Looking at 2006 S40 2.4I with manual trans181K miles

jdm1 · Post by **jdm1** » 17 Jul 2019, 05:13

I am very familiar with the 200 and 900 series, the S40 not so much at all. School me folks, what should I look for? Are there any known reliability issues? And finally are the S40 series DIY friendly? I have done timing belts and head gaskets on both the red block and white block engines, also suspension, brakes and front-end work so have Volvo experince. Thanks in advance.

John

Polestar · Post by **Polestar** » 23 Jul 2019, 19:51

I'll throw out what I know. I have an 05 S40i manual trans. 130k on it, purchased with 120k 2 years ago and immediately did timing belt/water pump. Not too bad of a job, bought a plastic cam holder off of Amazon. Did buy the Volvo parts at the dealer, If I did it again would probably go RockAuto. I've been happy with it. Online, I see a lot of blown head gaskets. I did an oil analysis initially and do have coolant in the oil, which does not show up visually, and slight coolant usage (no external leaks). Other items I've had: brakes, rear hubs, coil pack. Last week had the information screen (radio and heat+air) failed and I replaced with a junkyard part. I had the Bluepower radio but put the original back in. Also about to do the alarm unit. I have Vida-Dice which helps greatly on these newer ones. No issues with working on it. Good luck.

Polestar · Post by **Polestar** » 01 Aug 2019, 21:31

I should have said that in my opinion you really need a Vida-Dice computer setup to work on these.