Hi all -

Wife has a 2001 C70 conv that was a dealer car when we bought it 20,000 miles (near new) certified used with extended warrany in 2003. Great car, REALLY!.

Except..... from nearly day 1 the car will ocassionally start, rev to 1-2k and immediately die. Will do a couple times and run fine. Will sometimes go months/year without this problem and then out of clear blue do it. AND occasionally NOT start AT ALL till you let the car sit for 10-30 minutes.

YES... today car would not start at all for about 20 minutes (I needed to go to work)..... so I am AGAIN motivated to get this thing fixed...... AGAIN !?!?!. Want my wife to have a reliable car.

Seems not to be realated to anything I could feel certain about (like temperature, time of years, weather warmed up or not, etc...)

While under warranty dealer was unable to figure this out. No codes... EVER! Left car with themmany times while on vacation so they could try to duplicate symptoms.

Eventually , seemed like they had fixed it (didn't do it for about 2 years. I don't know exactly what they replaced but it was many things to include the ETM sotware update, fuse box cable, keys, key ring antenna, immobilizer, maybe ETM itself, etc....

I do all the work on my other cars / boats / motorcycles...... so am pretty savvy guy. Butfor this car have always used the dealer and now, a Certified Volvo mechanic with local shop that is a great guy.

SO... he will eventually fix I'm sure.

Where this is going (and what I'm a little fustrated about = pissed) is that this is clearly a design flaw wih this car. A goggle search readily makes it obvious A LOT of folks have had (have) this problem with the C70.

The dealer early on tried to get me to pay for stuff I *KNEW* was obviously unrelated (my favorite was them trying to get me to have the throttle body cleaned {not covered under warranty} when this problem started early on when the car was near new).

If I could figure out a way to disconnect the immobilzer I would tomarrow has I am convince it is the anti-theft system that is integral to this problem.

I am amazed there is not a class action lawsuit against Volvo for this and I'm seriously considering one as it is clear to me the car has NEVER been poperly fixed as this problem has occured (on/off) for the entire time we have had this car.


Nice to have found this Forum. Thanks.

Comments?

 

The only true way to find out if it is immoblizer related is when it won't start have the codes read from the immoblizer without turning the key back off. (I know really hard to do that sometimes)
But if it doesn't start the code will be there but if it starts the next time you try the code is gone.

 

Wow.... great idea I had not heard before. I will try that. Thanks.

 

So what is the basis for your proposed "law suit"? Because the auto will not start? Do you believe that there is an 'intentional' act on behalf of Volvo? Do you 'fear' that perhaps you will suffer harm because your auto will not start? What is your 'proof' that Volvo is hiding something from you? You make an admission that you had no issues for a couple of years..... so you concern is something that has just occurred. You have absolutely no basis for litigation and I dare say you will never find council who would represent you in your proposed groundless suit. What you have is an inconvenience..................I too have had a similar inconvenience such as what you have experienced. Perhaps you should sell that Volvo and look into a Chevy?

r.

 

Are you saying that you had this particular problem? If so, how did you fix it?

 

You bet I had the "problem"! After replacing the antenna ring in my 02 c-70 the auto ran fine for a couple of weeks and then once again it would not start "when I wanted it to start". I drove it to the Volvo dealer who, with the assistance of the roving Volvo representative replaced the antenna again, then the immobilizer, then the entire computer. All this while the auto sat in the shop for three weeks! The dealer was able to start the auto for several attempts and then.................no go. The Volvo representative then decided that he would take the computer 'box' out of the car and lo and behold (this is akin to for lack of a horse a kingdom was lost) the connection on the main harness had pulled partially out of its 'female' counter part. It was that simple. The auto was out of warranty but Volvo did not charge me for the repair nor for the new parts. The reason was probably two fold, the eventual repair took a tad over three weeks and the dealership services three of our vehicles.

I did not intend for my earlier response to demean in any manner nor was I attempting to proffer a supercilious answer but rather that, like your Jockey shorts, the elastic fails eventually and conversely, so do seven year old vehicles. One last note............in 1980 General Motors refunded every penny I paid for a new auto as a result of it being a lemon and I swore that I would never drive another American auto. Today I drive German, Swedish, Japanese, and God help me, an English auto. I must report that only the Japanese autos are trouble free!

r.

 

Ha. Yes, come to think of it... the only car I have ever owned trouble free was a Toyota. I guess that ought to tell me something. My older Porsche has been pretty good but..... when it does break, man is it going to be expensive to fix (as are my friends BMW's).

