BLUE - 2017 Volvo V40 T2 R-Design Progress Thread

[Petey80]

The time came, the other week, for my usual requirement of changing the oil and filter after 6,000 miles.

Away to the folks house I went as that's where the ramps were. Of course it was another rainy day, but I only had today to get this job done, so had to power through.

Pulled the ramps out of the shed and got the car up them..... Just



Because of the splitter I wasn't able to place the wood as high up on the metal ramps as I usually do. Putting them on the very top made the angle too steep and fouled the splitter, so I had to drop it down a little so I could drive the car up them and not rip the splitter off.

Always the same issue with driveway mechanics, the car is never high enough to work comfortably.

Anyway, I got down and under and whipped the undertray off. Thankfully all of the screws came off without issue and I noted there was about half of them missing, but plenty still there to hold the tray securely to the underside of the car.

Got my tub and undid the sump plug to drain all the oil out



Pre ordered a new sump plug and washer



And also had the oil and filter in my posession for quite some time



The Castrol oil cost an absolute fortune compared to Volvo own supplied oil so will go direct to them next time.

Felt like it took forever for the oil in the sump to drain out into a slow drip.

Once it did, I removed the drain plug from the filter housing (out of focus, sorry)



A decent amount also came out of the filter housing.

And here's the drain plug, which was removed with H6 allen key socket



Removed the little rubber seal/washer



A new one was included with the Bosch filter



Once the oil had slowed from the filter housing, I began to take that off with the appropriate large socket/filter housing tool. Didn't acutally take a picture of that though....

Old filter and new filter



Very black considering this had all been changed only 6/7k miles ago.

Random shot I took



The filter housing also had a rubber washer/seal around it, so again replaced that with the new one that came with the Bosch filter.



There's one of the undertray screws in the top left of the picture. They had a bit of blue loctite on them..... no wonder people have issues getting them off.

The tub that held all the oil



It shocked me a little how much used oil I had there. I was used to the old D2 V50 though. That only needed just under 4 litres of oil whereas this T2 takes just under 6 litres.

Also surprised at how black it was, again due to it only being changed 6/7k miles ago. Hopefully as I continue to change it regularly it might stay a little lighter, but the engine does run hot and the oil itself is like water being 0w20.

All put back together, everyhing tightened up, filled with 5.7 litres of oil (capacity is 5.9 litres, but you never put the full amount in).

Drove home, emptied the boot and sorted that stuff out, giving the car it's required stand still time to get an accurate reading of the oil level



Spot on. Happy days. I will continue to check it over the coming days, just in case.

Whilst doing this today, it brought back memories.

Some things don't change much

[Kev0607]

Nice work. Looks like that oil needed changing... it appeared very dirty on the pics, considering its a petrol car. Have you ever considered using an oil flush? Its not a high mileage car, so shouldn't cause any issues. I know garages that use it all the time and never had a problem. It works wonders that stuff.

With regards to oil, Castrol has always been really expensive. I prefer to shop around and use other brands. So long as the viscosity and spec matches what's recommended, you can use what brand you want. Shell are very good, as are Petronas. I'm not sure if they do the exact oil for your car, but I figured if Petronas is good enough for an F1 car, its certainly good enough for my D5.

Its definitely worth shopping around. You can get good quality oils at a fraction of what Castrol or the dealer want.

[Petey80]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

Nice work. Looks like that oil needed changing... it appeared very dirty on the pics, considering its a petrol car. Have you ever considered using an oil flush? Its not a high mileage car, so shouldn't cause any issues. I know garages that use it all the time and never had a problem. It works wonders that stuff.

With regards to oil, Castrol has always been really expensive. I prefer to shop around and use other brands. So long as the viscosity and spec matches what's recommended, you can use what brand you want. Shell are very good, as are Petronas. I'm not sure if they do the exact oil for your car, but I figured if Petronas is good enough for an F1 car, its certainly good enough for my D5.

Its definitely worth shopping around. You can get good quality oils at a fraction of what Castrol or the dealer want.

It was quite black, which is a little concerning as it was only 6/7k miles old.

I used an engine flush on my old Astra Mk4 and that didn't cause any issues. I'll give 1 a go on Blue as well, as you say, miles aren't high so shouldn't cause any problems.

Yeah, Castrol has always been pricey, sometimes Halfords have it on sale. Last time I was at a dealership, their own oil was a very reasonable price.
I'll either get it from them or shop around and get another same spec alternative.

[Petey80]

I've posted a couple of these already, but obtained a few more.













Pleased with the beading qualities of water after applying the Mirror Shine.

Car is now in desparate need of another wash. Saturday all being well.

And speaking of Soft99/Fusso, I got a couple more of their products for my birthday last week.



Their Glaco Glass compound and coating

And



Their original Fusso Coat. Look forward to trying that out in a couple of months when the Mirror Shine has worn off.

[Petey80]

Last day off today so thought I'd give Blue another bath.

Usual procedure was done. The rust on the bottom of the passenger door is getting slightly worse.... I have a decal to hopefully cover that up and help decrease the effects of the rust..... We will see. Hope to get it stuck on when there's going to be some decent weather days in a row.

Also in desperate need of some rear tyres. Next purchase when I get paid tomorrow.

Anyway. With the car all washed and dried, as I was putting things away and considering what to do/use as an LSP, I came across this in the back of the cupboard



Bouncers Done & Dusted Quick Detailer from the first Volvo600 attempt at Bruntingthorpe...... What a day that was.
I still have the tin of wax that you could buy on the day as well. Haven't really used that though.

