My wife and I just bought a 2001 Volvo V70 XC AWD 2.5T off of a personal owner. This person was the 2nd owner and had paper work to prove it's maintenance and various other jobs done to the vehicle over time.

It has roughly 150K on it and is in great physical condition - I know the physical condition itself doesn't mean much but it does tell a story about who owned the car.

Anyways. We had the car for about a month. Everything was running fine. Not an issue at all.

Since having the car - the only thing I personally have done to the car was the following:

• Used Seafoam cleaner to make sure the fuel system was clean. Did this as soon as we got the car.
• After running the Seafoam. We used a bottle of Lucas upper cylinder lubricant. Both were ran through a full tank of premium fuel.
• Changed the oil and filter with Castrol Syntec Edge Synthetic oil 10w-30. Recommended weight by Volvo.

I can't see why the above... especially after going through at least 5-6 tanks of fuel would cause the issue we are experiencing.

What has been happening is the vehicle will out of nowhere drop to 2K RPM and will not rev past that amount - it will bounce between 2100 and back down to 1800... it will keep doing this if you hold the gas down far enough. It has lower power at this point...

This is intermittent - it has happens 3 times in the last week. You can go 5 miles or 60 miles (distance) before this happens (when it does occur).

We had original thought this could be fuel cap related, but just tonight when this happened again. I shut the car off... turned it back on and the issue was gone. In all three cases I was going to scan for a code, but the engine light went off in all three cases before I could read the code. Very aggravating.

I can't say for sure - but I want to believe that the temperature outside when these occurrences happened have all been below 35 degrees. This could just be wishful thinking to find an answer to this problem.

I plan to replace the following when weather permits:

• Fuel Filter
• Fuel Cap

Could the filter possibly be the issue? Or could this be spark plug related? Without a code I am at a loss and am replying of someone who might have had a similar issue.

Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

One observation. Just because the CEL has turned off does not mean that there is no stored code for your issue. In addition, there may be a code even before the CEL goes on initially. Thus, I would check the codes even if the light is now off.

When you have this issue, does the car run rough, like it is running on less than all cylinders?

It has been my experience that when a car issue comes and goes completely, it is more likely than not and electrical issue.

Also, our Volvo has gone through at least 4 coils in 40,000 miles. However, in every instance, when it went bad, it totally went bad and you could get the rpms up on 4 cylinders.

 

Ya. I was told I could have the car scanned for codes even with the CEL off. I want to give it a few weeks to see how it acts after a new gas cap (just put on today) - I know it seems nuts, but it could have something to do with it. It's not entirely impossible.

The car does not run rough - I know what that feeling is like... had it happen on other cars before. When the cylinder is misfiriing that car shakes pretty bad... this is still smooth, but will not let you go past 2K RPM. It's odd if you shut the car off and then back on... it goes away.

I might replace the ETM after the gas cap if all is still doing what i describe. I have been told that XeModeX is the place to get them because the are manufactured with a more logical approach than the OEM Volvo part to begin with, plus they come programmed.

Fingers crossed.

 

I think replacing the ETM without more information is like taking shots in the dark, but it did come to mind as a potential source of your problem.

 

I am taking it to the dealer next week for a diag check to see what the issue is. I am hoping it is nothing major.

 

It's not your ETM. The throttle body is dirty and needs to be cleaned out. The dealer will tell you to replace the ETM, which has a heft price tag (about $900). And the issue will still surface again.

 

pinopinopino

Thanks for the info. I will clean that up and see how it works out. I am glad to hear that, plus I have a yellow sticker on mine, which means it was already replaced under warranty.

 

There was a recall for this throttle body issue on 1999-2001 models. The fix is a software upgrade for your module. If you call the dealer and give them the VIN, they can tell you if yours needs to be updated.