Hey folks, hope everyone is well. I'll keep this pretty short and sweet - I'm a first time Volvo owner after admiring their vehicles (particularly blue S60Rs - which were my "attainable dream car" for years as a teenager) for a long time. Decided to pull the trigger on a certified pre-owned 2020 S90 R-Design AWD in Onyx black over the black nappa leather. To say I'm thrilled with my purchase would be an understatement, it's a beautiful car with practical luxury elements and a class-leading interior. Very glad I went with this over a 5/7 series, E/S Class, or the Lexus/Acura/etc. options I was considering instead.



Anyways - love driving it and have only had it 4 days now. Here's my question - I have noticed an extremely loud noise coming from the engine on start-up, only on chillier mornings from what I've seen (the first day I took delivery and test drove it it started with no noise at all, but was much warmer).



A friend looked at the video and said "that's just injectors, it's a direct-injected engine, it is what it is" - basically, no big deal, it's gonna be loud at first and go away, which it has so far. The mechanics at the dealership said the same thing upon receiving the video. (I'll link it below if you want to listen for yourself.) No issues driving whatsoever, so is he correct - is this a common issue with this vehicle/engine? I thought immediately that I was hearing valves knocking/tapping so obviously got very worried - although I have the CPO warranty with unlimited miles through Aug 2026 so I guess it's more their problem than mine if they gave me a lemon. Although this particular spec with every option is not an easy to find car so I'll be pretty disappointed if I have to give it up...



Also, I can't get the Volvo app to connect or register me at all, nor can my sales guy who tried himself. Anybody else having trouble accessing the Volvo Cars app currently?



Finally - any thoughts, and also, any general tips as a new Volvo owner to pay attention to?



Thanks in advance everyone!

Mike



Link to video: video0





(Pardon the photo quality - I'll get better pics when she's a little more cleaned up and in a better spot.)

 

with a new car, best thing to do is keep a full maintenance history and keep up with factory intervals. As to the comment on direct injection cars (BMW, Audi, VW, Volvo etc all use direct injection), what happens is the fuel goes directly into the combustion chamber and the detergent in the fuel doesn't "wash" the port and valves clean, leading to carbon build up. This takes about 100K miles to happen but the resolution is that the repair shop will pull off the intake and use something like walnut shell blasting to clean the ports and valves (for the cost of about $750 or so). There are a few things you can do to delay the carbon build up - a) use a top shelf synthetic oil b) keep the PCV system in good shape (since the crankcase gases can contain some oil which will feed the carbon build up c) pay attention to engine performance and have the dealer inspect the intake as needed.