Hello All, My name is Aaron and I am new to this forum. I finally decided ask the experts since my volvo service center seems befuddled by my issue. Let me start by giving a brief history of my relationship with my 1998 V70 Wagon. I purchased it in January 2003 with 112,000 miles on it. It had a few minor body scratches but seemed to be in good working condition. The salesman said that the person who sold it drove it about 80 miles a day to work. She had all her scheduled maintenance done at the dealership. The car has 180,000 miles on her today.

In March 2003, My wife was traveling on I83 in Pennsylvania and a brake drum from a tractor trailer shot across the road and lodged itself under the right front control arm. It snapped some of the suspension parts and I had it repaired. Since this incident, I have changed the oil as per manufacturer's specs, changed the brakes, and replaced the tires. I had the O2 sensors replaced about 7 months ago because the check engine light came on. Within 100 miles the light came back on and the code advised that the O2 sensors were bad again.(according to the Automotive Tech.) I did not replace them this time.

About 4 months ago, my Volvo started acting up when I was traveling in City (stop and Go) traffic. Upon come to a stop, the vehicle would try to cut out. RPM dropped to 0 and the car sputtered, shifting into neutral would alleviate the problem for the short term. This problem didn't happen all the time but it continued to get more frequent. So I took it to the Volvo Service Center nearby and told the what had happened. They advised that my vehicle needed a tune-up. I agreed that it was about time for a tune-up, so I had them tune it up. They also advised that the throttle body needed to be cleaned and I was thinking that oh yeah with 180,000 miles it probably. So, $1,000 later, I have a tuned-up vehicle with a clean throttle body.

A week or so later I am driving at 55MPH and the car starts to sputter. Never stalled but lost power. When I would approached a slow down area (toll plaza) the car would attempt to stall out. I ran it down to the Same service station and it stalled coming into the facility. They took the vehicle and advised that they couldn't duplicate the problem. So I picked it back up. I had them put on a fuel filter I had previously purchased. Minimal cost this time.

The same thing happened within 2 weeks. I returned the car and this time the Manager came with me on a test drive. The same thing happened on the test drive. The shop replaced the fuel pump. $636.00.

2.5 weeks later the sputtering stalling came back. I returned it to the shop and they are now advising that it is the Catalytic converter is "broken up." They want $1500 for the replacing of the converter.

Now the troubling part, The first time I went in I was trying to use some of my limited knowledge and told them it seemed like it needed a tune-up and that is what I got. The second high cost trip to the shop, I said that it seemed like it may be starving for fuel. So, the Fuel pump needs to be replaced. This most recent time I asked if the catalytic converter could be bad. Low and behold the catalytic converter is bad and needs to be replaced. So when this doesn't fix the problem, what's next?

I am planning on picking up the vehicle without replacing the converter. I will buy an aftermarket one and replace it myself.

I thank everyone whi has taken the time to read this rant. I appreciate any replies that may give me insight into why my Volvo is acting up.

Thanks
Aaron

 

Has the fuel pump relay been replaced?

 

No, that has not been replaced. Could this cause an intermittent problem?

 

Yes it can you can remove it then remove the plastic cover and check the solder joints.

 

Interesting - having the same problems. Randomly engine looses all power - on the highway it usually comes back after a couple of seconds. At stop, complete stall, but after cranking, it restarts and is happy again. Always random, but more often when it is warm. I am hoping a can skip a few needless fixes from your learning. I would love to see where this ends.

 

My '98 S90 is starting to show the same problem with increasing frequency - random short stumbling at steady highway speed and random stalling at stoplights. No engine codes. Starts right up again. New fuel filter, clean throttle body, new fuel pressure regulator, new camshaft position sensor, new fuel system relay. Would love to hear how others resolved these problems.

 

+1 to what Tech said. These are all classic symptoms of failing fuel pump relay.

It still amazes me how many pro techs still miss this during diagnosis. Then again, i am still amazed car manufacturers don't install more reliable relays either....

