I’ve done a few oil changes but every time the oil capacity trips me up and I end up checking with the dipstick 10 times. Don’t want annoyance of measuring what drains out. IIRC its something between 5.7-7.1 liters. and IIRC I usually end up putting between 6.5-6.8 liters in. I swear I make a note of how much I put in each time, but when the time comes I can’t find my note and I’m back at square one just like now lol.

Quick reply would be much appreciated as I’m about to start now

 

I do it very simple, after replacing the filter, draining the oil, replacing the crush washer and putting back the drain plug (very important, don't ask why......). I put 6 qts (5.67 liters) of new oil in the engine, because the total capacity according to manual is 6.1 qts (5.77 liters). For me, it's extremely difficult to mess it up because always use a 5 Qts. jug and a 1 Qt. bottle. The difference between MAX and MIN lines on the dipstick is 1.4 Qts (1.32 liters). That means that just to get to the MIN line, I'll need at least 4.7 qts (4.44 liters) of oil, which is covered by the big jug. Then I pour the 1 Qt bottle and that would leave me extremely close to the MAX line. Then I check the level a few hours later (if I'm bored) or just next day and I top it off as necessary. There have been a few times that I used 6.5qts, when I normally use 6.3, but it really depends of how much I let the oil drain.

If you only get the oil by liters (4 or 5L jugs), just pour 5.5 liters (it's 95% of the total capacity) or heck, just do 5 liters (86% total capacity) that's even easier to remember: 1 liter per cylinder. -5 cylinders? then 5 Liters. You can't go wrong.

 

Thanks for the reply

Dude, I’ve done oil changes on everything from diesels to different types of cars over the years, and for some reason this is the only car that really trips me up cause of different info everywhere.

I’ve done 4 oil changes on this car since I’ve owned and today I took extra time to see how much I put it. (i did the other times as well, but lost my notes). multiple cycles and rpms with the car on then off, then waiting for everything to settle for a while and checking again.

I have again ended up putting 6.8 liters in (7.18 quarts). The cars been fine for 15-20,000 km of hard driving and proper warm up. Based on what your saying it would be fine with less. So either I’ve done it right, and I’m very careful with amount. or I’ve been putting in too much and will blow seals eventually. For me the dipstick doesn’t lie. And that’s what I followed. Lol the oil change on this car continues to be mystery for me. Maybe next time I’ll put in less...

Jug is 4.73 litres and when I live in Canada my brain is metric. When in US for a while I become imperial mind. using the marks on the mobil 1 bottle is doable, and this is where I ended up...

Also, before changing the oil, I check every once in a while, and my last oil change (which I’m now almost sure was 6.5-6.8 liters as well). Had me about 3/4 of the way up on the xx hash marks on the dipstick after 7000 kilometers and no oil added or drained during that 7000 kilometer interval

 

Also, if anyone else uses the mobil bottle can confirm, I may be mistaking the amount due to the fact that I am assuming the top line on the litre markings on the bottle up to the cap is the ‘0.73’. and the other four markings are true ‘1.0’ litres

 

6.8 liters of oil and it was at 3/4 dipstick?? Something is not right there........

This is the dipstick of mine, make sure yours measures the same:

Those jugs say 4.73L / 5 U.S. Qts, I can read them from here........ in that case, save one of them and next time get a 946ml (1 U.S. Qt). Fill both and use them to pour oil in the engine, you can't go wrong with that.......

 

I was hoping I had the wrong dipstick. Just took the pic.

Maybe I have committed a mathematical retardation someone will pick up on. These are the bottles as they sit after the oil change

 

And I always check levels on level ground. I’m back home now and driveway is slanted, or id include a pic with what is on the dipstick too but take my word for it

 

hmmmm, that's weird. I've never used Mobil1, I always used Castrol on which I've confirmed the capacity of the 5 qt jugs a few times using 1 qt bottles. If you have one by any chance, then fill up the jug with the 1 qt to measure (or if you have a measuring cup, even better). Hopefully you can find where the error is. and if possible, make your own marks on it and save it.

