Hey guys,
This is my first post and I hope someone can help me. I'm here in the States just for a couple of months. As I needed to drive from N.C. to California I bought a 2003 Volvo V70 2,4T. The car had a bit over 100,000 miles when I bought it and everything was fine until I arrived in L.A. Last weekend I and my girlfriend did a trip up to Death Valley.

On our way back I already noticed some minor vibrations in the steering wheel. Yesterday I fired up the Volvo again and the vibrations were really bad. I could see the steering wheel shaking and the exhaust gases were kind of pulsating at the and of the pipe. Eventually, the yellow CEL popped up and I immediately took the car to Pep Boys. They cam up with a 3800$ tune-up estimate. After I specifically asked about the problem with the engine they told me that they diagnosed "3503 Misfire, at least one cylinder" and "3553 Misfire Cylinder 5" and told me I have to pay at least 850 bugs to get that car back on the street because I have to change all 5 of them plus they need to clean the fuel system and replace the fuel filter.

I send my German mechanic buddy the diagnosis sheet and he told me I should just go and change the coil on cylinder 5 as it's very unlikely that ignition and fuel system fail at the same time. So I went to Autozone bough one replacement Duralast Coil and did everything my self in 30 minutes and asked the Autozone guys to clear the error message

When I started up the car I immediately felt that the misfiring got a lot better although I wasn't quite sure if it wasn't even smoother back when I bought it. After driving up from Autozone to my apartment I pushed the gas pedal to see if it really works. The automatic transmission interpreted the gear (not sure if that's the word) and I could hear the engine haul. After that, it just shut down completely. I fired up the engine again and as soon as I pushed the pedal it turned off again. After I while I realized that it works as long as I just use the pedal very very gently. I was lucky and it was only about half a mile back from my apartment so I was able to slowly drive back home. Up until now, the CEL didn't come up again.

Does anyone have any idea what the issue might be? Could this be related to any other faulty ignition coil or might this be related to insufficient fuel?

I've attached the Pep Shop's diagnosis and image of the spark plug from faulty cylinder 5.










Spark Plus from faulty cylinder 5

 

In no particular order:
Has this condition rendered the car essentially unusable?
The plug looks OK from here. When it was firing it appears to have gotten good fuel mix with no oil on the plug etc.
Can you check the condition of your ETM? See if it's dirty.
Check for any "undone or crooked" large hose connections. Look for cracks and disconnected small hoses.
Change the fuel filter, give the fuel system a cleaning with a 12 oz. bottle of Techron Concentrate in a half tank of gas.
The fuel pumps in these cars are robust. Also many people go well past 100K without even the pressure regulator going out.
Being a turbo, there may be some intake/charge air pressure sensor which is out but the Pep Boys scan didn't pick anything up.
This is where a "real" Volvo scan will provide better info.
Did Pep Boys clear the codes? How much did they charge you?

Your scan mentioned a "pedal positioning sensor" being faulty. It was the one for the brakes. I don't know if an ABS fault can "infect" some other system.

After clearing the codes, it'd help if you could drive the car a bit more. It's always helpful to see if and when any codes reappear.

I, for one, would love to see the 0002, 0003, 0005 and 0006 codes (from the DIM) erased then be able to see if or how soon they return.

I have a BSR-PPC code reader which reads each module. It's frequently helpful to clear codes and to reread them soon thereafter.

 

Thanks, George!
Yes, unfortunately, the car is unusable at the moment. I don't really have to fix all issues as I'll be leaving the states in January. But of course, I like to treat my little fellow right so the next person can enjoy it as much as I did.

Pep Shop charged me 89 bugs for the initial "diagnosis", which was reading the codes. Unfortunately, I didn't know that the Autozone shop right across the Pep Shop does the exact same thing for free... The clearing was for free as I was pretty furious about the fact that they were trying to push me to buy the whole tune-up when I was simply asking for diagnosis and repair of that issue.

Right before you posted I ordered a new fuel filter and the other 4 coils and sparks. I'm going to change the filter first and use this cleaning solution you were talking about.
I'll try to drive around a bit, but a stalling car in the middle of L.A. is everything but fun haha.

