I just spent $55 for the dealer service people to spend 3 days saying they could not find anything. So its off to the Forums for help.

I have a 2002 Volvo S60 T5. Since my last service visit I have had a problem.

About 4 mornings our of 7 (and only in first thing in the morning), I start the car and while still in the garage the engine sounds rough??? The brakes feel funny like when you are out of brake fluid. As I back up I notice I have to really stand on the brakes to get the car to stop. I have found that restarting the car, gunning the engine a few times, or just lettiing run for a minute all fix the problem and it does not show up the rest of the day.

Of course when I bring it to the Volvo service center they never experience the problem. They even drive it to the foreman's home so that the can check it in his garage in the morning. No problem found. No bad codes show up in the diagnostics. They say that they cannot help until they see the problem.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

 

How many miles on the car? Have you had the fuel filter replaced? A tank of dirty gas might have set off the problem. I also experienced something similar on my Camry about 10 years ago. It started after spraying degreaser under the hood at the self car wash. It may just be that you have some moisture in one of your components and after a long night of sitting in the garage it condenses. But I could be way off. Lets see if someone else posts something different...

 

There is about 55,000 miles. You know they replaced the fuel filter when they did the service just before I started having problems??

Would your theory also expain the brake behavior?

 

Do the brakes feel that way only while your car is idling rough? Are the RPMs eratic?Does it give you the impression that its going to stall out?The power brakes work off engine power, so if the RPMs are cutting out you will definitely find it harder to stop.

If the dealer just recently installed a new filter I still say that my other comment is still a possibility (moisture). Question: is it somewhat humid where you are or in your garage? Have you experienced the problem if the car is left outside the garage? I'm not a mechanic, but this is just a guess. Try this if you can: leave the car outside tonight and see if it still acts up.