Still, once a tech has seen/experienced this failure, it's the first thing they ck from there on out. Back when i was a green tech, I once test drove a customer's car for over an hour before it failed; when it did, i verfied with a meter that the fuel pump relay had indeed failed. This customer had already replaced a bunch of other parts at another dealership and would not let us replace the relay until we verified that was the problem.

Maybe they want to sell the more expensive parts first before selling you a relatively inexpensive relay that you can plug in yourself.

In you're interested in real cheap DIY relay repair, found this link about 850 fuel pump relay; wouldn't be surprised if it's same or similar to S70, but Tech would know for sure. Tech is the MAN; listen to him!

 

You all had me all excited.... headed out and bought me one of those Relays for my 98 v70. Plugged the little sucker in and the car ran beautifully. I knew not to get excited because what ever it was acted up very infrequently. I was getting all confident... my trusty volvo was trust again I hoped. Then tonight, coming out of the swim club, merging into traffic - bang - it happened again. Complete loss of power for about 2 or 3 seconds and then the engine picked up again and charged down the road. Dang it!

So what is the next step for a cheap skate like me. The problem is only intermintent - randomly with the engine starving for a few second at cruising speeds, or stalling completely at places like stop lights. Only happens so often, but always at the worst times. And only happens for a few seconds and then life is good again.

Any Ideas? I was really hoping the Relay was it.

 

Is your Check Engine Light (CEL) on? If so have it scanned for trouble codes; might point you to the right area.

When the engine power goes off, and then comes back on, is it sudden, like someone flipping a switch? If so, then it's probably an electrical issue (that's why I suggested the FPR). To find something that intermittent won't be easy. I would make sure you don't have any loose/corroded battery cable connections; also ck any main pwr fuses if applicable. Beyond that, it's a matter of either doing extensive instrumentation of the vehicle and driving it till it occurs, then cking the instrumentation to diagnose the failure mode. Other than that you're really just guessing and doing the shotgun method of diagnosis (replacing parts until something fixes it). Unfortunately the latter method is often used (even by pro techs) because it is usually more expedient.

If the engine pwr shut off/on is more gradual, then I would look more at possible fuel delivery issues.

Again, ck for Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC) first...

 

Thanks... yes, it is a hard off, the back on again. No gradual starving or loss of power.

Appreciate the advice.

 

My V40 wagon does the same . When the engine looses power or cuts out the radio code needs to be entered . Indicating an electrical fault not fuel .
Does your car need the radio code??

 

Nope, unfortunately. No other electrical side effects I can point to.

 

My 98 XC70 just started doing the same thing last week. I'm following this and other threads in search of some answers. It sounds like the fuel pump relay may be the culprit so I will stop at Radio Shack on my way home today and grab the two components that Ozark Lee describes in his writeup. I'll let you know the results.

The writeup.

 

Just a follow up since I received a PM about this - so I thought I would post solution for everyone.

It turned out my car had a failing sensor, oxygen if I recall, that when it failed, was causing a fault in the cars computer it didn't know how to deal with. The car would then set itself into a "safe" mode of operation at reduced output to enable the car to be driven back for serivce.

The problem would go away once the car was stopped for a while and then restarted. The sensor was effectively resetting itself, and there would be no problems until it failed again.

We replaced the sensor (relatively cheap fix) and since then have not had the problem show up again.

Hope this helps anyone else with the same problem.

 

Hi friends, I recently owned a used volvo V70 and was happy with it. But unfortunately when I did my first long drive then the car just lost power, the dashboard just goes off, the transmission will not work anymore but the engine is still working well.
somebody told me maybe is the ECU problem. I am planning to visit the volvo dealer here in Orlando but I just wanna know if there is anybody with a similar problem and what was the remedy for this kind of problem.
It is so sad that Volvo is trying to break my pocket right now.
Any suggestion is welcome

Finger