Hey,
I sold my Volvo S60, and bought another car. I still have my family's old 1998 Volvo S70 2.5 SE (production date: 03/97).
I have recently acquired this car from my mother, who has bought new Audi, and I am now using this car as a daily driver.
I was just wondering, what's the right motor oil for this car ? I hope I don't have to use synthetic. I can use high mileage motor oil, but synthetic would get a little expensive for a beater. Also, how often is a oil change due.

A little background history.
Had the car in the family since 2000.
Car has 290,000km, the engine has 120,000km (timing belt blew, 2 years ago and the car needed a new engine)

thanks

 

You can use any SAE 10W30 oil. Change interval is 8000 km for turbo and little more for n/a.
How many km since new engine?

 

2 years and 30,000km later

 

Here is the US owners manual: https://www.customers.volvocars.com/...98sv70_000.htm

 

should i use high mileage engine oil ?

 

yes just make sure it is 10W30

 

In my opinion, high mileage oil is a scam. All it is is regular oil that has had "stop leak" and "stop smoke" additives already added to it in some quantity. They're okay to use if you're having a problem and want to buy a little time before fixing it, but using them on an otherwise healthy car is totally unnecessary. And the additives necessarily reduce the oil's protective qualities by some amount, as well. These oils came out a few years back because cars improved to the point where 100,000 miles is no longer considered the end of a car's expected life cycle. People naturally wanted something they could do to help "protect" their car after 75,000 miles. The thing is, cars aren't lasting longer because of special oils- they last longer because they're better made and better engineered. I don't use high mileage oil in anything. I never have, and I never will. And I have 2 cars with over 200,000 miles on them, and 2 cars that are over 20 years old. (one of them with over 200,000 miles.)

 

A friend of mine told me, who also happens to own a Volvo S70, but its a GLT told me that my car needs Synthetic oil, specifically either Castrol Syntec or Mobil 1 - European Formula. He also told me, that my timing belt needs to be changed. Do you guys know, how often, and how much it costs roughly to change it ?

 

I don't believe a car NEEDS synthetic oil, synthetic oil is just better. It doesn't burn as fast and break down as fast.

I never used synthetic until last year. I purchased my 850 T-5R and asked the dealer that I was picking it up from in NYC to have the oil changed before I got there so I wouldn't have to deal with it before I hit the road and to my surprise, when I met him at the airport, he told me that he DID NOT have the oil changed. It was 5:00 pm and I was 1,500 miles from home ready to hit the road and now I had to deal with an oil change. I stopped to visit my uncle and checked the oil and it looked like brand new oil. I told him that I wasn't going to have it changed because it looked new and he said "NO WAY. You can't drive that car 1,500 miles without knowing when the oil was last changed." So he helped me find someone to do it. Later on I told my brother what happened and he explained to me that it had synthetic oil in it. That's why it looked new and fresh. My brother said Royal Purple is the best brand to use and it cost about 60% more than other synthetic brands.

Since then I have switched to synthetic in all of my cars. I use Castrol but I know Mobile 1 was the 1st on the market 30 something years ago. Not sure how much difference it makes as long as you use the proper weight. I have heard that synthetic is bad for leaks, meaning, if you have a leak and you switch to synthetic the leak will get worse. Also, it's not good to switch to synthetic if you have a worn motor.

As for your timing belt, if the motor has 30,000 km on it since it was installed, I'm sure they put a new t-belt on it when they installed it. Shouldn't need one for a while. You can pull the cover and look at it. It should still look pretty new if it's only 2 years old.

 

I am not looking for something fancy, just something that will do the job, and keep the engine running like a top. I plan to do a oil change + filter change every 4000km-6000km anyways with High Mileage Oil or Mobil 1 super 1000 Oil.
I was also just wondering, does this car use "special" BS transmission oil that costs $30 litre ? Because i am also wanting to get done my transmission fluid, seals and gaskets changed.
Are there special years 1997-2000 for different types of transmission fluids ?

 

If your car doesn't have a turbo, then just use 5/30 (10/30 in summer months), like the owners manual says. If you want to extend the oil change intervals a little, then use a synthetic. Doesn't matter either way, the important thing to do is change it on time.

NO no special trans fluid or whatever you are referring to. S70 4 speed auto will use Dexron III.

Hi Mileage oils contain seal swellers to minimize leaks. Not my cup of tea ever. For a lot of reasons. Use what you want though.

Generally speaking, a timing belt change is good for around 90K. So you are probably good for the life of the car. As long as you got a new tensioner, water pump and Idler arm put in at the same time at the belt.

 

Oh'ok thanks, i beleive they realised a updated version of the Dexron III, called the Dexron IV, and its comptibale with my car.
As for the Oil, I was looking at this oil released by Castrol called the "Edge" , says it outperforms all conventional oils and synthetic oil, and the oil is good upto 24,000km or one year.
I called the Volvo dealer regarding the timing belt, and he mentioned, if i get a timing belt done, i don't have to get the water pump replaced. Which i thought was odd, and they were asking about $800CDN to do the job.

 

Having been in the lubrication business for over 30 years it is about the only subject i really can be professional about.....syn. oil is as good as it gets for lubrication in high demand of temperature and additive package... more important/read the mfg. owners manual, use the visc., the A.P.I. rating, and change interval, for the demands your driving..., thats the most important thing we must do for best operation of our vehicle or we can make our own rules and live with the results.

 

Like I use to tell my racing buddys...if you have a 10 dollar head use a 10 dollar helmet. I personally feel that quality products are my insurance.