To play devils advocate, my '94 Ford Explorer with 180,000 miles which I bought new has started without exception since day one. You can't kill the thing (and believe me we've tried). My wife rolled the car on its side years ago in an ice storm and hydrolocked the motor with oil. Still... I did have to replace the transmission under warranty at 25,000 miles which is pretty appalling for a major truck manufacturer.

MyFord brings to mind a relevant story. It had a serious design flaw. As an Aviation accident/saftey investigator I have enough engineering backround to understand what it was (now).... but I still never saw it coming.

The entire 200+ lbs rear hatch is held open by high pressure gas struts (as used onmost allvehicles). Except Ford had mis-designed the brackets that hold these to the frame of the car. Theywere too small and with too few spot welds. Over time the brackets would flex andsheer the weld points out of the frame via metal fatigue. The result of course, is that a strut would sheer off the car and the entire door would come crashing down. Luckily for me, when it happenned to my wife and daughter (unloading groceries) nobody got hurt. Can you imagine being in the way of that moment arm? It so badly jammed the door in the frame (because the strut was now somewhere it wasn't supposed to be) the dealer had to use a hydraulic jack to get it open. Now the good part......

The dealer fixed for free under normal warranty. THEY ALREADY HAD A RETROFIT KIT!?! It was a bigger bracket now revetted and mig welded to the frame. That means.... they already knew about this problem and had a fix. BUT NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT IT.

NOW THE BEST PART

When they returned the car to me, they had only fixed one bracket!?! I said " the other ones going to sheer off the car the same way..... its only a matter of time". "Oh no.. we've looked at it and its fine." So... I had to pay out of pocket about $400 to have them fix the other one. Years later I found out another owner had brought a lawsuit against Ford thatresulted in a NHTSA "safety recall" of the strut brackets. A "saftey" recall is good because it requires the manufacturer to fix it period dot on their dime (a "general recall" usually has time/mileage limitations).

The upshot was that years later Ford had to reimburse me for that repair. It came has no surprise to me when that whole Firestone tire thing took place. Its the spreadsheet guys vs the costs of the lawyers. I would like to think other manufacturers are different..... but I really don't think they are in just about any industry.

As for the C70:

I had to replace the alternator last year. I have no problem replacing a part with a "normal" MTBF (mean time between failure). As you say... stuff breaks (although that $450 stung a bit.... remember when they used to rewind these things?).

The starting thing is a different story..... its a "C70 problem". I've been told this by several knowledgeable mechanicsnow.Its a small percentage of the cars but..... unfortunately, I have one.

I envy that you found the solution. Ours is fustratingly worse. The dealer has NEVER been able to dupicatethe symptoms. It starts EVERYTIME for them??!! Its so random and infrequent that its hard to pinpoint the component. Its possible that nothing has ever been replaced that is the exact problem and it could simply be a loose wire or connector somewhere.

In truth... I'm trying to get 1 more year out of this car and then (dent to my man-hood) I have a mini-van in my future (kids / sports / etc...). Hopefully a hybrid by then.

Still.... I would like to sell this car someday to someone without having to cross my fingers behind my back.... and tell them that it had a problem we found and fixed.


Thanks for that info..... will pass onto my guy.

 

Since 1998 my wife and I have had four new Mazdas and never had an issue! My Audi's were quite trouble free for the first few years and then they would begin to fall apart. The BMW's have been expensive to me from day one but I cannot describe the joy in driving them.....I will always have one. Right outof the box they are a 'drivers' auto.

As to the Ford, they have been plagued with recalls. Of course as to the Firestone tyres.....I had a set of Firestone 500's back in the 70's on a Cadillac. They all blew out on the hi-way. Firestone had a recall on everyone of those tyres and it was not surprise that they once again had a recall a few years back. I have yet to purchace a Firestone since the 70's and buy only Continental tyres.

Volvo tends to discredit any source that finds issues with the safety of their autos and it did take a proposed class action to "urge" Volvo a year back to extend the warranty on their early vehicles with the Italian electronic throttle body. It is unfortunate that they behave that way but since Volvo touts the safety of their vehicles, I believe that they feel that if they accept the fact that they have a safety issue they they cannot in good faith continue selling the safety slogans.

Lastly, my 02 c70 is a keeper.............my wife and associates kid me about keeping the car but I simply adore the styling of that old auto..................besides, as I relate to them, I still have my 1965 Austin Healy that I bought new in London and so since Volvo advertises "Volvo for life" (as long as it is serviced 'weekly') why not keep it? Who knows, maybe I will be competing with the Volvo 1800 that has one million miles on it..................

r.