As the bottle was almost emptied, I sprayed the remainder onto select areas of Blue. Mainly the bottom half of the sides of the car and the rear end.
The Mirror Shine wax seems to be still present, but not so much in those areas.

End result



With regards to the Glaco products I used on the windscreen......... all I can say is WOW!!

It works really well. Once I got over 30mph the water just started beading and flew off the windscreen. There was quite a few rainy days after applying it and I hardly every used the wipers to clear the windscreen.

Also cleaned the interior out on Saturday afternoon. No pictures of that though, it wasn't that dirty. Just a bit of dust and stuff here and there.

MOT, Tax and Insurance is all due in June so I'll be saving some pennies for all of that. But I will have to purchase some new tyres for the back end, just trying to decide on which ones to get.

[Petey80]

A couple more items for Blue today.

Another Soft99/Glaco item



Their Glaco de cleaner.

This should help keep the windscreen coating topped up for that little bit longer.

New tyres for the rear end



A couple of Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance 2. Also had the wheel alignment checked and everything was spot on.
The bad wear and what I thought was a clear "step" in the tread wear on the NSR tyre, must have just been down to the tyre being 7 years old or more.
Pretty sure with the new tyres on, the sound I thought was a bad bearing seems to have gone. I did have the window down a little and the TPMS error on the dash, so I was more concerned about stopping and sorting that out.

Also put a new gloss black set of wheel nut covers on each corner



Much better than the factory grey ones in my opinion.

Not a bad afternoon, just a bit lighter wallet, but it was pay day yesterday and needs must.

That is it for now. MOT and insurance is due next month. Just debating whether to take it to either a local MOT place I usually use or Ray Chapman Motors Volvo at York.

[Kev0607]

Car looks great...

Where did you get those wheel caps from and what's the size? I want to get a set for my car, as my lug nuts have got a bit rusty and the covers would take the bad look off them.

I know you clean your car very well and cherish it. I was wondering, do you ever clean the suspension? The shocks and control arms gather all sorts of dirt/grime. I had the wheel off my car yesterday doing some suspension work and its a bit grubby behind there! I assume taking the wheels off would be the only way to properly clean that area, but what products do you use?

[Petey80]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

Car looks great...

Where did you get those wheel caps from and what's the size? I want to get a set for my car, as my lug nuts have got a bit rusty and the covers would take the bad look off them.

I know you clean your car very well and cherish it. I was wondering, do you ever clean the suspension? The shocks and control arms gather all sorts of dirt/grime. I had the wheel off my car yesterday doing some suspension work and its a bit grubby behind there! I assume taking the wheels off would be the only way to properly clean that area, but what products do you use?

Thanks Kev, appreciate that.

I got the wheel caps of AliExpress but they're readily available from anywhere really. E-Bay, Amazon etc.

19mm they are.

I do clean the arches out yes, just not as often as it's a wheel off job. I hope to do Blue's in June when I have some time off and the weather is good.

I'll be using Autosmart G101 all purpose cleaner for the majority of the clean. It's quite strong when diluted appropriately so it'll eat through all the grime with ease.

Will also use a citrus degreaser of some kind and a number of brushes to get at everything.

Will probably snow foam the entire arch as well and work that in with some brushes.

Then finish it off with Aerospace 303 for the plastics and Sonax BSD for any painted parts that are on show.

Hope to take the arch liner out too, clean it and behind it. Will no doubt do a full write up when I do it.

[Kev0607]

Thanks Petey, I'll try Ebay etc. Mine are 17mm, so smaller than yours. They look awesome though... I think the black would go well with my alloys.

In other news, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I've started washing my own car. There's no beating around the bush, I've took it to "hand" car washes for a long time, but I'm sick of them missing parts that should be cleaned and they stand out like a sore thumb when the rest of the car is clean. Another thing I noticed was whilst another car was being washed, the guy doing it cleaned the wheels and then he used the same sponge to clean the body... Safe to say, I didn't stay in the queue... I don't normally go there anyway. I've never used one of those auto brush washes that are in some petrol stations... the ones you drive the car into and big brushes go over the roof and down the sides. I heard they can ruin a car, but surprisingly, the one near me is always busy!

I haven't got the products you've got, but I have some basics. Here's my procedure;

-Spray the body and wheels with elbow grease (says it can be used on vehicles and it does a good job of removing dirt/grime). Let that settle in for a couple of minutes.

-Clean the wheels with a wheel brush I got from Halfords. Rinse off wheels.

-Rinse car with my Karcher power washer. Its only a small one, its a patio cleaner (Cold water only, its not a pressure washer). I have a pressure washer that can heat the water itself by heating element, but its a big awkward thing to move around.

-Starting at the roof, wash with a sponge and soapy warm water and work my way around the car. The sponge is used on the body only. Discard that dirty water and renew with fresh.

-Rinse car off again

-Spray some more elbow grease on, let it settle in

-Clean wheels again with the wheel brush. Rinse off

-Go around the car again with the clean water/sponge/suds

-Rinse off

-Add some tyre shine

Safe to say it comes out sparkling clean, but I have nothing to dry it. I assume drying helps? I didn't get any water marks surprisingly after that last wash. Its still clean now and that was last weekend. Normally its filthy in a week from dust in the air that seems to cover it.

I know you do a far more superior wash than that, but is there anything that I'm doing wrong? I don't want to be damaging the paint either! I know it may seem like its just washing a car, how hard can it be kind of thing. All the same, I know there's a method to it that clearly the "hand" car washes don't do, hence why they "wash" (and scratch) so many cars per day.