Hey guys,

I'm really sorry to make an inaugural post about my issue. I'm a computer tech, but automobile retarded - if it can't be fixed in 10 minutes with a screwdriver and a socket wrench, it's beyond my scope of abilities.

I just got my Volvo V70 two weeks ago from a used car lot. It's got ~142K miles, and I've already put $1,400 into it between new tires, a wheel alignment, brake hoses, and something in the exhaust (a flex joint of some kind?), and a pair of lamps for the low-beam headlights. The air conditioner doesn't work and the cruise control works when it feels like it, but I figure that those are repairs that are 1.) also expensive and 2.) things I can put off until the spring. So between the dealer and my mechanic, the money I'd been saving for a really nice laptop turned into money for the semi-shiny, new-to-me V70.

Today, I'm driving home and the ETS light comes on. The manual told me to try turning my car off and back on again (a solution that I am quite familiar with as a computer tech ), but this yielded no solution. I fired up Opera Mobile on my phone and found this forum, and read a few threads on the topic.

According to what I read, people who had this happen found their cars stalling out, or ending up in a 'limp home' mode. My car exhibited neither of these. I then called my mechanic, who encouraged me to head to Autozone to have the computer codes read. When I got to Autozone, they were like, "the ETS and the diagnostic computer are two different systems, we can't read the ETS". If I had a $20 bill in my pocket, I would have offered it to the guy just to humor me anyway, but unfortunately I'm a broke college alum and thus couldn't have taken that course of action. However, the customer at the counter told me that his wife had the same car, and while her ETS light came on all the time when it was raining, she never experienced a problem because of it. For her, it was little more than Volvo's loving way of reminding her that it was raining.

So, my questions are these:

1.) Are my solutions limited to hitting the dealer and dropping half a grand and getting it replaced, only to have them find out other stuff that's wrong with it? I have neither the money to pay for much further than a replacement ETS if necessary, nor the expertise to tell them to go fly a kite if they try to rip me off.
2.) Is there any known correlation to the ETS light and the weather, like the customer at Autozone said?
3.) I'm just a smidge terrified of my car stalling while driving. Is my only recourse to have this looked at?
4.) Is there anything else relevant I should know?

I'm sorry about the nature of the thread since I know it was addressed, but unfortunately like I said I'm car retarded and am hoping someone here can help break it down for me.

Thanks in advance!

Joey

 

Beginning in '99, Volvo started using a throttle system
with the life expectency of an 8 track tape. Poor design.
You can learn a great deal about the ETS issues here:

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/for...forum.php?f=12

Great Cars! Ya just gotta work out a few kinks...
The key word here is XeMODex:

http://xemodex.com/