, so makes a great saying.
It also says you can roll back to OEM software settings, so if you have a dealer service, Volvo cannot detect what you did it in the first place?

Seems too good to be true??
__________________

[techwatcher]

Originally Posted by Franko1960

So is he saying you can activate Polestar optimisation via this software?
This software costs $150.00, so makes a great saying.
It also says you can roll back to OEM software settings, so if you have a dealer service, Volvo cannot detect what you did it in the first place?

Seems too good to be true??
__________________

Have a look at the FAQs on the Orbit website, specifically the response to the 'Will I get into trouble with Volvo?' question.

[C320]

Originally Posted by techwatcher

Have a look at the FAQs on the Orbit website, specifically the response to the 'Will I get into trouble with Volvo?' question.

Indeed, I'm more familiar with BMW and have used something similar to Orbit on those for a few years.

However, BMW have become very protective about aftermarket coding and have actively started to void warranties or refuse to work on vehicles that have been 'coded' - this incudes coding as innocent as changing the bootup screen for the navigation from the BMW logo to the ///M logo (which is already present in the software of the car!).

Like the Orbit software the BMW utility I'm referring to had the ability to restore the settings to a previous version. However, having a car under manufacturers warranty I became more cautious and returned the settings to standard and didn't touch it again. From a software perspective, despite the settings being put back to normal, I believe that on BMW's (imagine Volvo will be similar) the dealers would be able to check the date stamp on files to see whether the software settings had been manipuated.

It's great to see software solutions exist to 'tweak' settings or 'unlock' features but I doubt these solutions will ever be accepted / encouraged by the manufactures.

[Kugaman1]

Originally Posted by Franko1960

So is he saying you can activate Polestar optimisation via this software?
This software costs $150.00, so makes a great saying.
It also says you can roll back to OEM software settings, so if you have a dealer service, Volvo cannot detect what you did it in the first place?

Seems too good to be true??
__________________

You would be a fool to mess with the software on a car under warranty.
Yes, you can reset to OEM when taking the car in, but every modification leaves an easily detectable trace.
Can you imagine an engine failure and they detect an unauthorised Polestar mod? (Remember, in this situation you could be at the side of the road and then recovered to a Volvo garage, so no chance to revert the software) …….bye bye warranty claim and hello a £10k bill…..

As mentioned, BMW have come down hard on this. I know of a guy who needed a £2000 electrical repair on a near new x5 - BMW wouldnt repair under warranty because he had done something silly like change the brightness of the DRLs, so they knew he had messed with the software and investigated further. They quickly saw the software had been changed and as it was linked to the canbus, they voided the warranty for that claim and all future claims. After a lot of legal debate, he ended up having to pay for BMW to do a full 5 hour software rebuild of the entire car, putting it back to factory and costing him nearly £1000 in the process. At least they then reinstated his warranty.

Seriously, modding the software when under warranty is a foolish, foolish thing to do.

[x119]

Originally Posted by Kugaman1

Yes, you can reset to OEM when taking the car in, but every modification leaves an easily detectable trace.

Knowing exactly how this solution works; it's not traceable by Volvo in the same way as other manufacturers. It can safely be reverted ahead of servicing / dealer visits. But you point about roadside recovery is valid. Everyone should be like me and have a laptop in the boot and a OBD cable ready to go whenever!

Volvo do have a ECU security unlock counter, but there are any number of reasons why a security unlock will be performed, it's not a flag. BMWs can be coded by generic apps. Volvo has unique security codes (PIN) against ECUs such as the CEM where all this stuff is controlled from as part of the Car Configuration. Therefore their system was designed around inherent trust that these PINs wouldn't become realised rather than a more open model like other manufacturers. The ECUs also expect files to conform to certain checksums. So if PIN and Checksum are correct then it's trusted.

Volvo however now do check the original Car Configuration (or updated if official changes to spec have been made) held on their servers against the car and if they do not match they will flag and block software updates. If you're interested you can read more about it on my site: https://v-spa.net and what changes Volvo have made to keep us CEM 'hackers' out - all in vein mind

ps: there are ways your friend could have avoided paying for all those reloads and done it themselves at home

[Kugaman1]

Originally Posted by x119

Knowing exactly how this solution works; it's not traceable by Volvo in the same way as other manufacturers. It can safely be reverted ahead of servicing / dealer visits. But you point about roadside recovery is valid. Everyone should be like me and have a laptop in the boot and a OBD cable ready to go whenever!

Thats the biggest reason not to do this in my opinion.

Not only having to mess about reprogramming the ECU in the event of a breakdown, but also what about if theres an accident?

Seriously, this solution is only for the brave and on a £40k car, that isnt me!

When I was a bit younger and more carefree, I did lots of reprogramming to various VWs using VCDS and various BMWs using bimmercode and carly……never again for me, just getting too old and worried about screwing up a code and causing wider problems!