2012 Volvo S60 T6

[CCoburn]

Re : Flat Tire Conclusion


I did go with the U-Haul option this time around. I was a little hesitant about asking the same person for help AGAIN, so the price is 19.95 plus mileage and gas which comes out to about 30-35 when all said and done.

This project pretty much ate up an entire day. At 9:30 reserved a cargo van for 11:30; Town Fair appt. at 2:30. Started balancing the wheel at around 4:30; was done and had it back on the car around 6-ish.

Total cost for project about $150.00. I gave up on the whole matching tire brand ideology. Back in the day before I was getting the occasional flats with these low profile tires I would replace entire sets at a time. I then later thought that as long as it's on the same axle(front or rear) that I could get away with only replacing two, and these days my mindset is that replacing a single tire is okay as long as the specs are the same and the wheel is properly balanced - they all wear differently anyway.

I just hate throwing away good tires in the name of the change all same brand ideology. I think tire balance is more important than matching brands.

Still my least favorite part of auto maintenance is jacking the car. I'm still using the manufacturer designed jack points but they can become suspect after driving on salty winter roads after about a decade(or less), plus I'm not too far from the ocean here and drive there frequently. I noticed yesterday the one I was using seemed bent a little but not rusted out yet, thankfully. I've researched other jack points but am a little wary about using them.

[Tecate]

As long as you are replacing the tire with the same size and profile you should be fine. Unless it’s an all- wheel drive, and they haven’t been rotated properly. That’s when you can see some issues arise with seals, bearings and cv damage. If not, it really should be ok.

My 2 cents.

Tecate

[CCoburn]

I don't know what the deal is, but my tires don't seem to last long enough to make it to a rotation. The front right rim seems to be taking the worst beating from two flat tires, so maybe a rim rotation might actually be a good idea at this point.

[CCoburn]

Front Right Tire Replacement


They did mention the rim on the receipt and that it should be replaced ASAP; I was kind of feeling that anyway. I did get a flat on that one a while back and drove a ways on it. The tire was brand new at the time and I kept it at around 20 MPH but closer to 10 MPH at the end; being new it was staying around the rim pretty good and not getting chewed up too bad, at first. I really try to avoid resorting to a tow if at all possible.

They did talk me into an alignment this time - first one since I've had the car. The description that the tech gave made me think that might've been a contributing factor in causing the bubble on the outer wall.

In retrospect I recall them talking to a customer beside me and also recommending an alignment. The little voice keeps saying "snake oil", but I don't know. They could be pushing for alignments and other things to get the bill up. Mine went from what would have been less than a $100 to $175.

Hopefully they did a good job on the balance. I'll need to go for a decent test drive to evaluate that - it'd be nice if I don't have to pull the wheel and do it myself this time. 

I will say that out of all the places I've had tires balanced that Town Fair seems to be the best.

[VulcanWerks]

I don't know what the deal is, but my tires don't seem to last long enough to make it to a rotation. The front right rim seems to be taking the worst beating from two flat tires, so maybe a rim rotation might actually be a good idea at this point.

What tires are you running?

Could also be a camber issue depending on how it’s wearing. I’d bet the alignment does in fact help a bit, too.

When you say “low profile” what size are you using? What do you mean by short life of the tires? 5k miles? 10k?

I have 335/20/20 on the rear of my R8 (I think, might be 345). They have a very very small amount of negative camber but can confirm they last very short amounts of time. Fortunately I put maybe a few thousand miles on the car annually so I get a few years out of them.

I had some DOTR Nitto slicks on one of my cars for a while. It was SO grippy and fun but I’d burn out rears (awd rear engine) in a summer season. The fun had to be had. :)

[CCoburn]

What tires are you running?

Could also be a camber issue depending on how it’s wearing. I’d bet the alignment does in fact help a bit, too.

When you say “low profile” what size are you using? What do you mean by short life of the tires? 5k miles? 10k?

The tires are 235/40/18, and your assessment of "camber" is spot-on because that's what the tech was referencing although I don't recall that terminology being used. I do pay a lot of attention to the tires, but I'm not overly familiar with camber so wouldn't be looking for the effects of that, and aside from the bubble on the outer sidewall I haven't noticed any uneven wear handling/driving issues.

The "life" of 'some' of my tires hasn't been very long lately due to a number of reasons:

1. One time at night I hit a piece of metal in the road which basically caused a blowout(front right).

2. I then had the above tire replaced, but it was losing a few pounds of air every couple days(maybe a rim problem), and Town Fair was only doing drop-offs, so I went with the Fix-A-Flat and that did the trick. It was around six months or so after that the sidewall bubble appeared on the same tire. I think the initial leak was around the bead.

3. Another time(less than a month ago)I was on my way home and there was an inner sidewall leak for some unknown reason, and I replaced that tire(front left).

These cars don't come with a spare; just some cheap compressor and sealant that just made a mess on my rim and not much else. I've been thinking about acquiring a spare or at least a plug kit or something - spare would be best though. If it's only a minor leak then my hand pump with a gauge might get me home if it's not too far.

Of course I have AAA as a fail-safe, but I don't really care much for having my car towed. Luckily I haven't had any serious problems in some of the more remote areas I've traveled to.

[VulcanWerks]

The tires are 235/40/18, and your assessment of "camber" is spot-on because that's what the tech was referencing although I don't recall that terminology being used. I do pay a lot of attention to the tires, but I'm not overly familiar with camber so wouldn't be looking for the effects of that, and aside from the bubble on the outer sidewall I haven't noticed any uneven wear handling/driving issues.

