New to the forum. I just bought a 2000 S40 to eventually be used by my daughter when she gets her license. It had 74,000 miles on it, one owner and is cosmetically in very good shape. But the previous owner must have brought it to a terrible mechanic for a while...it had ungapped spark plugs, a bad coil, and the worst offence was when he tried to seal the turbo oil return line with RTV rather than replace the seals!! It will take weeks to get that nasty oil smell out of the car!

So, having maintained a Porsche 944 and several BMW's I've done fairly well resolving those issues. I always complained of little German gnomes building the Porsche, now it's little Swedish Trolls - that oil return line is NOT easy to get off!! But at least nowthe engine is running rather well and giving me 35+ mpg on the commute.

But I have a low speed vibration on acceleration that is bugging me. My first thought is engine mounts or the transmission mount. Any advise as to which ones to look at first? Any good way to determine if one is bad on this car? Or is it trial and error? Is 74K enough mileage to have them fail...or should I look at the front axles/CV's??

Any advice would be appreciated!

-Steve

 

Do a search in the S40 forum for vibration or mounts. There are TONS of threads with alot of helpful troubleshooting tips. Yes, 74K is enough. Having previously owned a 2000 S40, I have learned it doesn't matter what your mileage is. It is a lovable but troublesome car at times. End links, shock mounts, etc.

One key part, ESPECIALLY if it is going to your daughter, timing belt. Check Check Check. Do research on here about it. VERY important, and don't wait for 105,000. Also, as JPN is famous for saying, please follow scheduled maintenance for longevity. Except timing belt should be sooner.

Good luck and you have come to right place with questions. These people are the best.

 

Thanks....yea I searched for vibrations...that's what led me to the motor mounts. Of course it's tough to know which mount is bad until you get it off the car! But I think I'll do the most likely suspect...the right side and go from there.

Are there any decent repair manuals avalable? Are the CD's on eBay of any worth? I can do most any repair as long as I have a decent manual or web page!

Thanks,

Steve

 

Ah, yes, thanks for the heads up on the timing belt as well. Looks fairly simple compared to the old 944 dula belt set up. I take it the 1.9 is an interference engine. Sort of surprising for them to extend the replacement to 105K when a broken belt is so catastrophic! The 944 I owned required the TWO belts be replaced every 40K!!

-Steve

 

They are indeed interference. Tech has some AWESOME pics posted in all of the forums. Definitely interference.

 

Yes timing belt is a garantee first priority. I got my car with 103k on it. I modded it heavilyand my timing belt snapped on me one day and i had to replace the whole motor cause when it snapped it bent all my valves up in the car.