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T3 engine (1.5 - 152hp)

16K views 58 replies 9 participants last post by  yauwera 
#1 ·
Hello guys, hope all of you have a good year.

I'm here to ask you for information and personal opinions about this engine, the t3 (1.5 - 152hp)

Hope to hear from all of you.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
Dear AndreLX,
I bought 9 months ago a new Kinetic T3 with 1.5-152hp engine.
The car was initially slow on acceleration particularly when crossing busy
intersections and merging into fast moving traffic.
I took it back to the dealer and their garage reprogrammed the ECU.
Which fixed the problem.
Over all the engine is quiet and is a pleasure to drive on long trips.
Fuel consumption is so-so.I have not really exactly calculated it .
I fill up weekly and in US dollar terms I spend approximately
$20 to $30 each time.Both my wife and I drive it and we have done
a little over 12000 kilometers since March 2019.
We are retired and do most of our driving
in the town.
Overall at this stage I would say the car is fine for us.
A T4 is more powerful but how significant this is and if it is worth
the extra cost is hard to say and is probably a personal matter.
Regards
Skfarblum
 
#3 ·
I've got the T3 Geartronic (1.5) 152bhp Momentum Nav + since Dec 2018. It's a decent engine, but it all comes down to what you have driven before. As above, starting from the lights, it's not very explosive from standstill, (even with foot flat) but once past 2k revs, the turbo kicks in, and you get pushed into your seat. I'm comparing the engine from 2 previous Seat cars I've owned, a 110bhp 1.0TSI Ibiza, and a 2.0TDI 150bhp Leon. Off the line, the V40 is the slowest...but once the turbo kicks it, it will get past the 1.0TSI, but I still feel the 2.0TDI is more powerful.
City mpg, you can get perhaps around 28-35, very heavy traffic, expect around the 20mpg mark. free flowing roads of 40-50mph, you can get up to 50mpg. On highways, perhaps somewhere in the 45mpg mark, +/-.
Oh, and V40s tend to 'eat' tyres quickly, perhaps around the 12k mark, it's time to start looking for good deals on fronts.
 
#4 ·
As said by KXL, it all depends on what you are used to. The higher torque of the 2.0 in the T4 is more fun of course, but I'm sure the 1.5 is a smooth and fun engine too. I was in doubt when ordering, the T3 1.5 or the T4 2.0, but I'm still very happy that I did go for the T4.
Remark on the tyres: when your front tyres are half way, swap the wheels front to back and back to front. Then you can replace all 4 in one go. That's what I did. Now all 4 are almost to be replaced at 22000 kms.
 
#6 ·
Hello guys, hope all of you have a good year.

I'm here to ask you for information and personal opinions about this engine, the t3 (1.5 - 152hp)

Hope to hear from all of you.

Thanks
I agree with the others here, I have the 1.5 geartronic abd it's a nice drive but came from a fiesta ST, which was mental, the T3 is not in the same league....... but it doesn't try to be.
It's a lovely, well built car with a nice quiet and smooth drive and loaded with tech.
I really like it.
 
#11 ·
My car has done 6k miles (about 10k km), and wanted to rotate/swap tyres round. The fronts still have 5.5mm ish, and rears about 6.5mm ish. The garage gently (but it's up to me if i wanted it done now) said they do not want to do it now, come back in about 3 months time when it's worn a bit more, then we can swap them round, and you should have about 4mm all round when you return your lease V40 end of 2020. These are Primacy 4 tyres that are 'suppose' to last a long time! The other two cars I returned at 10k miles / 2 years, both still had the same tyre tread left that the V40 has now, and I have still 11 months to go!
 
#32 ·
My kia rio had 4 hankook changed them last year with 6 years and 80k still had 3mm but with the age I chose to replace them with 4 goodyear efficientgrip performance

Those hankook never had tyres that lasted this long
I'm sure the Volvo V40 can eat them in less than 25k kms. Saying that if I remember correctly, someone with had Pirellis (maybe P7) on their V40s and they lasted quite long.
 
#16 ·
Hi,

I have V40 T5 and last month my Volvo dealer gave me T3 GT (Geartronic) while my V40 had front brake discs replaced, so I can share my experience with this engine. It was latest MY2019, so there was "new" 2.0 liter Volvo VEA engine inside, the same as T2, T4 and T5. A couple of years ago I had V40 T3 manual for a day but it was 1.6 Ford engine and that was a different story. I liked this T3 VEA more. I also owned D2 115 hp diesel manual before, so I have experience with 4 different engines in V40.

