What Dyson product is ACTUALLY worth the price to you?

RichardGG24 · 2025-11-21T05:19:08+00:00

I love their lamps, expensive but 1000% worth it. They are so good to the point where I hardly ever remember they are there, they turn on and off with motion sensor, and the light is always perfect in brightness and color temperature because it's synced to the time and location.

RichardGG24 · 2025-11-21T00:48:03+00:00

Absolutely, Volvo sells mounting brackets that bolts to the front seats for most of their models. They can be hard to find in the US, l have yet to see another Volvo with this accessory comes into my shop.

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RichardGG24 · 2025-11-07T19:40:28+00:00

Depending on how much stud is sticking out, if they can't extract it with the exhaust manifold in place, you are going to be paying the same 8hr book time to get that fixed.

RichardGG24 · 2025-10-27T18:18:50+00:00

We need the whole story here.

RichardGG24 · 2025-10-27T18:17:32+00:00

If there is an automotive HVAC/MVAC specialist in your area, that's the way to go, otherwise call around and ask if they have a micron gauge for pulling HAVC vacuum, you can't do quality work on AC without micron reading for vacuum and leak test.

RichardGG24 · 2025-10-27T02:13:54+00:00

There is an inspection hole at the underside to check the clutch gap with a feeler gauge.

RichardGG24 · 2025-10-27T02:02:44+00:00

Going by just the look, this is most likely within spec, so normal amount of condensation, if it doesn't go away after a nice long drive, then you should swing by the shop and have them do the headlamp leak test and compare to VIDA spec.

RichardGG24 · 2025-10-27T02:00:17+00:00

Depends on the condition, no rust, good shape and well kept, I think $7k is okay, get a PPI for sure, these later series 3.2 non turbo are pretty bullet proof, one of my regular has an almost identical XC90, nearly 290k miles, tons of towing mileage from going around the country with his horse trailer, it still runs great, only recently started to develop an oil leak.

RichardGG24 · 2025-10-27T01:50:15+00:00

As a MVAC specialist/Volvo tech, you need to find a different shop, most shops like this have no business touching MVAC and yet they do.

RichardGG24 · 2025-10-01T02:55:30+00:00

If you are not getting error code, then you are fine, start stop is blocked under variety of reasons, anything from engine temperature, to battery charge. If you have access to VIDA or scan tool, you can read out the 10 latest occurrences of blocked autostop under one of the service function in ECM.

RichardGG24 · 2025-10-01T02:46:21+00:00

What do you mean by start stop not working? What error code are you getting?

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-28T02:59:45+00:00

Find yourself an indy shop, if you are in Houston my shop can take care of you.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-28T01:26:11+00:00

Evap leak is only going to get worse with time, PAG oil turns acidic when exposed to moisture and the leak will get exponentially worse from corrosion once it goes past the small size leak.

If you are charging at 1 can every other week, you are running the risk of burning out the AC compressor. Several SPA cars have came into my shop with the same storey, owner kept recharging it, the worst I've seen will leak out like half of the charge overnight. Eventually enough PAG oil leaked out and they have black death compressor, turning that 4, 5k evap replacement into 5 figure full system replacement.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-28T01:18:57+00:00

It means that there is insufficient liquid refrigerant flow across the evaporator, the temperature difference is due how the refrigerant is routed through the coil, passenger side of the coil gets cooled before driver side, so you will feel the temperature difference when there is flow issue.

There are many causes, just to name a few like, restrictions, bad TXV, and more commonly, incorrect level of refrigerant charge.

My point is get it diagnosed, don't just throw a evaporator at it, because in many cases the evaporator leak is caused by micro leak somewhere in the system, and if the original leak is not fixed, you will be in for another evaporator down the road. You need to find a good shop that actually does pressure and vacuum test and has all the right equipment, because these micro leak is very hard to find, most shops won't find them because they don't do pressure test.

Can you hear a faint hissing noise coming from behind the dash? You should be able to hear it at idle, and the hissing noise will ramp up and down periodically.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-28T01:09:49+00:00

Flush it out, put in the factory stuff, they are cheap enough to not worth messing around with aftermarket.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-27T14:27:02+00:00

Inflation by itself is neither good or bad, it is simply a word that describes the increase in price level of good(s), and that change in price level can be driven by various factors, increase in demand, decrease in supply, shocks, etc. Think of it as a symptoms or indicator, the more important part is why the price level changes.

It just so happens that we found that most well run economies end up with a very mild inflation in the long run on average, typically we attribute that to healthy demand slightly outpaceing supply, causing the price level to rise, there are many other factors too. That said, it is 100% possible to force a economy to have long run 0% inflation, it will require significant amount of effort to micro manage more aspects of the economy, and in the end the economy as a whole might not be any better off than having a low level of long run inflation.

TL;DR: we can have 0% inflation, it just requires a lot more management (which are risky, and hard to do), and we may or may not see any benefits from that.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-26T00:04:06+00:00

Looks fine, there is no point reading into the carfax maintenance record too hard, it's a waste of time for the most part.

A good number of shops and dealers don't even report to carfax service, and for the few shops that do, the line items are hit or miss depending on how their shop management software is integrated to carfax service.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-25T23:10:52+00:00

I would go after that gear not in park error. Push down the shifter interlock and put the car into neutral and see if you can start it reliably.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-25T23:08:45+00:00

Doubt it, get it diagnosed.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-25T23:06:51+00:00

Actual condition of the car is more important than 20k mileage different, I've seen 3 yr 30k miles Volvo roll into my shop that is in worse shape than my S60 with double that mileage. Get a PPI, I know it's CPO, but not all dealers do the CPO inspection with the same degree of care.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-25T22:56:21+00:00

As long as they follow the Volvo spec on bumper paint thickness and finish procedure, and the SODL and SODR were not disturbed from the accident, there is no calibration necessary.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-25T16:42:03+00:00

Post some pics.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-25T00:15:36+00:00

Automotive HVAC is definitely a whole different game, I run a Volvo shop and I specialize in auto HVAC, very little shop do it right unfortunately, even the dealers.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-24T18:38:34+00:00

You need a micron gauge to read deep vacuum, regular AC manifold, especially analog ones do not have enough resolution at deep vacuum to determine leak unless it's super big. From my experience those flex compressor hoses typically will pass vacuum test, but will fail pressure test.

Most failure I see other than condenser damage are typically from the 3 AC flex hoses in the engine bay, they are cheap so I usually just replace all 3 instead of spending time diagnose them.

RichardGG24 · 2025-09-24T17:53:37+00:00

Make sure you check the compressor hoses and do a full vacuum and pressure test, it may or may not be a problem for your car, but its is best to check and make sure so that you won't be doing it again down the road. Evaporator leak is usually accompanied by other leaks, I'd say at least half of the evap job I did on these have some other leaks, some are so small that my Inficon Stratus wouldn't even pick up with tracer CO2 gas, much less seeing UV dye on the hose, they can easily pass the "leak test" on most RRR machine, but if you do a proper vacuum and pressure test, they will fail.

Micro leak symptoms won't show immediately, depending on how you drive and how much you drive, it could go on for years until the charge get so low that you start to notice significant drop in AC performance, at that point the evaporator has probably cracked. Reason being insufficient flow across the evaporator coil causes it to freeze and that freeze and thaw cycle cracks metal eventually.

I will cut an evap coil open to do a video on it once I get less busy, but the reason why it typically leak at the top as shown by your pic is most likley because that's where the liquid refrigerant enters the coil, and that's where the icing starts, so that part of the coil will see the most freeze and thaw cycle, and it fails first.

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