2006 V50 - My new love

ghulands · Post by **ghulands** » 02 Oct 2011, 00:22

When I met my wife she had a 2001 V40 - it was a very practical car for us having 2 dogs. Friday week ago we took it into a transmission shop to see if they could adjust it to stop the occasional slipping. I come to pick it up and drive it home and the thing was slipping 90% of the time - luckily I only live a few blocks from that place and limped home. They denied cooking the transmission and I'm left with a car that doesn't drive. The V40 was wearing out but I was hoping to get a couple more years out of it as we rebuilt the transmission 3 years ago. So on Friday night I started scouring craigslist and dealer websites for used wagons I had 6 cars lined up for Saturday. The first one was the 2006 V50 5T FWD. The car was smooth, quiet and tight. Just a nice whir of the turbo every now and then. I knew this car was most likely going to be the benchmark for the day. We looked at an Audi A6 and A4, but both had too many miles on them. Next was a bright red 2006 V50 - I never took it for a drive because the color was just too bright for me and this place was asking 5k more than the first V50 we drove. Next was a 2007 Subaru Forrester. It was nice, same miles as the Volvo, but 12k more. Yes, they're different cars and can't be compared directly but I couldn't justify 12k for AWD. The sales guy started to get pushy and agitated that we wouldn't buy his Subaru so when things went south from there we just walked away. Being tired and annoyed with the last sales guy, we went back home, grabbed the dogs and headed back to the first V50 of the day. The V50 seems to have less volume in the back than the V40 does - I think this is attributed to the floor is a lot higher in the V50 and the curtain airbags around the hood lining loose some cubic inches as well. We threw the dogs in there - our big dog fitted fine, so we walked in and bought the car.

The dealership we got it from was a Honda one and they had serviced it, but not knowing the full service history and it having 62k on the clock, I have started an Auto-RX cycle on it as looking through the oil hole onto the cam lobe there looked like a bit of sludge build up. I plan to do the same for the transmission tomorrow and then do a full flush after 1000 miles. Today I put in a new cabin filter - this was a real pain in the ass. Anyone wanting to do the same, remove the plastic panels under the steering wheel and it will save a lot of time and swearing. I gave her a wash and got about one third of her polished and waxed.

The next list of things to change out is the fuel filter, thermostat and coolant. I have felt a slight warping in the front brakes via the pedal so I think I'll grab some new rotors and pads from Volvo this week. I subscribed to alldatadiy.com and read through every technical bulletin. This week when my wife was headed out for the day, the brakes squealed really badly. When she raced back inside, I said "Yep, there's a technical bulletin for it" I think this is probably the most valuable thing that they offer. I'm planning to take the car to a local Volvo dealership this week and get them to upgrade all the computers to the latest firmware and reset the shift points in the transmission so it can get used to our driving style.

I'm really happy with the car, but still annoyed that I had to buy it. I hope to post all the work I do to it on here since it seems the V50 is a neglected vehicle on the forums.

Post by **Juan62** » 02 Oct 2011, 03:24

ghulands · Post by **ghulands** » 07 Oct 2011, 00:06

Yesterday the cargo barrier and mudflaps I ordered off eBay arrived. The Redbank Volvo store was by far cheaper than my local Volvo dealership was. $90 cheaper. I installed them last night but was too dark to snap any pics. First thing this morning I took the car to the dealership to get all the software updated and to have the car inspected. They said the car was immaculate - condition wise and mechanically. They printed off a schedule for what the 60,000 mile service would consist of. The only thing that would be done mechanically was the change of spark plugs, the cabin air filter and a fuel system clean. Everything else on was just inspection of things - the same things that were covered in the inspection they did today! The cost of said service was $830. I joked with my wife that $800 of the cost was the hassle of replacing that filter I struggled with on the weekend!

I got home, went to ipd's website and ordered a set of plugs and coil packs, fuel filter and a box of Mobil 3309. Next weekend I'll do a more comprehensive service myself. I would rather spend my money on parts than on labor.

I used to have a twin turbo Nissan Skyline that I enjoyed working on and am really looking forward to working on the Volvo.

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Post by **jimmy57** » 07 Oct 2011, 09:31

Fuel system clean is not necessary and is not recommended by Volvo. IF you had some symptoms then fuel system clean is a repair step. Somewhat like just deciding to go get a blood transfusion because blood flushes are pushed by the hospital.
The trans does not learn YOU. The trans computer only learns to keep shift completion times within targets. If you are a throttle pedal pulser who pushes throttle on and off repeatedly then TCM will adapt and not upshift on each throttle release. This is effectively the only adapting to YOU that it is capable of. Adapting to the load in car or a towed trailer is what it needs to do to have a long life and comfortable shifts.
TCM clearing for adaptive re-learn is done when software or mechanical repairs are made and the re-learn from scratch is much faster than a major adaptation from an already stored value point.
Is brake vibration in steering wheel or felt more in the car with no steering shake?

ghulands · Post by **ghulands** » 07 Oct 2011, 11:01

jimmy57 wrote:Fuel system clean is not necessary and is not recommended by Volvo. IF you had some symptoms then fuel system clean is a repair step. Somewhat like just deciding to go get a blood transfusion because blood flushes are pushed by the hospital.

Thanks for the info. This was a Volvo dealership I went too :-/ it seems that people on the forum recommend just to do the fuel filter and a treatment of techron in the fuel.

jimmy57 wrote: The trans does not learn YOU. The trans computer only learns to keep shift completion times within targets. If you are a throttle pedal pulser who pushes throttle on and off repeatedly then TCM will adapt and not upshift on each throttle release. This is effectively the only adapting to YOU that it is capable of. Adapting to the load in car or a towed trailer is what it needs to do to have a long life and comfortable shifts.
TCM clearing for adaptive re-learn is done when software or mechanical repairs are made and the re-learn from scratch is much faster than a major adaptation from an already stored value point.
Is brake vibration in steering wheel or felt more in the car with no steering shake?

Thanks again for the info. My wife is the pulsating driver, I prefer cruise control - it'd be nice if it kept shifting profiles based on the key used in the ignition so it wouldn't be at loggerheads from weekday wifey to weekend me!

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Post by **jimmy57** » 07 Oct 2011, 11:56

The learning auto computers is done is a bit misunderstood. The car doesn't know or care who the driver is. The on/off throttle adapt is not memorized. It is a function actually designed to detect mountainous roads with hairpin turns. In that case the program is designed to stop the upshift on throttle release that will be followed by downshift once the corner is made and the next straightaway is encountered. If your amount of throttle depression is more rapid and higher throttle then the "Sport" shift schedule is activated and if you get easier on throttle with less aggressive moves then the "Economy" shift schedule is active once again. Marketing creates some perceptions that are not reality. The switch in older Volvos and other cars was not ideal. If you are on a two lane road following a farm tractor and suddenly an opportunity to pass the tractor presents itself you shouldn't have to think to depress the button to Sport in order to get a more ready part throttle downshift for better engine response. In that situation you likely wouldn't depress throttle to floor to trigger forced downshift ("passing gear").

ghulands · Post by **ghulands** » 16 Oct 2011, 02:01

Last night I put in a new set of spark plugs and the iPd HD coil packs - idle in the cold this morning was noticeably smoother which I think is more the spark plugs than the coil packs. The plugs looked pretty worn. I also changed out the oil filter for the auto-rx treatment. The filter was really clean which was very encouraging. Today I bled the brakes and tomorrow I will flush the transmission with 12 quarts of 3309.