[geokilla]

Canadian 2012 S60 T5 Level II Owner and Impression (Sensus and Transmission Annoyances!)

http://imageshack.us/g/21/p1030707dd.jpg/

This is a Canadian 2012 Volvo S60 T5 Level II with a Electric Silver paint job. It is bone stock with no options or packages on it whatsoever. Honestly, we don't need the packages. The car has more than enough "games" and features on it. We took delivery of the car on June 28, so we've had the car with one week. I've been driving it the most so far, but my mom will become the principal driver once we wax the car. Reason for waxing is because the paint ain't as smooth as it could be. Maybe someone can give some waxing tips?

Driving wise, I find the card to be a bit hard to drive smoothly. Accelerating, it'll rev up and go pretty quickly in the first 2 gears when you're accelerating from a red light, but then the power falls down and I have to floor it a bit more to keep the revs up. I still have plenty of torque though. In fact, I can easily get onto highway ramp speeds during this break in period without having to floor the car past 3000RPM. I also find the transmission to shift pretty slowly. It'll sometimes hold onto 5th gear for 2 seconds at 70Km/h when it should be in 6th gear. It may be that the transmission is an adaptive one so it'll take some time to get used to our driving habits. As for braking, I don't like the smooth stop feature. I myself like to smooth-stop by controlling the brake pressure with my foot, so sometimes when I'm braking, I actually have to increase pressure on the brakes instead of decreasing pressure to make sure I come to a full stop in the S60. Other times, I actually come to a stop, then the car creeps forward, again due to the smooth stop feature. I did notice that when driving on the road, the car feels quite fat so I actually have to sit closer to the left in my lane than I usually do in order to stay in the middle of the lane, otherwise it feels like I'm sitting too far right in my lane. All of this is quite annoying but not a deal breaker. The ride quality is pretty good, but I think the suspension can be a tad firmer.

Now about the car's features, the Volvo "iDrive (what's it called?)" system is actually pretty easy to use thanks to the steering wheel controls. The 6 speaker sound system is amazing and I didn't even properly calibrate it yet. I like how it has BT audio along with USB and AUX audio input. And speaking of BT, I also like how it can read the phonebook and last people that you called directly on the phone. On my dad's G37S, it only reads the last people that you called in the car and not on the phone. There are many other features about the car, but I won't be talking about them because I haven't really gotten a chance to play with them yet.

Now I got a question. How do you keep the driver side windshield wipers up? I tried doing that today when I washed the car, but couldn't so I added a bit of force. Ended up scratching the paint of the car. Luckily I got a touch up paint pen >.>

 

[plummerl]

http://img851.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=p1030707l.jpg

....

Now I got a question. How do you keep the driver side windshield wipers up? I tried doing that today when I washed the car, but couldn't so I added a bit of force. Ended up scratching the paint of the car. Luckily I got a touch up paint pen >.>

Look in the manual under "Wiper blades and washer fluid" for "Service position". This will park the blades in a vertical position.

 

[mooooz]

Hey which dealership did you buy from? Was it a good price? I am going to buy one soon too.

 

[jnusaputra]

you actually took delivery of the car? i thought you were trying not take delivery on it? what did you with the s70?

go to unionville. i am sure geokilla can give you the name. I also bought 3 cars off unionville in the last 3 years.

 

[geokilla]

Hey which dealership did you buy from? Was it a good price? I am going to buy one soon too.

Volvo of Unionville. Here's a post. http://forums.redflagdeals.com/volv...-unionville-great-car-buying-experience-dvn-hyundai-average-experience-1054041/

you actually took delivery of the car? i thought you were trying not take delivery on it? what did you with the s70?

go to unionville. i am sure geokilla can give you the name. I also bought 3 cars off unionville in the last 3 years.

RFD member eh. Yea we have the S70 for now. Will be used for the rest of summer at the very least.

Btw photos are down. I didn't edit out my license plate cus I got lazy and RFD members were like "oh I'm gonna profit with it."

 

[geokilla]

Pictures are back up.

