2012 Volvo S60 T6

[CCoburn]

It's a good car and fun to drive at 354lbs of torque, and I drive it a lot. Been exploring the backroads of Maine a lot for the past few years, and kind of took up backyard mechanic along with the driving as a hobby.

Been having a lot of mishaps lately though. Ignored the scheduled spark plug change and had one fail and fried an ignition coil and it took two separate tows from AAA to get the car home. Replaced one ignition coil and all six plugs side gapped to .037 and all was good again - maybe even better.

Went out this afternoon for a ride and on my way back the TPMS lit up and I got out and saw that the front left tire was losing air. I carry a bicycle pump with a gauge with me just for this reason. I was able to get 20lbs in it which lasted for a few miles and I'm about 20 miles from the house.

Stopped at a quick stop and they happened to have a can of Fix-A-Flat and then I was able to get 36lbs in it which lasted for a few more miles. I noticed at this point that there was a puncture on the inner wall. Tried to get some more air in it and went for a couple more miles but the tire was getting chewed up pretty close to the rim so I had to stop and call AAA with about six more miles to go.

This is my third flat tire in the past year. The protocol lately is to take the wheel to Town Fair Tire for a remount and balance it myself with a bubble balancer I bought at Harbor Freight. Most places don't do a good job balancing so I started doing it myself.

[Nerb]

It's a good car and fun to drive at 354lbs of torque, and I drive it a lot. Been exploring the backroads of Maine a lot for the past few years, and kind of took up backyard mechanic along with the driving as a hobby.

Been having a lot of mishaps lately though. Ignored the scheduled spark plug change and had one fail and fried an ignition coil and it took two separate tows from AAA to get the car home. Replaced one ignition coil and all six plugs side gapped to .037 and all was good again - maybe even better.

Went out this afternoon for a ride and on my way back the TPMS lit up and I got out and saw that the front left tire was losing air. I carry a bicycle pump with a gauge with me just for this reason. I was able to get 20lbs in it which lasted for a few miles and I'm about 20 miles from the house.

Stopped at a quick stop and they happened to have a can of Fix-A-Flat and then I was able to get 36lbs in it which lasted for a few more miles. I noticed at this point that there was a puncture on the inner wall. Tried to get some more air in it and went for a couple more miles but the tire was getting chewed up pretty close to the rim so I had to stop and call AAA with about six more miles to go.

This is my third flat tire in the past year. The protocol lately is to take the wheel to Town Fair Tire for a remount and balance it myself with a bubble balancer I bought at Harbor Freight. Most places don't do a good job balancing so I started doing it myself.

Glad you ended up home, safe and a little wiser having been so prepared for the events. I personally have one of those tyre filler aerosols in my car but hate the fact that they make a mess inside the tyre which is nasty for tyre changes.

Sounds like a fun car and nice to hear someone having that fun with a Volvo.

I'm interested in the "bubble balancer". How does that work?

You reminded me of a car I had in my youth, a 1964 Morris Minor (UK) that I took in for new tyres. The mechanic took me to look at my tyre which was the older type with an inner tube. It was bulging like a bubble on the inner side like a tennis ball where the tube had gone through the sidewall. "That was a close call" he said. I looked at him with my jaw dropped.

Your car sounds great and more modern than anything I could afford. What colour is it and does it have a name?

Safe driving eh..

[BeTheGoddess]

I love Volvos, had a 760 GLE and loved it. PVRv6 and the KE-jetronic were a bit different to what I'd known but its all fun till till someones loses an eye--or some sht.

When I was shopping for my current car (which I can now no longer drive cos vision issues) I went to test drive a V70 (used) and too many little problems.

[CCoburn]

I'm interested in the "bubble balancer". How does that work?

The bubble balancers are around 60 bucks. Easy assembly involving only a couple pieces by threading a couple of nuts. There are two main parts to it. A base and the top part that sets atop a metal point that resembles the sharpened tip of a lead pencil.

The top part just balances on that metal tip and it has a liquid bubble balancer similar to what you would see on an ordinary leveler. That liquid bubble balancer 'window' part can be calibrated to center before you start using three small screws.

They don't work very well though unless they are on a hard sturdy surface like concrete or asphalt. I found that out one day when it was raining outside and I tried using it in the kitchen; the readings weren't very consistent, but major improvement though once I took it downstairs and set it up on the concrete floor.

So the wheel just sets down on top of that and you place those quarter ounce wheel weights around where the tire meets the rim to get that "bubble" centered and then when you find where they need to go you peel the tape back to reveal the sticky fastener and secure them to the rim. I put some on the inside and outside of the rim lately - they call that "dynamic balancing".
 

What colour is it and does it have a name?

No fancy name like Mustang or Charger for this car; same as the thread title, and the color is dark red exterior with dark gray/black interior and I did consider color when I was shopping.

[Nerb]

No fancy name like Mustang or Charger for this car; same as the thread title, and the color is dark red exterior with dark gray/black interior and I did consider color when I was shopping.

I was thinking more along the lines of a personal name. My Dad had old Veteran and Vintage cars called "Auntie", "Tabitha", "Ralph", "Ruby" etc.

Your car sounds like a strong boy to me based on the colours so how about "Magnus"? A strong Swedish name meaning "The Powerful"?

Cheers for the bubble balancer info, I'll check online to have a look.

[CCoburn]

I was thinking more along the lines of a personal name.

That thought did cross my mind. I have a hard enough time naming my pets though, but in all honesty, I tend to be sporadically hard on my vehicles so a more truthful and proper name might be something more along the lines of "The Red-headed Stepchild", but seriously, I don't really think that naming cars is for me though, and I usually only have them for two or three years.

They all have over 100k miles when I get them. New cars are way too expensive for me, and I like to try and get them paid off ASAP.

[CCoburn]

I personally have one of those tyre filler aerosols in my car but hate the fact that they make a mess inside the tyre which is nasty for tyre changes.

I'm actually dying to see what the inside of the tire looks like after. I'm hoping that more would end up on the tire instead of the rim. Seems like valve position would be a factor. If it's a lot then hopefully the tire shop at least cleans off some of it because I don't think it's particularly good for tire balance.

The first flat I got I used the mini compressor and tire sealant that came with the car. The air compressor was cheap and mostly all I did was make a mess on the outside of the rim where much still remains to this day even after a dozen or so car washings/wipings.

[Sakiale]

those are hardly problems. nice car, how many miles? are you tuned? motor trend says 325tq.

[CCoburn]

those are hardly problems. nice car, how many miles? are you tuned? motor trend says 325tq.

It was 113k when I got it a year and a half ago, and now it's at around 140k. It comes standard with 300HP and I'm not sure about the torque, but it was said that there is an upgrade to 325HP and 354T. I don't know if it's had the upgrade or not but I prefer go with the higher numbers anyways.

Car's just been sitting idle for a few days. I only know one person that can take me for the remount, but I haven't got around to calling them yet. They are aware of the situation and I was hoping for a message to be relayed to me but nothing yet. I may have to call them eventually because I'm not really sure of any other decent options.

[CCoburn]

Re : Flat Tire


I've thought before about the U-Haul option. It's less than a ten-minute walk. They have smaller transports there for 19.95 plus .89 cents a mile, and I think you have to return them with the same amount of gas.

Been thinking about the order of operations. Call Town Fair and secure appt. Walk over and rent the U-Haul(probably a truck). Come back and jack the car and remove tire; load it up for appt. Shouldn't be any more than three or four hours, but I'll probably reserve/rent it for six.

I think I'm past due to be gettin' motivated for this.