New XC60...When can I floor it?

[Aidan Bell]

Firstly I agree with Vecais that modern cars respond better to vigourous driving, and secondly "Running In" new engines is a thing of the past and has been for several years. There are several very solid arguments for driving a new vehicle carefully until you're used to it, but as far as the engine is concerned yes, you can floor it from day one.

[Jaymz]

A simple example for you [wall of text follows]

My father has worked for a mitsubishi dealer for what feels like the last century

In 1988 he had a brand new Colt GTi as a company car

The same day off the same transporter came an identical one that went to a gentleman [about my fathers age at the time]

12 months later my fathers Colt was replaced with a galant GTi 4WD 4WS

and the gentlemans colt was traded in for a newer model

both vehicles had roughly the same milage of 10k, same service history from the same place

The only difference was the driver

The cars mechanically were a world apart, my fathers colt was driven at warp speed everywhere, from day one he span the tyres in a huge cloud of smoke off the forecourt when it had 3miles on the clock and redlined every gear apart from 5th as he went on his merry way. It was like a fookin rocket. All it ever required was two tyres and a service in the time of his ownership

The other car had a list of bills longer than FSH 244, it was forever going wrong, it was of course driven within the 'safe' limits for the required mileage and never driven hard.

But the biggest amazement was when the two cars were put side by side in a for fun mini lunch time drag race, my fathers colt flew and left the other one standing

The other chugged along unhappily in comparison, when the two cars were dyno'd my days was spot on the money, the other in 12 months had lost 13 of its ponies

[bluesnappa]

...adaptive engine and gear box...clever eh? I will need to look into exactly what that means/does and then...I'll meatloaf it...like a bat out of hell.

[Clan]

Its not rpm which you need to monitor , let it rev freely as long as the load is partial . you need to refrain from using full torque at low rpm , but with this engine thats not easy to do as the rpm increses so quickly .
Just drive it normaly , and avoid driving at 130 mph on full load for long periods until after the first service ...

[Teejay1]

Originally Posted by Clan

Its not rpm which you need to monitor , let it rev freely as long as the load is partial . you need to refrain form using full torque at low rpm , but with this engine thats not easy to do as the rpm increses so quickly .
Just drive it normaly , and avoid driving at 130 mph on full load for long periods until after the first service ...

What exactly does all of that mean?

[NewVolvo]

Originally Posted by Teejay1

What exactly does all of that mean?

Completely opposite to what the Germans would do!

[Clan]

Originally Posted by NewVolvo

Completely opposite to what the Germans would do!

Not at all!
Just drive it normaly , and avoid driving at 130 mph on full throttle for long periods until after the first service ...

Driving on full throttle for long periods at high speed with a new engine will NOT do it any good , ( not talking about racing engines here which have larger piston clearances ) I've seen a new volvo emergency services D5 melt 2 pistons due to doing this !

A general member of the public wont be able to do this in UK of course , and due to the gearing of a D5 its going to be very hard to damage a new engine however you drive it .

[Vecais]

An overview of engine control: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_Control_Unit

My other car (Hyundai Santa Fe) develops a flat spot in acceleration and the gear changes become clunky after months of driving in traffic constrained conditions. Initially I took it back a few times to the dealer who magically restored it to original.

I found the trick is to pull the fuse from the ECM unit to reset it. Replace the fuse and drive vigorously for the initial trip. This gives months of smooth and responsive driving.

So far, I have not felt the need to do anything similar to the XC60 that remains as good as new.

[NewVolvo]

Originally Posted by Clan

A general member of the public wont be able to do this in UK of course , and due to the gearing of a D5 its going to be very hard to damage a new engine however you drive it .

Very true.

Is the D5 generally geared that way or just when new?

I am asking as I have had my XC60 D5 flat out on the limiter (130mph) in Germany a couple of times already, with low mileage on the clock (4K the first time). Got there pretty quick too!