Hey guys I'm new to this forum but I have had my 2008 S60 2.5T for a couple of years now. Let me give you some background, I am a 17 year old high school kid looking for under the hood modifications. I don't want to be a ricer and love the way my car looks on the outside. But that being said I do want to change some things. My price range is around $700 and I am looking for performance parts (not ecu upgrade) that will make my car sound/accelerate/or handle better. Any particular parts to help make my 45,000 mile car better? Remember I'm 17, have little car experience, and have a $700 or so price range. Any thoughts on what to do?

Thanks

 

You can probably do a K&N Air Filter and maybe some swaybars. Check out IPD for some mods, they have some within your budget.

 

Are the sway bars really worth the $400 plus the hours of install?

 

Very worth it if you like to own the corners! You will never plow through another corner or any of the round-a-bout's that are popping up all over the place.
I say all this having iPd's 25mm Track Spec Sways in both my R's and had there rear sway in my old S40 T5.

To use the rest of your money, I'd lower the car. Doing that will make the car look A LOT better and will make the sways shine even more.

If you want some more go, the tune is really the best thing to do. I know you said "not ecu upgrade", but just had to state it. Exhausts will be out of your budget unless you get one fabbed up for you. You can always get the center resonator cut out and replaced with a straight pipe. It will slightly increase to sound of your exhaust, as well as make it sound a little meaner. Should only cost $40 to $60 at an exhaust shop. Google search "JRL mod"

So if I were you, I'd do the sways, springs and Resonator delete.

 

Will lowering the car have any positive or negative affects on performance?

 

More positive as the car's center of gravity will be lower, and the stiffer springs will help with driver feed back.
But they're more of a cosmetic mod then anything else.
I have the Eibach springs on my S60R and I would not go back to OEM ride height.

 

So the springs are just a kit right? They don't require anything else to install them?

 

You'll need to get an alignment after the install (or wait for the springs to settle a week or so later for the install) but that's it. Actually do you have the 4C active chassis in your car???

 

I am not sure, is there any way to tell by looking at the car? We bought it used a while ago from a sketchy dealer who couldn't tell us anything about it.

 

You'd have buttons on your console above your CD player that say sport and comfort. I just can't remember if the 2.5T's came with that option or not. If you don't have that then it's no worries. If you do, you'd have to get a SUM calibration from the Volvo dealer. Pretty cheap but still another thing to know about.

 

Before you do any mods, bring it back to Stage 0 and change all the fluids and fix whatever needs to be fixed. It shouldn't be too hard and it'll let you know what areas of your car need improvement. But these cars aren't bad to work on.

 

I would go with

Lowering the car- It wont affect any performances, but it makes the car look alot better and you get some feedbacks from the onlookers
Swaybar- Best Handling!!!
Exhaust- Resonator Off
Air intake...

 

No I dont have it, my car is a no frills S60, no wood trim or heated seats either. The only thing non standard that it has is geartronic. Any thoughts about the EST intake? I've heard good and bad things about it. Is it worth the $150 or not?

 

With the intake on my S60R all I really noticed, was more sound from the turbo and the CBV was a lot louder when I let off the throttle.

 

Okay thanks for your help guys, oh and what is stage 0 exactly? I have had a new oil pump and filter installed and an oil change a month ago. Is there anything else that I should do before adding mods? I mean the car only has 45,000 miles so the tranny fluid and plugs should be fine right?

 

More Stage 0 stuff...
New PCV
New plugs anyways
Plug wires
Transmission flush
Vacuum lines
New filters all the way around

It's pretty much making sure your car is in the best shape as possible to be able to handle the mods you want to throw at it. Your car only being a few years old, and you not really tuning it for a more substantial increase in power (ie.. ECU, Down pipe, exhaust Ect...) i wouldn't worry about it too much at this point. But keep it on your to do list in the next year or two.

 

I recommend the tranny flush especially, it'll make your car shift smoother, best between 30-50K intervals. Many people neglect these flushes.

 

How hard/expensive would it be to flush the tranny fluid? Can all the parts I need be bought at autozone or some place like that or would I have to go to volvo...which I really hate, they seem to treat teens like absolute crap at our dealership.

 

Here's an article for what you can use for fluid, so you may be able to go the auto parts store, but I recommend IPD, since they have a case of fluid. http://turbobil.com/SMF/index.php/topic,32.0.html

And here's a DIY so you can judge how hard it is for yourself:
http://www.ipdusa.com/uploads/sku_files/7945_INST.PDF