New V70 owner: advice needed!

[graphnic]

Sorry to re-hijack the thread , but just wanted to post and update to my OP.

I took the D3 up to Avalon in Sywell (Nothants) yesterday and had them do a the full cambelt kit, a full service, the rear trailing arm bushes and a full geatronic flush. Aside from coming out considerably poorer, the experience was very positive. The folks at Avalon certainly know their Volvos and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

The car drive much better now. The geatronic also received a software update, and that combined with the flush has made the already generally smooth transmission feel much younger. My only gripe with it previously was that at low speeds around town it used to hunt around for the right gear a little too often. It was as if you had caught it out. This seems to but much less apparent now. I'm not sure if that down the the shifts being smoother, or software predicting the necessary gear more accurately... but it's better, so all good.

A general full service has quietened down the engine considerably, especially at speed. And the annoying squeak from the rear end was resolved by changing the bushes. The cost of this was covered by the selling dealer, which was a nice bonus given the cost of everything else!

It has been interesting to read about other members' Polestar experience here. I almost booked mine in, but didn't and now the price has gone back up! I spoke to the folks at Avalon about it, and from what I could gather (in response to an earlier discussion in this megathread), it is possible for an independent specialist to 'order' it, but Volvo only offer the competitive pricing to main dealers. So I guess it is never something that is worthwhile. At least I think this is the gist of what they was saying, it was a fleeting conversation as I was leaving.

Anyway, enough of this and back to exhausts!

[bananarama]

Originally Posted by Tatsfield

You do raise a doubt in my logic. My previous cars were petrol engined and it is possible that diesel engines do not suffer from such restrictions although logically at some point in the rev range a restrictive filter might reduce the induction rate. To fess up, I put in Polestar in my D5 but am happy with the original filter and original twin silencer system as the engine provides more than enough power for my usage.

My logic seems sound, but maybe the factory filter and air box are actually restrictive enough to be a bottle neck at 4000rpm? No idea...

As for the exhaust, a 10bhp increase for the Jetex setup is significant! I agree with simboc2004; the factory setup is a bottle neck, somehow creating enough back pressure to restrict the turbo spinning up etc.