Hello!

New to the forum and car repair in general. I've got an older volvo that was passed onto me. It's been running well, but recently it started dying in idle. The car burns oil, so after some research I figured it was likely an issue with one of the spark plugs. I replaced all the spark plugs so I might be able to get an idea of which cylinders are burning oil, and none of them really looked great.

After replacing the plugs the car stopped dying in idle, but still misfired frequently. After taking it on the highway to get it home it started to be difficult to keep it at the speed limit(65 mph). The check engine light came on and I bought a diagnostic computer. I got the codes:

P0303
P0305
P0302
P0304
P0300
P0101

I cleaned out the air filter and P0101 seems to have disappeared for now. I was wondering if what the next steps I should take to try and diagnose the misfire problem should be.

The nearest import shop is 45 minutes away and I'd rather not have to get it towed out there if it's something I could fix myself. School is starting up soon, so I'm getting pretty nervous, since I need the car to get to classes and work.

Is this something that someone with very little experience might be able to fix?

Any help is very much appreciated!

EDIT: Some additional information. The engine can rev above 3000 rpm, somebody said that could be relevant for diagnosing the cat.

 

Multiple cylinder misfire, a number of things can cause this.
How many miles on the car? Everything original?
You can throw a lot of money changing things out, Some things may need changed anyway.
Vacuum hoses - look for old, cracked or stiff hoses. Replace as needed.
Coils/wires - if you have over 100k and @12 YO I'd change them anyway.
You're going to need to run a OBDII on it and look at deeper data than just trouble codes. another 60-80 bucks.

 

Thanks for the reply!
The car has 236k miles on it. As far as I know it hasn't had much work done to it, so I'm pretty sure everything is original

Could it be an issue with the ignition coils? It doesn't seem likely that they'd all start failing at the same time, but is that something that could happen?
Also I'd heard of switching around the ignition coils to troubleshoot if it's a problem with one of them, but is that worth doing in this situation? (since I have so many misfires)

I've bought an OBDII. Do you know of a reference I can use to cross reference the rest of my data? I see a lot of info, but I don't know what isn't running up to snuff.

Also I don't know if it's relevant, but it runs smooth at first and progressively gets worse.
I'm currently seeking the maintenance history, so I can figure out the last time the ignition coils and fuel injectors were replaced.
Sorry if I asked a lot of questions!

Thanks for your time!

 

You're welcome but I should point out I'm no expert, I just try and relate what has worked, or not, for me.
Yeah, records would be great, conceivably say you some money and time.
But it's not unheard of to see a car - even a Volvo- rack up some mileage with little maintenance.
Most common bad actors with multiple misfires would be spark and fuel, with vacuum and intake leaks not unheard of. You see crank position sensors go bad but I haven't any experience with those. Bum fuel pump possible too.

I agree but if original they are on shaky ground. Careful shopping shop keep the price reasonable and would not be a bad idea anyway, easy to change as well.

Google "Fuel Trim" and read up, get your figures and see if you can make sense out of it. Someone will be able too.

No need to apologize! It'll get sorted out, just take some time, it's a great car when running well. Just so much to consider - for instance, if you have to remove the intake manifold because it's leaking then you may as well clean the ETM and replace the flame trap, so you don't want stumble around blindly (don't ask me how I know about that approach)