So I have had my 2000 S40 for a month now. I bought it to be eventually used by my daughter. So I'm commuting with it to get it ready for her!

Well, it is interesting to see what can be done to a car by a shoddy mechanic!! The previous owner thought the car was a lemon...and I can see why! Whoever this poor soul was bringing it to had put spark plugs in without setting the gap, left a faulty coil go unnoticed and the real bungle was when he tried to reseal the turbo oil return line by smearing RTV around it!!! It'll take weeks to get rid of the burnt oil smell...

So I've fixed all that...and the car is running pretty well...getting 35 mpg+ on the highway!

But one last niggling problem is a low speed vibration I get when I accelerate that happens at about 20-25 mph and then goes away. Engine mount perhaps? CV's? The car has 75,000 miles on it...is it time for either to fail?

Cheers,

Steve

congrats on your s40. first, check the easy, are your tires even? meaning are the tread patterns worn evenly. if not, you might be out of alignment. while it is up in the air, check out the cv's.

Tires are nice new Michelins...at the proper presure. I'm noticing a vibration at idle now too....so I'll get underneath again and look at the motor mounts. Mounts are tough to diagnose unless they are totally shot...but I'll see what's up. My understanding is the right side and front mounts are the most likely suspects.

I see a pretty wide range of prices for the mounts...are those inexpensive ones on eBay really OEM quality?

Thanks,

Steve

best place that i have found is fcpgroton.com easily the least expensive for OEM parts. i have bought quality parts and crappy parts off of ebay. 50-50 chance. the crappy ones usually are inferior repops of the factory or aftermarket stuff. you can give it a try, but still check out fcp since all of theirs are the OEM stuff without dealer markup.

Thanks....I'll check out FCP. Somehow my account at the local Volvo dealer got tagged to get mechanics prices...so they've actually gotten pretty competitive now. I'm not asking any questions!

What are people doing for a decent repair manual? I've looked around for the standbys like Haynes or Chiltons...nothing to be found.

-Steve

Other than pouring life savings into the green factory manuals by Volvo, the big blue Bentley Books are pretty good. A little vague here and there but pretty good. They are also another little item that you can find at FCP Groton for a better price than I paid for mine.

-Scott

I just checked FCP Groton for "any" manual for the S40...no luck, nothing comes up!

Has anyone tried the CD's that people advertise on eBay? I'd like to have SOMETHING...thus far I'm just flying blind! Of course after the 944 just about anything seems simpler to work on!!

8^)