Hello everyone, i'm hoping someone can shed some light on my situation. Have a 99 Volvo S70 turbo. The other day i pulled out and passed someone full throttle, had a puff of black smoke and then stuttering occurred after i was passed and the car ran very rough as if it was misfiring. I figured it was a coil or more then one because the car was running very poorly. Had to get it towed back home, happened to be i was just down the rd. So i tried the coils with a spark plug only had one dead coil. I Changed it out and all the spark plugs. Had spark on that coil now with a new one. Started the car it ran just a hair better but still idled very rough but would now rev up. It seemed to be smooth around 3000 rpms with just a little bit of a miss and smelt of gas. Took out all the plugs again cylinder 1 the spark plug was wet with gas, #4 looked like i just put it in and 2,3&5 were black looking. Have taken all coils out and tried them in another car as well as the plugs and that car ran smoothly. So i ruled out plugs and coils. I had a neighbour up with his odb2 reader and it showed code P0300. Any ideas where to go to next. Any help would be appreciated. Also when maf is unplugged when car is running car quits so i take it it is working properly too. The other car i Have is non turbo so i can't try the maf from that one.

 

P0300s indicate a generic or random misfire so you are on the right path checking coils. I don't know if simply putting the coils in another car is a good enough test - the problems with coils come up under load (ie the can spark across the gap at idle but at RPM with lots of gas mixture they literally flame out). It could be a mixture issue, which opens up a lot of possibilities - air leaks (vacuum lines and given your story, I'd check the intake airflow from turbo to intercooler to intake - including some of the adjunct ports to the PCV system. You may want to open up the intake to check the MAF and idle air valve and throttle body for any oil/gunk to be cleaned out. Next on my list would be to check fuel pressure starting with the pump relay and pressure at the rail (possible regulator issue).

 

Thanks for the info, i love this site and have used info of it many times to fix or figure out my problems. I will get right on it and let you know what happens . I'm not to sure where some of these hoses are but will learn very quickly. On the other hand i did take the coils out of my good working car and placed in the poorly running car with no change. The rough running car runs rough at idle and will only rev to 4000 rpms it doesn't cut out but will not rev any farther it just holds at a steady 4000 to maybe 4100 rpms. I was also told by a reputable volvo mechanic to try replacing my boost sensor on the airbox? Any thoughts on that? Am going to get to work on what you suggested now.

Thanks, Al

 

I was wondering how i would check the airflow that you mentioned from turbo to intercooler to intake. I looked at the MAF and it was bright shinny and looked very clean as well as the little wire inside there too not sure if thats the idle air control valve. The vac lines seem to be ok and not filled with gunk or oil. I take it there is a gasket between the ETM and intake manifold? If so i will have to get one before i pull it off. Its supposed to rain here the next few days and i don 't have a spot inside to work on it so i will be slowed down over the weekend to work on it. I also took a good fuel pump relay from another car with no change in poor performance. I will have to see if a friend has a fuel pressure tester as i do not and don't really have the money to have it towed somewhere.

 

So i was pokin around lookin for chafes in the wiring harness for the coils they looked really good until i pulled away some of the broken loom and there were 3 red wires running through a short piece of heat shrink tubing, with melted red wire insulation bubbled out each end of the heat shrink tubing. Guess someone did a rapair job at some point. I've had the car 3 years and suprised it didn't catch fire. So to take the wiring harness out of another car and put in this one i'm guessing i have to cut it and the use wire connectors to splice it back together. Just wondering what the best way to do this is?

 

So cut away the heat shrint tubing and the red wire from coil 4,5 and one other one are all joined together and the join with 3 Red wires, should these be all seperate and not all joined together? There joined together right around where the oil cap is. Is this correct? Sorry for all the posts just trying to post what i come across in hopes of further insight.

Thanks Al

 

If the car was running fine before, I would repair the wires they way they were joined together in the first place, or like you said, you could cut out the coil harness and splice in a new one if you want to go that route.

 

I ended up not taking the wires apart just cut the heat shrink to get a better look and they don't actually look melted, but they are all spliced together.Its almost as if someone covered them in a silicone based clear liquid electrical tape and it mist of oozed out the ends when they had heated up the heat shrink. Going to do a fuel pressure test tomorrow so we will see how that pans out.

Also i realized in my earlier posts that i was reading the cylinder placement wrong. I was going 1-2-3-4-5 as if you were sitting in the car not standing in front of it. My mistake sorry guys.

 

So i got to do my fuel pressure test at the rail today. These are the results. With the car running psi was at 50-55 psi same with when accelerated pressure stayed the same. Accelerated a number of times with no change out of the 50-55 psi range.

When i shut the car off and the engine came to a rest the pressure read 50 psi. Within 5 mins of shutting car off pressure was down to 40 psi. At 10 mins it was down to 34 psi. At 15 mins its about 29 psi. After 20 mins it was at 28 psi.

I heard it was supposed to hold pressure for at least 20 mins. Is this true and what do should i do next. I've been around Volvo's a bit but mostly the trusty 850's.

Thanks, Al

 

I also noticed today that the fuel injector on cylinder #1 i can turn it back and forth just a little bit and all others are snug. Also i never removed the fuel rail so there is not really any reason for it to be loose. Would this cause any problems there is no visible leaking gas out of this injector where it connects to the intake manifold and the fuel rail.

