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Switching to synthetic oil...

Help, Advice, Owners' Discussion and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's stylish, distinctive P2 platform cars sold as model years 2001-2007 (North American market year designations).

2001 - 2007 V70
2001 - 2004 V70 XC (Cross Country)
2004 - 2007 XC70 (Cross Country)
2001 - 2009 S60
2003 - 2007 S60 R
2004 - 2007 V70 R

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MDK
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Year and Model: 2004 S60R
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Re: Switching to synthetic oil...

Post by MDK »

Hey all.. yeah. Synthetic is a good thing. Mainly get the right viscosity. What I've heard is that they do clean the internals. I've never had a brand new car.. ever so, the first thing I do is an oil change,, run it about a thousand miles and check. If it's dirty.. I dump it. I don't go by the mileage intervals.. never have. On my S60 R.. I kinda cheated. It was pretty neglected so I have changed the filter about every 500 miles until I was satisfied with the color I added the molylube. I'm considering doing the seafoam engine clean. In all these years I've never had an engine issue by doing this. I'll go a thousand miles.. check it .. 2 thousand check. I've never .. never waited 5/6 thousand miles before an oil change... That's just stupid.

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June
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Post by June »

Being as you have bought a 15 year old car with 180K which has known service records of 6 month oil changes with non Synthetic oil it is not advisable to extend the oil change interval regardless of the type of oil used. Personally I would not switch the car's type of oil, but I would just keep it changed. June
My Volvo cars owned
1989 740 GLT ordered
1994 850 4door standard shift ordered
1996 960 ordered
1998 S90 ordered totalled after 3 weeks
1998 V70 GT dealer stock car
2002 S80 T6 ordered totalled
2004 S80 T6 dealer stock car and current car owned

Katten
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Post by Katten »

Hehe aye, I have never even considered anything but synthetic oil for my modern cars. Thats why I was abit surprised regarding the topic. I run mineral/conventional oil in my old Beetle tho :).

Katten
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Post by Katten »

Hm I missed the part that it had been serviced with mineral oil. I was so sure all oil that went in to cars like this always was synthetic haha sorry. I guess using mineral oil for a long time and then switching might cause some dirt buildup to loosen up? So maybe if you want to switch this procedure can be considered:

Dump all current oil.
Fill up with cheap synthetic of correct viscosity.
Drive a few weeks.
Dump it and change the filter.
Fill up with some quality stuff :).

Please if anyone have some suggestions against this please raise them. I'm no expert, just wanted to share some thoughts.

Mikele82
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Post by Mikele82 »

Well considering the joint answers.
I'm gonna go ahead with the IPD semi synthetic (after only Dyno oil for 15yrs)
hopefully the car would thank me rather then dump oil on me.
Will update on issues :)
ps
will change oil along with, oil filter, fuel filter, and trans drain/fill and the main PCV system replacement (made pdf for that one)
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=90704&p=515994#p515994

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