Hey! Thanks for taking a second to take a look. I have a 1999 Volvo v70 xc with 140k miles. When I purchased the car, it had 120k. Something I didn't know then but am enlightened to now is that I should have checked the state of the transmission fluid. I have had very few problems with this car until very recently. I was cruising along the freeway, at about 75mph, when I lost power, my RPMs were capped, ( around 1500-2000) and I could not maintain speed. So I pulled over and tried to get an idea of what was going on. I floored it on the side of the road, to the off-ramp, and I could not reach more than 2000 RPMs and no more than 10ish mph. When I got it home, I changed the oil ( I initially thought there could be an issue with the engine, however, I later found that it was simply a vacuum hose that had popped off.) and drained, and replaced the transmission fluid. The Trans fluid was dark brown and smelled very burnt. I now know that that is a very bad sign. After changing the fluid, I only used about half a gallon, so there was a lot of the old fluid left in the trans, it drove off like a champ. I was planning on doing another fluid drain, after about 150 miles, but after about 50 it happened again, where it went into what I believe is limp mode. I let the engine run for 10 minutes, and checked the trans fluid, and the trans dipstick came out dry. no sign of any leaks either. But after that ten minutes, I was able to drive off. I later checked the trans fluid again, and it was low, but registered on the dipstick at least. This happened once or twice more, but I was always able to drive it away after letting it sit for a few minutes. right at about 155 miles after the first drain, it went back into limp mode while I was on a hill, and was unable to get it out. I tried turning the car off, disconnecting the battery, and even doing another fluid drain, but as of right now it is still stuck. I believe that my clutch may be bad, and have some possible trans damage ( I am guessing this off the state of the fluid when I first checked.). I am unsure what to do now and am considering just parting out the vehicle. The engine is strong and runs great. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

What you are describing (rpms are capped, no power, "limp" mode) could be related to the throttle module. Do you know how old yours is - and are you aware of the problems with the Magnetti Maerelli (sp) throttle modules used on the 99-02 cars?

When changing trans fluid it is best to start with a full transmission, drain and measure the amount that comes out. Then put that amount back in - As you have discovered sometimes it's not easy to read the dipstick. Be sure to use the correct fluid -

A typical drain and fill should be about 3.5 quarts.

 

Hey, I know it's been a hot minute( very busy lately ), but Thanks a ton for the reply.

After some time, and some testing, I have all but ruled out the clutch/ transmission damage, as I realize now I was misinterpreting symptoms. What I thought was limp mode caused by possible transmission or clutch failure, turned out to be limp caused by I believe a misfiring cylinder.

Are you familiar with Robert Spinner from Robert DIY? The man, the myth, the legend himself actually was able to come down and take a look at the car. Here's what we did and tested:
Compression - 190psi in every cylinder.
Replaced the spark plugs
Checked if the misfires were caused by bad coil packs, by switching a coil from a firing cylinder to a non-firing one, and finding no different result.

We determined that at the time cylinders 1,3, and 5 were all misfiring at the same time. and the engine was only firing on 2 cylinders. We figured this out by disconnecting the fuel injector plugs and seeing if it affected the engine idle. He ran the computer codes on his laptop, and I can post the photos of the codes he got. However, he mainly got codes indicating a failure of the ETM. Which is something you mentioned. However, no ETM light is on at all. So he recommended that we either replace, and reprogram it with XeMODeX, or rebuild it with a magnetic kit of eBay.

I ordered one of the kits and pulled off the ETM. When I pulled it off, I was surprised to see that the ETM was XeModeX branded, indicating it had already been rebuilt. Nonetheless, I swapped Their magnetic components with the ones I ordered on eBay. Upon starting the car after putting the car back together, it sounded roughly the same, the idle was inconsistent, wavering, and wouldn't rev above 2-3k RPMs. I tested the cylinders again and found that now we were misfiring only on 1 and 5 meaning cylinder 3 popped back into life. I pulled the still brand new spark plugs out of cylinders 1 and 2 and compared them. Both were very clean, however, cylinder 2's was a little dirtier, and had heat discoloration on the top metal part, which makes sense since the cylinder was firing. Cylinder 1's had no such discoloration. So I figured we may not be getting fuel.

I pulled the fuel rail and cleaned all five injectors, not thoroughly, but basically. I then placed them back in the fuel rail, tested each with a 9V battery, and found that all five fired fuel when I touched it with the battery. So I put it all back on and the engine ran the same. I once again tested which cylinders were misfiring, and to my surprise, cylinder 1 was firing. But cylinder 2 was not, neither was 5.

Since then I have not done much, but occasionally I go to start it and test the cylinders, and the misfiring cylinders jump from 3 misfiring cylinders in any order, or sometimes only two. And there seems to be no reason or rhyme I am completely out of ideas for troubleshooting. Do you think the ETM could still be the problem and is faulty electronically, and not simply due to the magnetic system? Dropping $600 plus on a new item and reprogramming is a lot of money for a hunch, that I already dropped $125 on. Any advice is appreciated. I do not have an obdII reader that is able to read the Volvo-specific codes, and therefore can not post updated codes, however, I will post the codes that we got from Robert before I rebuilt the ETM.

Thanks!

Codes:


This is after He cleared and re checked I believe.

These are the first codes.