XC70: General 2014 XC70 D5 - Performance Improvement Parts

[Agro]

G'day from Australia.

I'm looking to boost the performance of my XC70 and keen to receive some recommendations on what I could do to, and where the best (reputable) places would be to purchase components online.

There seems to be a great number of modules/chips offered out there at wide ranging prices and making all sorts of claims. Would be interested to know if anyone has any of these and what their respective experience has been.

[Tannaton]

Polestar all the way if you want sensible, reliable improvements....

[Tatsfield]

+1 on the Polestar software upgrade. In the UK it is a bit expensive for what it is but it is Volvo's own tuning mod and does not compromise the engine, remains in the ECU after routine ECU software upgrades and gives my cross country furniture van as much extra push as I could possibly use on public roads without losing my licence! For 15 years I ran a Peugeot 406 petrol V6 Coupe putting out 230 bhp and I can say that the XC70 with Polestar accelerates better and handles as well. It doesn't look as sexy but it has a brutal charm. And it's a very safe car.

[mhon72]

D5 in Australia? That must be rare, isn't petrol still more popular out there?

Anyway, as you've got the D5 I'd +1 for the Polestar option which will give you 230bhp vs 215bhp standard. Not a huge gain but the power delivery is so much better.

If you had the detuned D4 AWD I might have suggested a PPC unit from BSR as you would get the full beans up to 245bhp the same as if it was a tuned D5. Polestar will only tune a D4 AWD up to the stock D5 power output is.
Plus the PPC unit allows you to remove/upload/update your tuning map to car yourself so less worries of it being lost after a trip to Volvo.

[Agro]

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Thanks guys. I've thought about Polestar but the performance gain seems to be quite insignificant, especially when compared with its cost ($1200 here). No one seems to be able to tell me what it does specifically other change the gearing to hold revs a little longer - there must be more to it but if that's all it does then I can do that in sports mode.

Was hoping there was something out there of better value.

Originally Posted by mhon72

D5 in Australia? That must be rare, isn't petrol still more popular out there?

Diesel has become quite popular here; our fuel gets taxed quite heavily here also.

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[simboc2004]

There's a great video on Youtube posted by Volvosweden (he's Russian, living in Canada...!) about adding Polestar to his 2013 T6 XC70. I know it's a different engine (and fuel), but the general "is it worth it" debate is applicable to a D5 too.

[mhon72]

Originally Posted by Agro

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Thanks guys. I've thought about Polestar but the performance gain seems to be quite insignificant, especially when compared with its cost ($1200 here). No one seems to be able to tell me what it does specifically other change the gearing to hold revs a little longer - there must be more to it but if that's all it does then I can do that in sports mode.

Was hoping there was something out there of better value.

With Polestar it's not about headline figures but more about improving how the engine delivers its performance.
Sadly Polestar no longer have the power graphs to hand anymore. When my V70 D5 with the 205bhp engine was upgraded I recall the graphs showed the increased power & torque peaking a little sooner and being sustained for a little longer with a flatter torque curve.
Polestar doesn't upgrade the auto 'box in the 5 cylinder models but the auto adapts to the new power map, eg. it is less likely to kickdown as it rides the increase in torque.

[Agro]

I think if I went down the Polestar road I'd feel like I'd been fleeced.

Has anyone here got some direct experience with BSR Tuning? They're represented here and seem to have a variety of options with some superior numbers - https://www.bsrtuning.com.au/tuning-...14/XC70-III/D5

They state that the engine control unit needs to be decoded. Can anyone explain what this means.

I'll give them a call but I'd prefer unbiased comments.

[Tatsfield]

A$895 isn't much more than I paid for my Polestar which is an approved Volvo upgrade and cannot be deleted from the ECU when routine ECU upgrades are loaded. Not saying BSR aren't good chip tuners but they aren't cheap either. Also I don't understand their pricing as stage 3 gives exactly the same upgrade as Stage 1 and costs an eye watering A$2074 which twice what I paid for my Polestar!

[mhon72]

Originally Posted by Agro

I think if I went down the Polestar road I'd feel like I'd been fleeced.

Has anyone here got some direct experience with BSR Tuning? They're represented here and seem to have a variety of options with some superior numbers - https://www.bsrtuning.com.au/tuning-...14/XC70-III/D5

They state that the engine control unit needs to be decoded. Can anyone explain what this means.

I'll give them a call but I'd prefer unbiased comments.

$1200 AUD is about £650-700 GBP which is the typical price here in the UK. If shopping around we can get maybe a couple hundred off with a dealer running a promotion.
I still say it's worth it at full price as the driving is chalk and cheese.
Polestar here do a 14 day returns policy where you can try it and have it removed if you don't like it. Perhaps find out directly from Polestar if it's available in Oz before raising it with your dealer.

The ECU in the P3 Volvo is encrypted meaning 3rd party tuners do not have access to the engine management system. Only Polestar has this facility which is why Volvo dealers can install it.
In order to bypass the encryption the ECU has to be removed and physically hacked in order to allow access via the OBD2.
I'm not sure if this hack is detectable by a Volvo dealer or whether VDASH would allow similar access without the removing the ECU.

The beauty of the BSR system is it uses a handheld PPC unit that allows you to remove/reload the upgraded mapping as and when. For example, the dealer does a vehicle update and wipes the upgrade map.
My wife has a Ford C-Max with a similar Bluefin device from Superchips that works really well especially as the tuner could upload customised maps to the device. Originally when we looked at these this car needed a similar hack to the ECU but a later version of the device (which we have) seemed to have a bypass to work around this lock.