Recently my 2006 s60 got the engine light on the dash.. The engine also vibrates or shakes when in drive or stopped at light. What could be the cause of this? Online says many and i guess i have to get a tow truck to get it to a garage.

i just have a feeling this will cost me alot. I've already been ripped off twice by Mechanics..

 

The check engine light is on because there is a self diagnostic code stored in the engine control unit and it thinks you are polluting.

The first step is to scan the control units and any codes stored will give you a hint as to what may be causing the problem. If it "also vibrates or shakes - when stopped" - that might simply be a missfire caused by worn out spark plugs or a bad coil.

How were you "ripped off"?

 

you can rent/borrow for free an OBD code reader from Autozone and other big box parts stores. You'll find a connector port - usually under the dash on the drivers side - kind of looks like an old school PC printer port (2 inches x 1/2 inch). connect the reader, turn the key to position 2 and follow the menus on the code reader to see what codes have been set. Most likely you will find a set of codes including misfires which will cause the shaking (ie car is running on one less cylinder ) Post up the codes or google online to get some possible causes. Keep in mind, these are fault codes that get interpreted by a mechanic and don't always directly point to the failed part.

 

The Volvo dealer mechanics tried to talk me into buying a brand new engine ($17,000 was their quote.) When i took the car in when i had alot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust and a burning smell in the cabin.. That was AFTER they charged me over $200 just to tell me a whole bunch of other **** needed work when the problem all along was just low oil.

and another charged me over $400 just to tell me i need to fix this and that..
So i got ripped over $600 for just talk and no work done.. i've since seen many complaints online about the 2nd place.

Anyways for this thread topic i was just told to get new plugs (found a guy down the rd from me) so they can check which one of the coils is faulty. (He used the OB2 scanner) If that does not solve the problem then injectors will be checked next. I also think it's time to maybe change the engine mounts as well.

 

First - I'm not trying to defend the shops that you talk about - But

White smoke from the exhaust and a burning smell in the car - is not simply caused by "low oil". Low oil can cause failures that can cause white smoke (turbo bearing/seals) - but putting oil in at that point does not solve the parts destroyed from lack of lubrication.

Scanning the car, and if missfire codes are stored - checking the compression, plugs and maybe replacing the 1 coil that's bad would be a reasonable course of action. As far as engine mounts or other work needed - the "white smoke" is very concerning.

 

Well I changed the spark plugs back when i started this thread and still had some shaking with the engine light on...The local mechanic i went to used his scanner and said it was a faulty ignition coil... Replaced it and everything's been fine since...

 

My engine light is on again but otherwise the car seems to be fine. (see my thread on this) will try to get it scanned again to see what comes up before ordering any needed parts.

 

what happened with the white smoke? Are you consuming any coolant or oil? Did you stop by a local big box auto-parts store to see if they loan OBD2 scanners (most do this for free as they want to sell you some parts :-) ) You are correct, the next step is to get the car scanned again for any CEL fault codes. As a practice, you should also ask your tech to write down for you what they found or watch when they scan. You should get a list of "P codes" that you can google or post on the forum to get a sense of what the code is telling you. For example, a bad coil on #3 would typically show up as a P0303 - which is a misfire detected on cylinder 3 but other things like incorrect fuel trim (say due to a faulty pressure regulator) can also cause misfires so your tech should be looking for other clues...

 

The white smoke problem was gone once i topped up the engine with oil as i said earlier. So yes i got ripped off by those shops i went to at the time. Before i get it scanned i will do this:

 

So i did the above and got the following:

BCM checking
SRS ready
TCM checking
ECM dtc set
AUM ready
CEM dtc set
DIM dtc set
DDM checking
CCM dtc set
PDM checking
PSM checking
REM checking
UEM checking

I just had the car scanned and was told this code came up: PO170. Looking online it means a fuel trim malfunction. The mechanic also reset it so the engine symbol is gone from the dash now.

 

Reset means he cleared the code from the ECU. The P0170 fuel trim code is an "averaging" code that looks for any time the fuel trim calculation is out of range - either showing a lean or a rich mixture based on inputs from the MAF and other sensors. So don't be surprised if it shows up again after a few hundred miles of driving. This is a very general code and can be caused by a number of things including intake air or vacuum leaks, dirty MAF of throttle body, incorrect fuel pressure (ie pump, pressure regulator or pressure sensor) etc. Should it return, more testing needs to be done - I'd probably start by checking for air/vacuum leaks, checking the intake tubing by the MAF to see if there's any oily film (say from a wonky PCV oil separator), clean the MAF, clean the throttle body. After that I'd measure fuel pressure at idle, at RPM etc. Also pay attention to the temperature gauge. Does it creep up or report a different operating temp compared to the past? Could be the ECT coolant temp sensor acting up... You can measure its resistance to test as well. A pro shop will probably start by doing a deeper OBD scan of the run time data to see what the fuel trim looks like during a drive cycle.

 

Yep. He told me it would most likely come back and that maybe moisture in the fuel line/system could be a cause. Online search says alot of the things you said as well.