Another thing I noticed is that the car lacks an engine thermostat. I have no idea when the car is warmed up or if it's going to overheat. It's also a bit annoying not knowing if the car is locked or not when you get out of the car. Sometimes it auto locks, sometimes it doesn't. So to be on the safe side, I take out my key and lock the door just in case it didn't auto lock. I also found that you need quite a bit of force to close the door, even though it makes that "thump" sound which usually indicates that the door is closed.

Oh and I filled the car up today with 89 octane fuel and realized that the fuel cover is fairly deep. I was scared that the nozzle wasn't fully in and that gas would spill out so I had to lift it up and push it in instead of normally just letting it rest on the car to fill it up.

Does anyone know how to fix the annoying transmission shifting and disable braking smooth-stop feature? I'm hoping there will be software updates soon, but how would I know if my car is up to date?

 

[mooooz]

Pictures are back up.

Another thing I noticed is that the car lacks an engine thermostat. I have no idea when the car is warmed up or if it's going to overheat. It's also a bit annoying not knowing if the car is locked or not when you get out of the car. Sometimes it auto locks, sometimes it doesn't. So to be on the safe side, I take out my key and lock the door just in case it didn't auto lock. I also found that you need quite a bit of force to close the door, even though it makes that "thump" sound which usually indicates that the door is closed.

Oh and I filled the car up today with 89 octane fuel and realized that the fuel cover is fairly deep. I was scared that the nozzle wasn't fully in and that gas would spill out so I had to lift it up and push it in instead of normally just letting it rest on the car to fill it up.

Does anyone know how to fix the annoying transmission shifting and disable braking smooth-stop feature? I'm hoping there will be software updates soon, but how would I know if my car is up to date?

Mind telling me your final price? If you are doing finance what is your monthly payment?
You can PM me if you want

 

[stormlv]

Pictures are back up.

Another thing I noticed is that the car lacks an engine thermostat. I have no idea when the car is warmed up or if it's going to overheat. It's also a bit annoying not knowing if the car is locked or not when you get out of the car. Sometimes it auto locks, sometimes it doesn't. So to be on the safe side, I take out my key and lock the door just in case it didn't auto lock. I also found that you need quite a bit of force to close the door, even though it makes that "thump" sound which usually indicates that the door is closed.
...
Does anyone know how to fix the annoying transmission shifting and disable braking smooth-stop feature? ...

The thermostat thing it's a bummer yeah, but can't do anything about it.

About the central locking (at least for the EU market), you have the blinking light in the middle of the dash, under the windshield, which tells you if the car is locked or not...

 

[geokilla]

The thermostat thing it's a bummer yeah, but can't do anything about it.

About the central locking (at least for the EU market), you have the blinking light in the middle of the dash, under the windshield, which tells you if the car is locked or not...

Yea NA cars have it too, but it's hard to see from the side when you have a sun shade

Time to RTFM this week. Does Volvo send out notices if there are software updates?

 

[geokilla]

Was playing with Geartronic today in stop and go traffic and the shifts are pretty slow. There must be a second delay when I request a shift and waiting for the shift to actually happen. But then it seems that all family/luxury automatics with a manumatic modes are like that.

Still can't find the Eco DRIVe mode and disappointed that DSTC cannot be fully switched off, despite Volvo advertising the car as being naughty. I also miss the real handbrake and not some electronic one that every automaker is in love with right now.

Anyone know how long it'll take for the adaptive transmission to adapt?

 

[geokilla]

I think the torque converter locks in 3rd gear, not 2nd as I previous reported. When pulling away from a light, as the car shifts from 2nd to 3rd, the revs continue to drop a bit before continuing to increase. The car still accelerates though so whatever. It's just like how our S70, the revs drop a bit in 4th gear even when accelerating at highway speeds.

And as you guys may have seen from my other thread, there is no Eco DRIVe mode.

 

[geokilla]

I noticed something annoying about the radio when the car is in ignition mode 1. When I wash the car, I normally take at least an hour to wash it so I have the radio on and listen to it as I wash the car. Every 20 minutes or so, the radio turns off by itself so I have to go in and turn it back in. It's fairly annoying and I'm hoping that there will be a fix for this soon. I haven't finished reading the manual yet, but skimming the Infotainment section, I haven't found anything on this. Maybe it's in a menu in the Infotainment.

