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2002 volvo v70 wagon 2.4l turbo

im a bmw owner and enthusiast with a good amount of experience buying selling and fixing all types.

im on vacation with my girl friend in eastern PA

yesterday we were headed for a drive to get dinner and a movie when i noticed a very bad studder\miss

at first i thought it was the transmission acting up since it only did this under load. after more driving and trying to diagnose the issue i realized it was a different issue.

so heres whats going on....

misses very badly at low rpms and espically under load at low rpms going up hills. seem to smooth out a good amount when the rpms reach 3k and above. if studdered on me quite bad one other time when comming to a stop but didnt do it since then untill this issue started.

the CEL came on so i had autozone pull the codes
misfire on cylinders 3 and 5 and pending misfire on 2 and 4.
i switched the coil from #1 to #3 and pull the codes once again and nothing.. no changes and then did the same with the #5 cylinder. still no change.
plugs looks gaped correctly and are a little white from carbon but otherwise look in very good condiditon. i also inspected the coil packs and they all seemed quite new and in working order.

it doesnt throw any other sort of code my first idea was the cam shaft positioning sensor but i figured if that were becomming an issue it would throw that code. wich it isnt...

next idea is bad gas.. or that we picked up some trash from the 800mile road trip up here and got gas at a less than desireable stop.

i filled the tank with a can of seafoam and took it out and ran threw the gears a few times and not a whole lot of change. just runs better at WOT about 3k rpms.

also... i have tried to buy a new camshaft positioning sensor but everything i find at my local parts house doesnt resemble what im looking at on top of the valve cover right behind the cam gears.

is what im looking at correct in being the CPS?

also im just looking for any idea anyone might have seeing as how i must get this running right soon so i can return to work in central florida. i realize im not a member here that contributes but could really use the help from some guys family with the 2.4l from volvo

bel;ow is a picture of said sensor im looking at

 

also... starts up just fine with no hesitation

 

Hi and welcome to the forum. I would just toss some new plugs in and see if that helps. My car runs well on the cheap single electrode coper plugs, check your manual and see what's suppose to be in there and go from there.

These cars are sensitive to CEL codes so I doubt you have a bad camshaft sensor. The sensor in my car is on the back of the cam on the drivers side under the engine mount.

 

it doesnt make sense that it would be plugs when all of them look exactly the same on cylinder 1 through 5 yet only 3 and 5 have a solid misfire and 2 and 4 are pending...

or is that crazy talk?

 

the only cylinder not misfiring is cylinder 1 and that plug looks the same as the other 4...

 

Anyone else?

 

That's not the cam position sensor. It's the oil control valve for the VVT. Leave it alone.

I'm no expert on your car but I vote you have one or more bad coil packs. Buy one new one and start swapping it around.

Besides that, what plugs do you have installed? If you have any kind of silly plugs - Bosch +4s, etc., get rid of them and install basic copper plugs - Volvo OEM or equals.

 

I wouldn't rule out one or more bad coil packs. I've had a problem similar to what you describe twice on trips 600+ miles from home. It started of as an occasional shudder that quickly progressed to a severe misfire that got worse under acceleration and big loss of power. Both times it was due to a bad coil pack. I believe in one case the CEL showed both misfire and pending misfire codes.

 

Just another drive by. He's already forgotten about us.