1. Are these vehicles turbo? (2001-2003)
2. If they are turbos, do they need synthetic oil when you change it?
3. Is there a separate oil reservoir for the turbo (if there is one)?
I am looking at buying a used XC70 and some owners have used regular and some have used synthetic. One seller said it is mandatory to use it or the turbo won't last...
XC70's are Turbocharged.
Synthetic oil is superior to conventional oil in terms of thermal breakdown characteristics. Turbochargers run a very high temperatures (they are driven by exhaust gas). Logically, a turbocharged engine should use synthetic oil. So, why doesn't Volvo specify this? I'm not sure, but I owned a 1985 Volvo 760 Turbo. I drove the car over 200,000 miles on the original turbo. The turbo still worked fine when I got rid of the car (Transmission, A/C and radiator were going bad). I pushed the engine pretty hard at times, but I feel the reason the turbo didn't go out was because I never pushed the car hard when the engine was cold and I also let the engine cool down before shutting it off.
The general rule of thumb is to choose either synthetic or conventional oil at around 10,000 miles, then stick to what you chose. You may get oil leaks if you switch from one to the other. So, make sure you know what the previous owner used and stick with it.
Finally, the turbocharger uses the same oil as the engine. The purpose of the oit is two fold. One is as a lubricant - the turbo impeller spins at extremely high speed. The second is to cool the turbo. The oil flows from the engine to the turbo and back to the engine.
I hope this helps.
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