MPG, Performance and maintenance questions
 

Hi folks, have recently purchased a 2008 D5 2.4 automatic volvo. Now, baring in mind I am not a mechanically minded person, I have a few questions I was hoping someone can help me with!

I checked online and the reported MPG figures are 45~ ish.

On some motorway runs, I will get this. Other times, doing the same run at the same speed, same load, I will get 38. In short, my MPG seems to be quite inconsistent.

My tyres are kept at the right pressure, and smooth driving on all runs. I read up that the DPF cleaning process can cause an impact on the economy, how often should this happen roughly? Is there a point where the DPF needs some kind of intensive clean or, heaven forbid, replacement as it becomes to blocked to clean itself?

The car has a full service history, but as with anything, there is no way of telling how reliable this is! What serviceable parts would play a leading role in economy?

The other question I have is regarding performance.
If I plant my foot, the car handles like the Starship Enterprise on steroids.
Average driving, everything is fine.
When pulling away, 1st and second gear pull fine with medium/heavy acceleration, but gentle acceleration feels a bit sluggish and hollow. Is this normal?

If I have not mentioned anything I should have, let me know and I'll add it. Thanks for taking the time to read :-)

I had the manual 2008 v70 d5 and mpg was around 38 before that a 2003 s60 d5 and on the s60 was more powerful and less thirsty but the v70 is a great car to drive.

To answer a couple of your questions ...

The car's brain measures the soot level in the dpf and at the point it reaches a certain level (weight) it will initiate a regeneration itself ... but it will only do this under certain operating conditions - Temperatres etc. (you will see a drop in MPG when this is happening) It's entirely possible that the DPF has reached this level but the car itself hasn't met the criteria for regeneration, at this point the soot continues to build in the DPF so when the car finally does do a Regen it struggles to clear all the soot. This happens more to cars which don't see any motorway action very often. It's possible you're in this situation. The good news is that the DPF can be removed and cleaned relatively easily, I've just done mine ... there's a thread here ...

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showt...dpf+deep+clean

With regard to your throttle response queries ... These common rail diesels are 100% electronic, your accelerator pedal just sends an electronic signal to the engine and tells it what to do.
If you jus press the pedal lightly, the car thinks you want to drive along gently ... if you want the 'go' you have to ask for it. The fact that it goes well under moderate / hard throttle indicates that the car appears to be running as it should.