I'm also going to check the ETM. I've found this post:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/fo...ic.php?t=17252

I haven't experienced any of those listed issues prior to the stalling. Also, I'm having a 2003 Volvo, although it seems to be one of the first. Not quite sure if it's still one of the 2002 "batch" and was just shipped in 2003. Maybe someone knows how to figure that out. I've attached the carfax.

I haven't seen any obvious damages at the ignition cables but to be honest I haven't looked that carefully.

What makes me think of the fueling system is that the stalling didn't occur when cylinder 5 was dead. Maybe now that 5 is back the fuel is simply not enough to fire all 5 of them?
But that's just a random guess and I'm not a mechanic.

Thank you so much! I hope I can soon go back in track as there is still so much to see here!

Thanks
Max

 

Lots of good advise here. +1 on the suggestion to clear the codes and see what reappears. Autozone will "rent" an OBD2 reader for free or you can buy a $10 blue tooth adaptor for your cell phone that will read most power train codes (fuel/spark/emissions etc) so for the stalling that's a good piece to have in the toolbox. When there's a happy meal of codes, you should also verify you have proper system voltage - particularly when the car stalls just to make sure you don't have an alternator or battery issue. Should the voltage drop below a threshold, the sensors and ECU can report false positive DTCs.

With any stalling issue you need to work fuel delivery, air metering and spark issues. As the tech suggested, 5 coils don't go bad at once so only replace the one that reporting a misfire. If you plugs are of uncertain age or more than 60K miles, spend the $15 and install new genuine Volvo plugs (not all after markets match the car's needs and this gives you a good baseline tune). You can inspect the wire harness to the coils for any cracks on connectors or suspect insulation at this time as well. Personally with the bad coil replaced, I'd be looking at fuel delivery or air metering next. For fuel delivery, these cars do use a fuel pressure sensor to control the pump. If your car has the shraeder valve on the end of the fuel rail, you can hook up a pressure meter and see if its in spec. FCP has a good youtube vid on symptoms and how to replace the sensor. For air metering, start by checking for vacuum line tears/cracks in the tubing - you can spray carb cleaner around to see if it sucks any air in at any point. The ETM and MAF sensor are always suspected for idle issues so you can start with a cleaning (use CRC MAF Cleaner not carb cleaner as its less likely to mess up the MAF wire grid. Plenty of online reading for symptoms of ETM problems. Good luck and post up how you make out.

 

Enough people have posted MAF sensor failures. Unplugging a suspect MAF while the engine is running is commonly mentioned.
Our P2 Volvos debuted in Europe in 2000. They came out in No. America in 2001. I had a good '99 and stumbled upon a nice '02.
I believe you could have the old style ETM as I had. Again, a real Volvo read could have helped in your case.

edit: Just read mt6127's post and chime in with having a known, good battery.
How long did you drive it before leaving N.C.?

 

Hey guys,
Thank you so much for your help. I change all plugs plus the fuel and air filter. It definitely has back all its power and there is no more stalling. The fuel filter was actually pretty bad and I think this might have been one of the issues.

Nevertheless, the idle is still not perfect. It's constant at 750 rpm but it sometimes "shivers" meaning that there are very short periods of vibrations. I haven't had the time to clean the MAF just yet but this will be the next step.

But so happy that I can finally use it again. I've been driving about 50 miles and no CEL has been showing up yet. I'm going on a longer test ride for the next couple of days. If anything is wrong it should totally become obvious by then.

Thanks again, guys!
Max

 

I just wanted to keep you updated to my repair story. After I changed the ignition coil on cylinder 5 everything was fine for about 1000 miles. Then 4 failed, after changing and running a couple of hundred miles 3 failed. Currently, I'm waiting for 2 to fail and I'm pretty sure it's going to happen. Sounds like you really should change all 5 at once to avoid changing one after another.

 

For coils to fail sequentially is odd.

Perhaps the seller of your car removed the genuine Volvo coils and sent you on your way with cheap ones.