The "life" of 'some' of my tires hasn't been very long lately due to a number of reasons:

1. One time at night I hit a piece of metal in the road which basically caused a blowout(front right).

2. I then had the above tire replaced, but it was losing a few pounds of air every couple days(maybe a rim problem), and Town Fair was only doing drop-offs, so I went with the Fix-A-Flat and that did the trick. It was around six months or so after that the sidewall bubble appeared on the same tire. I think the initial leak was around the bead.

3. Another time(less than a month ago)I was on my way home and there was an inner sidewall leak for some unknown reason, and I replaced that tire(front left).

These cars don't come with a spare; just some cheap compressor and sealant that just made a mess on my rim and not much else. I've been thinking about acquiring a spare or at least a plug kit or something - spare would be best though. If it's only a minor leak then my hand pump with a gauge might get me home if it's not too far.

Of course I have AAA as a fail-safe, but I don't really care much for having my car towed. Luckily I haven't had any serious problems in some of the more remote areas I've traveled to.

I’m sure you googled it, but camber relates to how flat the tires sit on the ground. Most cars have “negative camber” meaning the top of the rim (when mounted) is closer to the frame than the bottom. Idea being that if you turn a corner, the contact patch of the tire actually gets better or stays large to enhance grip. E.g. you aren’t up on your sidewall.

Positive camber is an issue and that means something is wrong with your alignment/suspension/strut tower.

When I used to track my e30 bmw I had more-less neutral camber in the rear and a few degrees negative up front - put as much power down as you can and this also allows you to pivot the car/mudulate the rear with power.

Then again, maybe you’re just driving it hard enough that you’d benefit from going down a little bit in sidewall thickness and up in width.

Volvo’s are underrated cars in terms of performance - you can make monster power out of those things on pump gas.

[CCoburn]

I’m sure you googled it, but camber relates to how flat the tires sit on the ground. Most cars have “negative camber” meaning the top of the rim (when mounted) is closer to the frame than the bottom. Idea being that if you turn a corner, the contact patch of the tire actually gets better or stays large to enhance grip. E.g. you aren’t up on your sidewall.

Positive camber is an issue and that means something is wrong with your alignment/suspension/strut tower.

When I used to track my e30 bmw I had more-less neutral camber in the rear and a few degrees positive up front - put as much power down as you can and this also allows you to pivot the car/mudulate the rear with power.

Then again, maybe you’re just driving it hard enough that you’d benefit from going down a little bit in sidewall thickness and up in width.

Volvo’s are underrated cars in terms of performance - you can make monster power out of those things on pump gas.

Yeah based on the techs' description and Google images mine would be negative camber. Apparrently it's not much and nothing that was observable to me recently putting my front wheels on ramps. Maybe having the car on a lift makes it easier to see.

I'm wondering if excessive or improper towing might be a factor here, as far as other alignment goes as well. Had my car towed three times recently and one time the tow guy didn't ask for the keys for dropoff at a midway point about 15 miles away from my house. I didn't have any way to get the keys to him and him coming to get the keys was out of the question - I even told him I could pay a little extra. He said he would spray the truck bed with WD40 and it would be fine.

These cars have very quick and powerful response on the accelerator - manual mode is the best!!

[CCoburn]

Town Fair seems to do okay balancing tires, but all the other places, forget about it. They aren't perfect though. I decided to have a look the other day to see how much weight they used, and I was only slightly annoyed by what I saw, but not too bad. The strip of about 1 1/2 ounces was angled outward away from the rim lip at about a 20-degree angle. I mean, it won't affect the balance, but it just looks stupid.

This non-flush placement of wheel weights is somewhat humorously reminiscent of all those trips to fast-food burger joints where the burger or fish patty is most often dramatically off center and hanging off the bun.

A couple months back when I fried an ignition coil due to a failing plug and replaced all plugs plus that ignition coil. I noticed that the cylinder four ignition coil was quite a bit tarnished from the heat and figured I would replace the following month, but now I've switched modes to: seems to be working fine, so if it ain't broke don't fix it.

The rubber housings on some of the coils have seen better days, and the fried coil even had a better housing than one of the good ones, so I swapped them out. One or two coils even had strips of rubber that had separated from the housing so I trimmed those up.

Everything's good so far though and I think the side gapping of the plugs was a good tweak. I have gotten used to perpetual error codes on the used cars I've been buying, but everything's clear on this one right now.

Transmission fluid service is due any day now, but I prefer driving them more than working on them. Some of the work is easy, and there is some that requires a bit more dedication and purchasing new tools - that's where the procrastination is.

[CCoburn]

Another Dealership Rip-off


Finally got going on the transmission service. Picked up a few tools at Harbor Freight, and cracked the T55 nut on the top of the tranny just to make sure I could. Everything was going good, but O'Reilleys' didn't have the gaskets for the fill plug, drain plug, or level plug, and I decided to call a Volvo dealership in lieu of trying to track down these parts online and getting a prepaid card since I prefer to not use my debit card for online purchases.

The dealership did have them and I had to use my debit card anyway over the phone which maybe isn't quite as bad plus I'm running out of options. The cost: $32 for three little o-rings. If I knew the exact dimensions of these or had something to match them up, I could probably get them at Lows for pennies a piece.

I remember when I was going to do a transmission service on the Charger and also went to a dealership for those six small bolts that hold the transmission pan and they wanted almost a $100.00 for those, no thanks, and I walked out empty-handed. Those bolts were petrified anyway and I broke the first one trying to get them out.