Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and new to Volvo ownership in general. I purchased a 2007 XC70 with approx 150k on it about two months ago. It was a company car that my company auctioned off in house. All general maintenance had been done on the car, and quite a few sensors replaced before I bought it. Long story long, the car was based in NY and the company wasn't willing to keep up the emissions test because the "Time for Regular Maintenance" message was popping up. I live in Florida so it's not a problem.

So I get the car and love it. It drives great, gets around 21 mpg has a roar in the front end, so I replace both front wheel bearing assemblies. Change the oil (all synthetic per spec) and life is good.

About two weeks ago though, I crank the car up cold (first thing in the morning) and it idles up to around 1500 rpm, drops down to around 700 and when I put it in gear it sputters and stalls. Crank it, it fires, revs up, sputters and stalls. Does this 3-4 more times, I'm thinking it's just cold-natured. So I crank it, hold gas until the temp gauge moves up (about 45 sec- 1 minute) and it runs fine.

Now every time I crank it, I have to go through this procedure (crank, hold gas at around 2,000 for a minute or so) and then it runs fine. No sputtering at stop lights/signs, smooth acceleration, idles for 20 minutes no problem, etc. If I don't go through that procedure the car will not crank and run, just fires, sputters and stalls.

Any ideas?

 

It sounds like you have a mixture problem during cold starts. This can be caused by the intake air system (cold cars want to have a rich mixture until some warm up) so check for vacuum leaks, intake air boots etc to start. It can also be caused by the throttle body or MAF so next step would be to clean both using MAF cleaner. Another thing to do is to measure the resistance of your engine coolant temp sensor to see if its in range when cold. After that I'd probably look at the fuel pressure to make sure it pumps right up on a cold start.

 

I cleaned the MAF and it seemed to help, then acted the same as before. I replaced the MAF with a Bosch, still having problems.

The car when cranked will run fine idled up for a few seconds, then idle down to the normal position (about 700 rpms). After a few more seconds it will start sputtering, then stall.

Once it stalls the first time, it will crank, run a second or two, sputter and then stall.

Anything else I can check before I take her for a diagnostic?

How hard is it to clean the throttle body?