The dipstick is exactly the same, so no worries there. The only other thing I can think of is if your car has an external oil cooler that can increase the total oil capacity. For example, the Elevate external oil cooler brings up the capacity to 7.5qts (7.09 liters).

 

Thanks good to know about the elevate oil cooler. I will look into this.

This car was ‘stock looking’ when I bought it. PO was newer to volvos, but had two v50s. had this one and a fwd 6spd, but invoices showed he was most likely only able to afford maintenance with age. sold the cars and bought a yota due to these being expensive to maintain.

the story behind how he ran into my current car was from ‘a guy who had four or five volvos.’ Im almost sure the many volvos person did the clutch, and it is unknown what clutch is in this car. i think po said he went to buy used parts and then he saw this on the driveway,asked about it, and ended up purchasing it.

my friend with a 2016 gti, done up stage 2 went for a drive in this with me the other day and was surprised by how i was slamming the gears ( also liked how smooth 5 cyl power delivery was compared to the gti 4cyl). he’s a car person thru and thru, and said he highly doubts a stock clutch could handle the way i drive consistently without slipping or wearing out. I shift properly, but rip with the awd and it only slips extremely occasionally when i get too excited in first gear off the line, which any 4wd car will do.

so the car sat with both previous multiple volvo owners seeing occasional use for who knows how many years. i daily it now, and although these are assumptions, this could be a car with mystery upgrade parts, due to being owned by volvo people.

let’s see what happens

 

Ok, so it was owned by a few volvo nuts, so it's very likely it has some goodies.
Could be possible they did the S60R clutch conversion with a single mass flywheel, which is a popular upgrade over the stock clutch. But the SMF will cause the transmission to chatter a bit while idling in neutral. Yeah, the 5 cylinder advantage is a cylinder is firing every 144 deg of crank rotation, giving it a smooth power delivery when compared to the 4 cyl. Also it's worth to mention the stock turbo helps a lot to give it a good amount of torque at low rpms, and that combined with the M66C which has a lower final drive than FWD variant and the lack of torque limiter, contributes a lot to make it feel quicker. Mine, being automatic with tall gears and the stupid torque limiter in 1st and 2nd gears make it feel super sluggish during city driving. Only benefit i guess it has would be maybe better gas mileage at highway speeds?. It does 120km/h at 2400 rpm in 5th gear.

 

Interesting, on my 2006 S40 T5 AWD, when I put in 6.1 qts it always shows 1x to go on the dip stick.

 

I buy Castrol Edge 0w40 when it goes on sale at Canadian Tire (normally goes on sale in the high $30's per 5 litre jug). Castrol 0w40 is German made, vs the 5w30 which is not, and is supposedly much higher quality (better additives). I order Mann filters from RockAuto.

I've never been a Mobil guy, but glad you got a good deal on it.

Capacity is definitely 6.1 qts (5.8 litres). I took mine to a shop for an oil change last time (I provided oil and filter), because I'm tired of storing, transporting, and properly disposing of the old oil - they massively overfilled it!

 

Run 0w-40 on mine. Consistently do a full drain and fill of 6.5 qts - oil lives at the top mark when warm and running. There is different info everywhere. Who knows.

 

Thanks all for the replies. I’m going to leave it, barely had time to squeeze in diy oil change right now. My PCV box has been sweating since I bought the car, but still has inwards suction when I put my palm on it, so I’ve left that too. Will change the whole box in the coming months and see how the new one fares with this amount of oil, but I think it’ll be fine. Will also look for aftermarket oil cooler maybe on the car when I get time. To be continued

 

I currently maintain 3 x C30 T5s, mind you all automatic, and have never put more than 5.5-5.75L in any one of them.

Pennzoil Platinum 5W30 when it goes on sale at Canadian Tire, Mahle or Mann filters - been doing this for 3+ years with no problems.