The dynamics was not bad at all, below 100 km/h it is quite flexible. Above 100 km/h you can feel some horses missing but that is probably because I am used to more power from T5 and I am rather a guy who does not hesitate to push the pedal to the metal. So in normal driving it is a nice smooth engine. The comsumption was disappointing though, or better to say surprising. With my T5 GT on 19 inches wheels I have 9 liters per 100 km (31 mpg) combined consumption and this was on 18 inches and the figures were about the same. But maybe it was because that one had only 5000 kilometers on odometer.

You can go with the Polestar upgrade for this engine which adds another 30 hp to 180 hp. The torque 240 Nm stays the same though.
 
#17 ·
Sorry, I have just noticed you are going to get that T3 1.6 Ford engine. Well, in term of dynamics it was similar to this new VEA engine. The fuel economy seemed better but it was not as smooth as VEA. You can also do the same Polestar upgrade. I am just looking at the figures and 0-100 km/h acceleration improves from 8,8 secs to 7,7 secs. Not bad at all.
 
#23 ·
Yep. From Wiki:

"The 1.5 petrol VEA is a de stroked version of the 2.0 petrol VEA, with matching bores of 82.0mm, but the 1.5 having a stroke of 70.9mm compared to the 2.0 stroke of 93.2mm".
 
#31 ·
When you do get it, make sure you put a full tank of (I'm not sure what petrol stations you have where you are (Potugal?)) high RON fuel 97-99 (Volvo recommends 95-98RON). At least usually the high RON fuels also have very good cleaning properties. My experience is that the higher RON fuel does give more fuel economy, but as the extra costs here in UK is about 10p a litre more, it was not cheaper. Had it been 4-5p more, it would work out cheaper. I'm not sure if you were picking up a brand new one, or a second hand one, but fuel economy is very poor in the first 3000km. After it gets noticeably better.
 
#34 ·
When I first bought my V40 2.0ltr 152bhp new from the dealer I asked if Polestar were bringing out an upgrade for the engine, I was told yes by the sales guy, unfortunately 4 years on and Polestar have still not brought out this upgrade, and I cant see them ever bringing anything out for this engine !

It's a shame they don't because in my opinion 2.0ltr VEA is as flat as a witches titty.
 
#35 ·
I wonder why they didn't when they did for the T5?
 
#37 ·
Just remember the Sport Setting. Just moving the lever to the left engages Sport (you don't have to move it forwards and backwards which manually selects the gears). When you move it to the left it changes the mapping of the throttle and gears. I use it when joining a motorway and without moving the throttle the car changes gear and accelerates.
 
#38 ·
Little disappointed with the 2.0 T3 VEA (152bhp) engine, no punch at all to it.
When I ordered the car I was told by sales guy that Polestar were bringing out an upgrade, so I thought if the car needed a bit of perking up I would opt for the upgrade, however 4 years on and Polestar have no intention of bring out the upgrade, very disappointed.
I've also read that aftermarket upgrades/chipping can be expensive for this particular engine due to some sort of software "lock" on the engine, whatever that means ???
If I'm honest, I know very little about these sort of things, hence hoping that Polestar, via my Volvo dealership could of carried out the upgrade, if it had been available.
 
#40 ·
This is lock prevents reading/writing the ECU from the OBD port. Once this lock is 'cracked', the OBD port can be used to read and write the ECU. To execute this unlock, the ECU has be removed from the car, though it doesn't has to be opened. This takes some extra time and thus some extra cost. Anyhow for around 500-600 euros a very decent tuning can be done here in Belgium.
For sure it is possible on a 2016 VEA engine as mine is a 2017 model.
 
#42 ·
Still a bit annoyed that the 1.5 152PS T3 Geartronic is not very explosive off the lights (maybe mine has GPF filter?). Just before we had to lockdown yesterday, lots of people on the roads were hurrying back. It was a 3 lane road with 50mph, at the 2-3 red lights, was in line with a BMW 118i (previous gen), and Audi A3 150PS one (dual left exhaust), and later a Honda Jazz. Now when the lights went green over few traffic lights, BMW, Audi and myself had the same idea (foot flat) and guess what? V40 left behind in the first 0-30mph, and closing gap on BMW, but was never gonna catch the Audi (maybe it was quattro). Maybe to 60-70mph, it can go ahead of BMW. Even the Honda Jazz left me 0-20mph, before going past maybe at 40mph. Anyway, rant over...stay safe!
 
#43 ·
I have already accepted the fact that V40 is not a good drag race car. I take it that it was not the aim when Volvo designed the engine/gearbox coupling. With T5 FWD I cannot floor it from the stand point because it is not able to transfer all the power to the road (not even on 235/35 R19 tyres) and probably that Audi would beat me in the lower speeds as my wheels are only spinning with the car not moving :LOL: I rather tend to think that Volvo petrol engines are poor in low range and great in the mid-high range. My experience with T3 (Ford and VEA) was also pleasant.
 
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