Also noticed that while I can stream music via BT from my Galaxy S, it's quite obvious that the audio quality is not as good as when using USB or AUX. I tried to connect my Galaxy S to the car using AUX and force it to play music via AUX instead of Bluetooth, but it just doesn't work. Does anyone know of a workaround?

 

[geokilla]

Copied and pasted from RFD:

Would also like to add that we passed the 1000km mark and found out that the car has automatic headlights, tail lights, dashboard, everything. I can also confirm that when the car is slowing down at around 45km and going from I believe 5th to 4th gear, the downshift is not as smooth as it could be and there's quite a bit of engine braking when the downshift occurs. And as for the torque converter, I think it's actually kicking in when the car accelerates past around 40km/h, and not in the third gear like I previous reported. I'm gonna have to do more driving and observation in order to get a good answer.

The seats are very comfortable as expected of Volvo, and inside it is very roomy and big despite being a couple inches shorter than our S70. This must be due to the longer wheelbase, which unfortunately leads to a large turning circle. Too bad Volvo engineers couldn't keep it tight like the S70.Oh, and my friend loves the interior space, especially the rear. Why? Lots of space = good fun

 

[DecoLingo]

I noticed something annoying about the radio when the car is in ignition mode 1. When I wash the car, I normally take at least an hour to wash it so I have the radio on and listen to it as I wash the car. Every 20 minutes or so, the radio turns off by itself so I have to go in and turn it back in. It's fairly annoying and I'm hoping that there will be a fix for this soon. I haven't finished reading the manual yet, but skimming the Infotainment section, I haven't found anything on this. Maybe it's in a menu in the Infotainment.

Preferable to my experience with my 2003 V70 a few years ago -- Premium Sound (so the big, power-sucking amp) and a 3.5 hour car-detailing session, and I had a dead battery. My own stupidity, but I think if I'd had to turn the radio back on ten times I might have thought twice...

 

[geokilla]

Took the car to Volvo Unionville to get the AC, driver side seat belt rattle, transmission checked, and to see if there were any software updates. They wouldn't do a software update even though it's available. Their excuse was that due to the construction, they didn't want to risk bricking the car.

I wanted to get the AC checked because it didn't feel cold enough during the heat wave last week. The mechanic came on a test drive and with his long temperature gauge, the air was blowing at 5C so it was very good. Guess the heat wave was too much for the car last week. Also wanted to get the transmission checked because as I reported before, it wasn't smooth shifting from 5th to 4th while letting the car coast. The mechanic said it was fine so I guess I can't do anything about that.

I can't get the smooth stop braking feature disabled either. Guess I'll just have to get used to it with my right foot.

 

[geokilla]

After some more driving, it seems that the S60 might not have a smooth stop braking feature after all. When I was creeping uphill the other day, the car jerked a bit just before coming to a stop. It's the exact same kind of jerk that I thought was associated with the smooth stop braking. I have no clue what it is, and the Volvo mechanic didn't understand it either even though he was able to come to a stop pretty smoothly and slowly a couple times when I told him to drive smoother and less with such a heavy foot.

After tackling a couple of 270 degree highway on ramps, the transmission is VERY slow to shift. It doesn't shift smoothly either. That or it's just the sudden surge in acceleration which I rarely get to feel since my S70 is so underpowered.

 

[geokilla]

Took the car to Volvo Villa today to do all the software updates and stuff just before school starts. Turns out there was none. Volvo HQ didn't document it properly and apparently my car is currently all up to date.

I noticed that when I plug in my USB, it sometimes won't read my MP3 songs correctly and the infotainment system won't play it at all. The USB will constantly be read by the car, but nothing happens. Or it just skips to the next song that it can play Even though my songs are Korean, half of them have English file names so I don't know what gives. And yes the songs work on my computer, and they are all MP3 format.

With regards to the "difficulty coming to a smooth stop", I noticed that if I put the car in Sport/Manual mode and come to a stop, I don't have any trouble dealing with smooth stops. I can in fact ease off the brakes instead of adding more pressure, nor do I have to worry about the car easing forward after I have come to a stop. Weird.

