Considering the RICA Tune for my S40 T5

[brockie99]

Hi,

I have an 04 plate S40 T5 SE and am considering forking out to get the ECU remapped using the RICA Tune.
I've owned the car for about 8 months now and absolutely love the blend of luxury and power, but am wondering if the RICA could safely release some extra potential that I'm sure the T5 engine has.

I have no problem with the price of the Tune (approx. £400-500), but I am a little worried that the extra power could break/deteriorate the parts of the engine. Could this be true/happen?
The car has done 62k and has full Volvo Service History and I have had no issues with it at all, but not completely sure I want to jeopardise my lovely car for the sake of 30bhp if it brings issues.

Does anyone have any experience of getting this done?
Or do any of you have an opinion on this?

I would welcome both.
Thanks in advance for your help.

[turbo-tuner]

Most decent remaps will give you sensible, reliable power. Since you're in Kent, you could get your RICA tuning done here:

http://www.lipscomb.co.uk/volvo/performance

at least you know it's in good hands!!!

[brockie99]

Thanks for the comment, I may well try them since they are reasonably close.
You're right, I would definitely trust a Volvo dealer doing and guaranteeing then work.
Cheers

[Welton]

The increase in boost pressure will see exhaust gas temps rise over 'normal' and you should be very vigilant about letting the turbo run down after a fast run, in fact start running it down before you get back home. My car's standard and I've been known to run the heater at full chat with the windows open before I get home to get rid of some heat, coupled with leaving the bonnet up!! (I am a nerd).

Speaking of heat I think the T5 already runs fairly hot in it's tight engine bay so a good coolant flush and change will be in order as will a gearbox oil change imo.

The main thing is not to abuse the thing once it's been done and that means being kind to the clutch and not thrashing the engine needlesly...Ooh and oil changes every 6 months.

[don kalmar union]

With a well written basic software upgrade on these current smaller Volvo 'T5's there should be no problem with EGTs, it is those software upgrades written by suppliers who do not have access to the neccessary Volvo files that can and very often do cause issues.

Generally though those most troublesome issues come from an inability to properly control boost which usually results in the breakdown of the dual mass flywheel through low down spikes of boost giving spikes of high torque, though this is often self diagnosed by owners as clutch slip.

The very small standard intercoolers on these cars and their Focus ST cousins will cause the highly sophisticated Bosch ME9 ECUs to pull back on engine outputs as they sense rising inlet air temperatures. So generally a larger intercooler is a prerequisite to outputs beyond 265bhp or so.

The issue of rising EGTs can be attended to by fitting a downpipe with special cat, however these engines will not gain the sort of outputs that the traditional older 'T5's get with similar pipes. A performance cat back will help further and of course the addition of water injection does help considerably with internal running temperatures.

Best regards, Don.