Thanks, Al

 

Fuel pressure sounds fine, and it is normal for injectors to be able to move a tad. I notice your car is a T-5 (with the Turbo) Have you checked the turbo pressure hoses (the big black rubber hoses) going to the throttle body from the Turbo as well as the ones connecting the metal pipe that goes over the engine to the Turbo? It is quite possible one of them came loose since the issue started when you were passing another car. Please check all those hoses and report back. Also, have you cleared the P0300 code yet and has it come back? Good luck

 

Update: check the hoses from the trubo and replaced some of them because of them were detoreiated but not cracked through. There were no loose hoses or hoses that had popped off. Also ones that connect to the black pipe going to turbo are tight and not loose.

I once again took out all my spark plugs one at a time cylinder one the spark plug was sooty looking around the egde but where the electrode is it was white like it was hot, cylinder 2 was the same but not as white in the middle, cylinder 3 was the same as cylinder 2 and cylinder 4 was the same as number 1 but number 5 on the other hand the plug is wet like the fuel is not being burned. I once again took a spark plug and coil from a perfect running car with no change in how this one runs it still has a rough idle and a miss at higher rpm's. This is all done with the car in park as i don't want to drive it and destroy something.

I do not own a compression tester but i took the boot off of one of the coils and shoved a rag into it nice and tight and then firmly pushed it into the spot for your coil and plug and i really pushed it in there and when the car was turned over it popped out. I know this doesn't give an accurate compression reading but i did it just to see if there was any compression there and there was.

I had the code cleared the day my friend was here with his code reader and it did come back, with the same code P0300. I was wondering if i should see if he wouldn 't mind doing it again.

Any ideads where to go next?

 

Anyone think it could be the injector for that cylinder? Just a stab in the dark, i'm just a bit baffled.

 

its possible it could be the injector or it could be the spark. Have you tried swapping coil packs to see if that changes the location of the suspect plug? In the mean time you can consider adding some injector cleaner to the gas...

 

I took a coil pack from another car that i have which i have and runs A1 and the spark plug as well and placed it in the rough idle running car and it still ran rough and the plug was still wet and did not look like it had really burnt the gas or maybe some of the gas as it was the outer part of the plug that was wet and the electrode part was dry but still looked clean not sooty or white looking like the rest.
I went to a scrap yard today but none of the volvo's had the same injector number. The number on my injector is 0280155830 and the closest to that at the yard was 0280155831 the only digit different is the one on the very end. One ends in a 0 and the other in a 1. Would those injectors work? There only $4.50 a piece.
In the mean time im going to take that injector out and clean it and maybe the other 4 too and see what that does and how there spraying. I will update what that does.

 

Is p0300 the only code you have? It should be accompanied with a p0301, 0302, 0303, 0304 or 0305. The p0300 code only calls out a random misfire, the 0301 - 0305 should tell you which cylinder(s) is/are misfiring.

 

P0300 was the only code that came up there was no corresponding code to what cylinder tho. Just the random misfire code.

I believe there was another code of P1550, which I think I read it had to do with the speed sensor or the abs module which would make sense as my abs module I take it the soldier is broken inside like many other's. The speedo still works and I have just pulled the fuse for the abs as it was kicking in all the time when it shouldn 't.

* I have had the abs fuse pulled for over a year with no problems so I didn't think that this would cause my random misfire code.

 

[QUOTE=Crousetownguy;429807]P0300 was the only code that came up there was no corresponding code to what cylinder tho. Just the random misfire code.


Strange.....I've never heard of just the P0300 by itself. Since it seems that it is isolated to the one cylinder that the plug is wet with unburned fuel, I would check the wiring or that coil pack, especially the contacts at the connector. Make sure they are firmly seated in the connector body and not loose.

 

How is this coming along?? Any updates?

 

Hi, sorry I haven't updated. I have not got my problem fixed yet. In the mean time I have picked up a 98 S70 T5 SE, 260 000kms.

I took out the inectors and cleaned them with a homemade device, i'm not sure what the spray pattern is supposed to look like. Should it just mist when it sprays or should it shoot out a bit and then mist? I'm thought about trying to find a shop who can test them. The car has 360 000kms so would it be possible they all could be worn out?

I have not had a chance to look at the wires yet and connection is secure when pluged in, and the coils from the other 99 S70 5speed I have here I have put into that plug with the same results so i really don't think it is the coil on that cylinder. I have also taken that coil from cylinder #5 and put in the 99 S70 5speed with the engine underload no misfires.

Its going to be warm and sunny tomorrow so I am going to look at the wires and see what I can find. I know there is the same voltage as my battery on the red wire with the key turned to the acc position. I have tested that with my multi meter, which i'm still learning.

I read a post that the solenoid for the exhaust vvt was stuck open causing a random misfire. I also saw a video that when tested with a multi meter it should "short out" leaving you with a reading of zero on the ohms setting. So i thought i'd check mine and it ready in the 160 ohms range. I understand when it sticks open it keeps the timing retard if thats right.

Maybe if the wires look fine I will see my neighbour and see if he minds coming up again with his code reader and see if it has put out any other code(s).

Really hate to give up on the car as it is still in good shape and fun to drive.