Picked up an S90 with 83k miles with an intermittent lifter tick.

It seems to go away once the engine is warm, but sometimes it will come back even when warm. Any ideas how to resolve this? I am not sure what weight oil is in it now...maybe a heavier weight oil would help?

Thanks!

Any luck with the lifter noise?

jwalker, the car is not inspected yet - I've been working on jobs that would prevent it from passing first! I will report back when I change the oil. Thanks for your concern!

A "heavier" (higher viscosity) oil is definitely not your answer. I always used synthetic Mobil-1 5W30 in my S90. It had a valve train slight ticking noise at cold start, but this disappeared early during warmup. You want the lightest oil that will still do the job at the highest temperatures you expect to see. Synthetic 5W30 will cover this.

Give it an oil and filter change and a good highway run. An "Italian tune-up" may help. This involves high RPM for a period of time, such as locking it in 3rd gear at highway speeds...3500-4000RPM or so for a few minutes. This won't hurt the engine and will result in rapid oil flow through the hydraulic adjusters (aka "lifters").

Just for info, the owner's manual for my 2016 XC60 T6 with a derivative of your inline 6 cyl under the hood, specifies synthetic 5W30 oil ONLY.
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Son's XC70, my 83 244DL, 89 745 (Chev LT-1 V8), and XC60. Also '77 MGB and four old motorcycles. Long gone: 1981 244, 1994 940 and 1998 S90.

There is a discussion of this issue on Matthews Volvo site.

One recommendation is 10-30 semi synthetic - Valvoline semi is what my dealer put in older cars like 850s.

If you do not know what oil is in your car, I think that an oil and filter change is a good step - 10-30 or 10-40 depending on your temperature range. It is too bad that many members don't tell us where they live.

One of our 850s developed a lifter tick on startup after the car went some extra time between oil changes, after my daughter returned from a summer near Edmonton, Alberta. 10- 30 semi cured the problem in about 1000 miles.

Your owners manual may address this issue, saying that some ticking upon startup is not a serious issue.

Most likely since the car hasn't been driven much gunk has built up on the lifters. Probably from conventional oil usage.

First, try taking the car for a long highway trip and do your best to keep the revs above 2500 rpm's in an effort to heat up and clean the engine.

Had similar problem with my 93 850 about 10 years ago. As I recall, I did a quick cleaning with Marvel Mystery Oil. Add recommended amount (1 quart I believe) to a conventional oil change. Run 500 miles then switch to synthetic. That did the trick on the 850!

Another option would be to do a cleaning with Auto-RX.

Heavier oil is death for an engine like that flush it competely.Change to a very good synthetic oil.THAT will get into the tight little places,