Our 2001 V70 wagon starts when we turn the key and revs up but immediately cuts out and stops. Our gas is a bit low. We have checked the oil, water/coolant, fuses in the engine compartment, brake fluid. Any other suggestions? In our older Volvo, there was a trick for shutting off the computer and turning on limp mode to get it to a service station, but we can't figure out how to do that on this model. Any suggestions?? We are homebound with relatives and want to get out of the house!!!

 

The same thing happened to mine, but not as severe.Read through to page 2 on this post answered by Tech. It may help.

https://volvoforums.com/m_80429/tm.htm



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We solved the problem--a neighbor fetched some gas we added to the tank. Although there had been about two gallons remaining, and even though the symptoms did not seem like water in the gas, our first guess was that maybe there was, and so we had added dry gas (denatured alcohol--about 6 ounces). No change. Feeling that maybe adding good gas would fix it, tried that and it worked. Six new gallons did the trick.

Mysterious why the symptoms manifested as they did--would start, rev up and cut out. We puzzled over whether the start inhibitor (immobolizer) was cutting in. Thought maybe the problem was the oxygen sensor. Wondered how we could get the engine into limp mode--still don't know how to do that (Which was easy on our 1993 Turbo Volvo: just pull the plug to the computer. Can't even find the computer in this car.)

We are posting this so others with water-in-gas problems will see these symptoms reported--not hard to start, not running rough, as we would expect from a bad gas problem, but repeatedly started promptly, revved up, then cut out.

Tank is now filled and all works well, as before.

Moral-- 1. Add dry gas from time to time, especially in winter; 2. Don't let tank run down to the lst couple of gallons unless you are sure there is no water in the gas. 3. Contrary to our expectations, easy start and rev up then cut out was a problem with the gas.

 

Thanks for posting your results/answer. My car also acted up more on a low tank. Now, I'll throw in some dry gas every few tanks, Thanks.

 

Thanks, Eric J. Didn't mention it, but we had run across the "bad key" phenomenon as a reason for the immobilizer to kick in, and had therefore tried both of our keys, to no good effect.

Amazing that these days a key that seems to work, starts the car OK, apparently can then, if its chip is defective, trigger the immobilizer, in some cases at least with no message to let you know what is going on.

And the user guide for the V70 wagon has sparse information, some of it wrong. For example, nothing about what to do if the car won't start or stalls. Nothing about limp mode. Nothing about a bad key chip triggering the immobilizer. Nothing about how the immobilizer works: does it prevent cranking, or does it shut off the fuel?

And the information presented as pictures and text for the rear lights is just wrong--two rear bulbs present in the car above the direction signals are not mentioned anywhere, although shown in the picture of rear lights on the back of the manual, with no arrows pointing to them to say what the bulbs are, and the tail light/brake light fuse information presented inside the manual is wrong. We recently had a right tail light not working. On removing the bulb, it looked OK, so I tried swapping it with its mate from the other side-the bulb worked fine there, but the right rear tail light, now with a working bulb taken from the left light in place, still did not work. Blown fuse? Can't be, because the fuses, according to the book, are all shared left and right (and they don't list a tail light fuse at all, so no way to be sure which one would have been the one to check). On taking it in to Boston Volvo for the for 90,000 mi service, we reported all this, suggested that the problem must therefore be in the wiring. When picking up the car, they said they had fixed it by replacing a fuse, and as "good practice" had replaced six rear light bulbs. I objected that I had made it clear that all light bulbs were OK, so none should have been replaced; if replacing a fuse fixed the problem, then the user manual must be wrong about one fuse for both laft and right bulbs They deducted the charge for the fuse and light bulbs, never disclosed what they actually had done to fix the problem.

They had also noted that the tread was down on one tire, suggested replacing all four, even though two of them were almost new 70,000 mi tires with less than 10,000 miles on them. And the dealers wonder why people are unhappy with their service departments!

 

Thanks for the update.
I also want to send a belated Welcome to the forum. Peruse the site and sign into the 'New members area'. We need more members from the Pine Tree state !
I feel you will find many answers to your inquiries here. You will also find sympathizers to your quandaries. There seems to be mixed feelings as to dealer qualities, most on the satisfied side.
Please, return often to the site as it seems you are knowlegeable. Your experiences and input can help others as you will find answers to your own. Thanks, Eric