I hear others mention on this and other performance sites of the turbo spool kicking in. Is this something you can hear? I only goose it every now and again and have never heard this sound. The car does accelerate very fast though and all I hear is the nice low roar of the engine. In other cars that I have driven ex, Chrysler turbo, Audi turbo you can hear the turbine spooling even at low powersettings. Is this normal for the S70 Glt?

Thanks

Volvo determined a few years ago that the mere mention of the word 'turbo' gave buyers the jitters...especially the female market segment that drives the Volvo marketing efforts. This is due to durability issues in older, pre-1990's turbocharged cars and a residual perception that a turbo was not synonymous with safety. They moved to extensive use of a low pressure turbo, employed various techniques to quiet the turbo...and in 1998 removed the boost gauge altogether, further hiding evidence of its existence.

Some of the quieting features include inlet airflow restriction, physical placement (right in front of firewall soundproofing), buffered blow-off valve, and ECU management (which limits turbo rpms until the car is well underway, engine and road noise thus mask turbo whine at full spool).

850 and later turbos are managed by the ECU, and are very effecient: they run cooler and are less active than a turbo operating under purely mechanical principles. They thus last a lot longer...most will achieve 250-300K, at least. As long as you change the oil and keep the cooling system in perfect working order.

If only they put such effort into the durability of high fail-rate items like ABS controllers, evaporators and steering racks.
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David
1998 S70 T5SE // misc mods (mostly lighting) // red calipers // Michelin Pilots
1992 940 GLE//SilverStars//Hella MicroDE