Edit: I'm considering changing the engine oil at 6000km. I read here that Volvo doesn't use synthetic oil, so 12,000 oil change intervals is a bit extreme. What do you think? MagoonR says to do it now!

 

[EngTech]

Your Smooth Stop Issue ?

OK , My God this is sooooo - Painful , Please read Up on The Proper way to Break-In a New Motor , Brakes , and Transmission !

When You break a Motor in which It sounds like You - You need to change the Oil Early , but not to early . Hit on Break In ( The Throttle is a Hammer ! )
Your statement : I still have plenty of torque though. In fact, I can easily get onto highway ramp speeds during this break in period without having to floor the car past 3000RPM .

Gradual Building Up RPM , and Throttle Inputs are Recommended.

Make Sure You get all the Transmission and Braking Issues Documented at Volvo - in case You have issues later on .
If the Brakes weren't Bedded In Properly - You could have Material Transfer - between the Pads Rotors Building Up .

Your Smooth Stop Issue ?
Sounds like a slightly high idle - ask to have it adjusted by the ECU Tech .

 

[geokilla]

OK , My God this is sooooo - Painful , Please read Up on The Proper way to Break-In a New Motor , Brakes , and Transmission !

When You break a Motor in which It sounds like You - You need to change the Oil Early , but not to early . Hit on Break In ( The Throttle is a Hammer ! )
Your statement : I still have plenty of torque though. In fact, I can easily get onto highway ramp speeds during this break in period without having to floor the car past 3000RPM .

Gradual Building Up RPM , and Throttle Inputs are Recommended.

Make Sure You get all the Transmission and Braking Issues Documented at Volvo - in case You have issues later on .
If the Brakes weren't Bedded In Properly - You could have Material Transfer - between the Pads Rotors Building Up .

Your Smooth Stop Issue ?
Sounds like a slightly high idle - ask to have it adjusted by the ECU Tech .

It was a gradual build up of RPM. I didn't put it in sport mode and force the transmission to stay below 3000 RPM while going full throttle lol.

As for the transmission shifting from 5th to 4th and producing a slight jerk like there's a light of engine braking, problem is still there. Dealer says it's normal and that it's a great car. Test driver seemed like he didn't care. With the smooth stop, I think it's just that in 1st gear, the transmission slips a lot more or something as it doesn't seem to shift to first unless it's almost at a complete stop. I doubt it's a high idle as the engine idles at around 700RPM.

Speaking of the transmission. I was accelerating from a standstill from 0 to 80Km/h and I stayed in 4th gear for a good 2 to 3 seconds after reaching 80Km/h, then it shifted to 5th. Then it stayed in 5th a good 2/3 seconds before shifting to 6th. Even my S70 with the 5 speed auto responds faster than that. This is like moving backwards in technology and time, not forward!

Same for the highway driving today. Used sport mode and put it in 3rd while countering a highway on-ramp going at 80Km/h. Full throttle and I reach 130Km/h and didn't even know till I see it. I push it up 3 times, and it must've took a total of 5 seconds to go from 3rd gear to 6th. Why the slow response?!

 

[hellowolo]

Speaking of the transmission. I was accelerating from a standstill from 0 to 80Km/h and I stayed in 4th gear for a good 2 to 3 seconds after reaching 80Km/h, then it shifted to 5th. Then it stayed in 5th a good 2/3 seconds before shifting to 6th. Even my S70 with the 5 speed auto responds faster than that. This is like moving backwards in technology and time, not forward!

Same for the highway driving today. Used sport mode and put it in 3rd while countering a highway on-ramp going at 80Km/h. Full throttle and I reach 130Km/h and didn't even know till I see it. I push it up 3 times, and it must've took a total of 5 seconds to go from 3rd gear to 6th. Why the slow response?!

I don't see why this a problem, in fact it sounds like a desirable thing to have in an automatic transmission. You just accelerated and the car wasn't sure if you were done or not. I'd much rather have it wait a few seconds and have the power remain there in case I needed to immediately get back on it. This is especially true in merging scenarios or hill climbing.

As for 3 gear changes in 5 seconds... It's not a DCT after all, and I'm not sure why soft highway-speed shifts need to be lightning fast?