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Dilbert,
Groton is a great place to buy other parts too for our cars. Yes, Volvo went to the alum. washer for oil changes. The oil pan is aluminum and since 850 days, people found that anything harder than aluminum began to ruin the threads on the pan. Really no need to cool down with engine at idle on the turbo's now...a fan kicks in when necessary, even after the engine is shut off...but after a really spirited drive, I always idle out of habit and it can't be hurting anything. Hmmm, synthetics....there are so many opinions on this that I feel that no one is really 100% right or wrong. Anyway, it's more important on a turbo to run synthetic due to the heat and possibility of coking, but the main reason I do it is that there is less clogging up of the pcv system with synthetics and I don't have to change my oil so often. I try to change at 5K miles (every-other month with my 100 mile a day commute). On older Volvo's, even my S70 from '98, regular oils seem to cake up in the small vacuum hoses, and the exhaust that is re-routed back to the engine for emissions purposes doesn't even make it to the oil trap/separator when this happens. Then, the rear main seals tend to get blown on these cars...so the synthetic oil is preventative maintenance for me. By the way, Volvo did away with the flame trap all together during their last few years of the 850's, and that's carried over to the 70 series P2's (ours) as well.
VADIS is the Volvo Aftersales Diagnostic and Infomation Systems software....what the dealer used until just a few months ago in their parts and service departments, to do everything from ordering to the "how's" of routine to very detailed repairs. It lists recalls, part numbers and the like and has a decent search engine. Currently Volvo uses VIDA (sorry, don't know what this one stands for) so essentially VADIS is easily obtainable from eBay and folks aren't seeing that using it is such an infringement on Volvo as before. It comes on a DVD and takes up a good bit of your hard drive space to install it, so be prepared for that. If you get one of these discs, make sure it covers your car, so buy one that's at least a '04 version. VADIS covers all but the very earliest Volvo's in this one package, so it will include your other volvo's as well.
Hope all of this information is helpful to you. You're always welcome to email me if you wish. Just click on the envelope next to my name.
David in East TN.
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1998 S70 T5 Emarald Green Metallic, 2004 V70 2.5T Ruby Red, Previous Owner of Black '94 850 Turbo Wagon. My cars have been running so well lately they've got me worried.
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