I just purchased a used 2004 xc90 awd with about a 120,000 miles on it it.I work on my own cars and do all repairs except for transmissions and engine rebuilds.I am finding out that volvo puts most of their manuals online.I have worked on gm and ford cars.They use odb 2 scan tools.Its seems the volvos are different.From what I have researched so far you need a vida or vidis scanner and the software to go with it plus the right software on the computer to run the software that goes with the scanner.Can anyone out here help me with this.Any help would be appreciated as I do not want to wast money buying things I do not need

 

You don't need VIDA and a DiCE. It will allow you to pull more specific codes. OBDII is a standard that all cars must follow, so an OBDII scanner can pull generic fault codes like it would on a GM or Ford.

 

I had an SRS passenger airbag issue. Said I needed to service this immediately. This alarm came in after I changed transmission fluid (no idea what caused it to come in). Anyway my generic OBDII scanner would not allow me to read or clear this Volvo specific code.


After reading the nightmares that many have had getting VIDA/DICE to work with their laptops, I opted to get the icarsoft i906 Volvo specific scanner. It was super easy to use and I was able to clear the airbag issue with no problems.


Apparently this scanner isn't as powerful as VIDA/DICE/laptop combination, but for my purposes it is more than adequate and I like that it worked the first time I connected it.