Alright so I cleared the codes, switched the coils, and it's still throwing a random misfire for cylinder 3. I had two of my mechanic buddies helping me (at one of their houses, they didn't have all the tools they would have had at their shop) and they did a bunch of "redneck testing". They said it's getting spark, it's getting air, and the cylinder has good compression.
Process of elimination leads to fuel being the only other possible issue. I have really bad luck with volvos, so it wouldn't surprise me if I ended up being one of the few people who has a bad injector.
I had a similar issue in my t/a a few years ago and it ended up being an o-ring that hasd dry rotted and was messing up the a/f ratio. That car doesn't get driven much, and my s40 wasn't driven much for the first 14 years of its life, so I guess that could be a possibility.
I'm taking it to a local Volvo repair shop tomorrow, my mechanical knowledge and skills have been stretched beyond their limits.

 

That car doesn't have the ability to pinpoint which cylinder is misfiring, so I wouldn't trust the generic codes.

 

Oh. That's not what the Volvo tech told me.

 

what did you do to "switch the coil"? Keep in mind the coil fires 2 plugs in these models unlike the newer s/v70s which have one coil per plug.

 

I took the coil from cylinder 3 and put it on cylinder 4. I took cylinder 4's coil and put it on cylinder 3.

 

I am a Volvo tech. Why is a Volvo tech using a generic scanner?

 

Volvo tech told me over the phone to try it. My buddies who were helping me are not Volvo techs.

 

Ok, I will try again. Swapping coils alone will not give you a proper test.

It most likely needs a full tune up. 2 coils, 2 wires, and 4 plugs. I went through the same thing you are now with my 2001. I even took off the injectors and hooked up 12v and a fuel pump submerged in injector cleaner, paint thinner, and SeaFoam. Ran each individual injector and measured flow rates. Each injector worked fine. Put it all back together and the car still had a misfire. Finally broke down and spent the money for new coils, wires, and plugs and it ran beautifully.

 

Coils and wires are being replaced tomorrow, hopefully that fixes it.
Apparently all my brakes are worn too, and the shop wants $1000 for that. That seems ridiculously high. I can get all four rotors and all the pads for around $220 plus $70 to have someone bleed it. What the hell are they charging me for? Calipers shouldn't go bad at 65k miles should they?

 

ES6T will tell you $1,000 is very reasonable for rotors and pads all round. After all there is probably over an hour of labor in that job if you do it right.

But here's a heads up. I bought brake rotors for my 2000 V40 from swedishautoparts.com. When they showed up they were high quality Brembos, the fronts made in Italy, the rears in China, IIRC. Fronts $13.49 each, rears $11.25 each. All I can think is they are blowing out old inventory. Installed with Volvo pads and brakes work great.

VOLVO S40 BRAKE PADS ROTORS & RELATED 2000-2012 at Swedish Auto Parts

 

You get so hung up on how long jobs take. I'm surprised you don't claim brakes take 10 minutes like every other job you've mentioned lately. Like it or not, it isn't about how long the job takes us. It's what book time pays. I know you think we should not get paid for labor or diagnosis or anything, but I don't think you work for free. If you pay someone to do work, it always costs more. That goes for anything. Do you go out to eat and then complain because if you went to the grocery store and bought the food and then prepared it yourself it would cost less than what the place charges?

If that price is from a dealer, it's probably pretty close. We aren't going to order closeout brakes from the internet for someone.

 

I never claimed any job takes 10 minutes, and I never said no one should get paid. Would you pay someone $600 for something you could do yourself in 2-3 hours?
I think you're missing the point that this is a 15 year old Volvo worth maybe $3k. Some shop is asking me to spend around $1500 for brakes, coils, and wires. Not sure how much you know about finance, but that's a terrible return on investment. And at the end of the day, it's still a Volvo. I'm paying BMW prices for Volvo looks and performance.

 

First of all, I wasn't talking to you.

If that quote is from a dealer, you can't compare aftermarket brakes to that quote. I doubt you are getting Volvo brakes for $220.

And if your car is an investment, I don't think you know much about finance.

 

My degree in economics disagrees with you. I was offered $2500 for the car, as is, on a trade in. Spending $1000 in brakes won't make it a $3500 car. Probably should have mentioned that, as that was my train of thought.
Not sure how that wasn't directed towards me, but if you say so, then I apologize for the hostile nature of my last post.
You guys know more about these cars than I do, I'm here for your advice, but I can't see any sane person spending that much money on a car this old that they don't like.
I work for a very large auto parts distributor and can get a pretty good discount on these parts. I had one of the retail stores price out rotors and pads and they quoted me around $220. I've changed Volvo pads and rotors before, I'd like to think I could do it again.

 

Cars are never investments. You can buy a new car, drive it off the lot and lose money immediately. Putting money into a car does not mean it is worth that money. But people chose to maintain them because they know the service history. A lot of people prefer to put some money into a car they know the history of rather than take on a car payment or buy another used car that may need work. But if you don't like the car, then obviously your situation is different.

I get a nice discount on dealer parts and can do the labor for free and it isnt even very profitable for me to buy and "flip" cars when I factor in time spent versus.

In any event, no worries. If you look at some of recent posts by migbro and myself, you'll understand I was talking to him.

As for the brakes, I'm not saying they are low quality. But pricing dealer parts vs. aftermarket isn't apples to apples. I also don't know if the $1000 price was for dealer parts in the first place, or if it's some indy shop or other place that thinks you have you replace calipers with every brake job.

 

I've complained about dealer prices on here before... like the $2000+ I was quoted for replacing a VVT... and it is hard not to compare the repair costs to the value of the car. But I do realize that dealerships and mechanics are there to make money, not help people.


What you have to realize is that for a mechanic fixing the same problem a car worth $20,000 costs the same as on a $2,000 used beater. Driving an old car that is worth little to nothing in resale value has its risks. Personally I wouldn't drive an older car if I was not able to do most of the repair and maintenance myself. I'm 40 yrs old and my back really feels it when I'm down under a car for 3-4 hours. The time will come when I physically cannot do the work... and that is when a car payment might make more sense than paying a mechanic to keep my used cars on the road.

 

i know cars aren't an investment (excluding classic cars that appreciate) but I'm trying to minimize my loss on this car.
I've had bad experiences with Volvo as I got screwed by my '98 S70. I spent several thousand fixing it just to have it completely die on me at 120k miles. Got $400 for it from a scrapyard. I spent all that money and still ended up with a car payment. I'm trying to avoid the same fate with this car.
Are the rear brakes on this car the ones that have to be screwed back in with that special tool, or pushed back in with a piston compressor?

 

There is a special tool to screw the rear caliper pistons in while pushing them in.

 

Ha! I'm 57 years old and I'm still doing it. And not because I can't afford to pay someone to work on my car. I do it because I have never, and I mean never, had anyone work on my car, dealer or independent, who has done a good and thorough job. It's literally always been half-assed, corner-cutting work served with a big heaping side of condescension and snark.

Maintaining old cars is a weird hobby that most people avoid if they can for damn good reason. It's harder with Volvos because so many of them have stupid design features that only a moron would think was a good idea.

I've always enjoyed doing my own mechanical work but I will be moving on to new or almost new vehicles fairly soon.

 

Well I'm going to get the brake stuff this weekend so by Monday I'll have all new spark stuff and all new stop stuff.
I'd like to keep this car until February (so I can pay the taxes on it instead of a new car for a year). What small/cheap stuff can I do to help this car stay alive? Plugs, wires, coils, rotors, pads are all new. Everything else has 65k miles.