Greg & Wayne’s eXCellent XC40EV adventures

carnut1100

That actually sounds very clever...

carnut222

There - I updated the bumper sticker so it's no longer the outline of a Prius! :)

carnut222

Volvo Club prez Heino bought me some biscuits:

carnut222

I did a thing - removed the front plastic wheel arch liners and installed some stick-on noise insulating foam to the top surface…hoping it would cut down on coarse chip road noise. Not much difference sadly…so not worth the effort.

On Friday I'm taking the rear wheels in to get new Pirelli P Zero PZ4 tyres with the "noise cancelling system" foam inside. Will be interesting to see if we notice a difference. We have close to 50K KMs on the car now. Front tyres still have 5-5.5 mm of tread. LH rear tyre down to about 3.5-4 mm so I figured good time to get a couple new ones when they were 40% off. Not sure what to do about the front tyres. It doesn't look like the P Zero PZ4 with NCS is available in the front side (235-45R20)…so may just get the original ones without the foam as I hate to have non-matching tyre brands.

1st pic is just the underbody from below. 2nd pic, I noticed on the LH rear axle there was a spot where the paint was worn through. Turns out the wire harness must have been contacting it at full travel, so I used a zip tie to pull the harness forward away from the axle…hmmm.

Final pic is the noise foam job. I had to cut some of it off as I couldn't fit the liner due to some spots were there was structure behind the liner too close for the foam to squish down and fit.

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jamesinc

@carnut222 do the arch liners themselves make much of a difference? I'm contemplating retrofitting them to my 77. Thanks for sharing about adding sound deadener I had actually been wondering about that too!

carnut222

jamesinc Not sure the plastic arch liners would make much difference on a 240 as far as noise is concerned, other than for wet road spray noise…plus helps keep water and muck off the metal under the car.

carnut222

Removed the rear wheels yesterday and had a look at things. Noticed the under tray that runs between the back of the underfloor EV battery to the rear suspension cross member had a lot of sand and gravel trapped in it, so I vacuumed that out. Also put another tie wrap on the LH rear wheel wire harness to hold it to the control arm…it had been rubbing on the rear axle at full suspension travel…not a good look!

Today took the rear wheels and tyres down to Ballarat to get the new tyres fitted. When I got there I asked the guy if I could have a look at the new tyres, and he said sure, and took me back to show me - they were the wrong tyres (Scorpions instead of P Zeros). He said Pirelli must have sent the wrong tyres. I left the wheels as he said he'd get the correct ones next week. Then while we're having lunch he rings and says they're all good to go…the correct tyres were there and he just accidentally showed me the wrong ones…he twigged when he had another look and the ones he'd showed me were 21 inch tyres and mine are 20s. All good! Of course we had loaded up on stuff at Bunnings so had a bit of trouble fitting the tyres back into the 245. These new SUV tyres are huge compared to the 240 tyres I'm used to.

Anyway, looking forward to getting the wheels installed and taking the car for a drive to see if these new tyres with the foam inserts are any quieter than the original ones.

You can just see the rear corner of the battery pack - aluminium box on RH side of pic. Also note dirt/grit in the aero under tray.

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Old tyres and wheels cleaned up ready to head to tyre fitters.

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New tyre:

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Zip-tied harness with witness mark on driveshaft tube. No apparent damage/wear on the harness protective corrugated sleeve, but paint completely worn off driveshaft tube down to shiny metal…hmm.

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Original pic from underneath when I discovered the issue:

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carnut222

Got the wheels with new tyres reinstalled. Happy with the result. A lot less tyre "roar" from the rear - more like just wind rush noise - when on coarse roads. The fronts (original tyres) are obviously a lot louder. Will look at trying to fit foam-insert tyres on the front when they're due in ~6 months/10k KMs. If I had the motivation, in the name of science I'd rotate the tyres front to back (temporarily as they're staggered sizes) to see if the road noise follows the tyres, but I can't really be bothered as the tyres are so damn heavy.

carnut222

We had a great trip up to the Oz Volvo Nationals this past weekend. Thanks to James and the team for a well-organised event. We had a 50% chance of winning an award in the 2-car EV class, and I think we just pipped @Philia_Bear with his slightly less clean Polestar 2. 🙂

Sadly copped a huge stone hit to the windscreen on the Hume Fwy near Benalla on the way home…in driver's sight line and pretty large, so I think it will be new windscreen time. BUGGER!

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PaddlerEd

With the windscreen, watch out... Shannons want their repairers to use non-genuine screens when we had to get the one on the V90CC done, but the genuine was only a couple of hundred more.

I agreed with our repair place to pay for it, and then claim back from Shannon's so at the worst case I'd only be out the difference (and that was less than my excess for a full claim was anyway). Make sure you get a good photo of the screen in the car - I didn't, but did manage to get a photo of the removed screen.

When they write the invoice out, make sure they just say replacement screen - no mention of genuine or not... 🙂

carnut222

PaddlerEd Thanks for the info. I think the safety cameras also have to be calibrated or something? Not sure Windscreens Obrien (who Shannons will probably want us to use) can do that…I'd definitely prefer to get a genuine screen and best case get it done at the same time I take it in for the 4 year service at the dealer. Will update with info once available.

PaddlerEd

Yep, our little O'Briens were able to do all of it in one day once they had the car - dropped off at 9am, back to me by lunchtime. The genuine screen came ex-Main dealer in the town an hour away. Both O'Briens and the good bodywork shop in town can do all the systems, so does make it easier.

The wording I believe is reasonable cost, so the main dealer may fall out of that... but you never know. Ours was a smidge over $2300 for a comparison... and you pay that upfront and wait a month for Shannons to decide how much they are reimbursing you.

carnut222

PaddlerEd OK, after going thru the Shannons automatic windscreen breakage telephone menu system, I got through to O'Briens. They said "we don't service your area" and also they don't fit genuine screens. I rang through again to Shannons and spoke to a helpful person, and advised I'd prefer a genuine screen. She said no worries, get it replaced as you see fit and they will reimburse me for the reasonable cost (which is for a non-genuine screen). I rang Volvo Cars Geelong who put me on to National Windscreens in Geelong, who where helpful. They've ordered the genuine screen from Volvo Geelong and I'll get it fitted next week. Fingers crossed it all goes OK. Quote for fitting and calibration of sensors from National was 1075 for non-genuine or 1575 genuine. I asked whether they could get a discount for the genuine one as I said I could get 10% discount through Volvo online, and she said best they can do is 1495. Not too bad for genuine screen I guess. We'll see what Shannons pays towards it. Will report back - hopefully not with a horror story LOL! I lose sleep over this.

PaddlerEd

@carnut222 that's about where we got to - see if they can make out the invoice just detailing a replacement windscreen, and go from there.

jamesinc

It annoys me that some company's ability to manufacture a cheaper shittier windscreen has any bearing on what it reasonably might cost to replace a windscreen. Like for like is reasonable IMO

carnut222

Got the new windscreen installed yesterday at National Windscreens in Geelong North. They appear to have done a good job with the only minor quibble being the passenger side wiper arm was sitting too high. I unbolted and re-positioned it. We ended up walking (1h each way) from Geelong North down the coastal walking/cycling path to Geelong central for a coffee in the AM, visit to the art museum (and 2025 Archibald Prize exhibit), then lunch. An enjoyable day out and I quite like Geelong, but it is a bit gritty in areas (not to mention literally gritty as it was super windy and dusty!) I think I could live there.

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