Rough idle when cold
 

Hi all - I bought a 1.6D2 (D4162T) last week, and its idle is lumpy when cold, for about 30 seconds to a minute, but then fine once a little warmed up.

I plugged in my DiCE and ran Vida and no faults are stored - which is good and bad. Good as there are no faults stored, and bad as I have no idea where to start :)

I searched around on here, and saw a recent thread about testing glow plugs, and all 4 of my measure at 2.2 ohms, with my multimeter leads measuring 0.2 ohms. I guess this means that they are okay...?

The car is high-milage at 155,000 miles, and has had an injector replaced recently (ish) (I assume as it's cleaner then the other three).

Any pointers as to what to check/clean to move down a list of things to tick off to try to solve this?

Many thanks for any help in advance!

Paul

There was a fix for these symptoms around 2014 about injector calibrating whilst driving, Your dealer should know about it. Have you got the latest software? There could be some smoke too, have you noticed?

Thanks Clan (I was hoping that you'd chip in :) ). Yes, I noticed yesterday morning while starting it on the drive, as small about of white smoke during cold idle...

So does this mean a trip to the dealer rather than my Vida, or a local mechanic?

The recent purchase/injector change may be of some concern ? However:

I had similar on my (long ownership 240,000 miles) V70 D5, where it recently developed rough idle on starting, with an occasional cut out and re start necessary. All glow plugs were (Vida) tested good, no (Vida) errors logged.

Solution, try a dose of, specifically, Liqui Moly DIESEL PURGE. It cured the issue for me. In my experience this stuff works. I have used it before in my other diesel Volvos. Ideally change the fuel filter and fill the filter housing with the LM when refitting, then run the engine as per the instructions.

I know there is a "snake oil" association with a lot of additive products, but I know this stuff has worked for me. Of note I have no affiliation with the manufacturers.

I am not saying it will cure your problem, but for around £10.00 it might literally be worth a shot, and worse case I doubt you will be any worse off, other than the £10.00 !

Thanks Lancee. Seeing that I'm ging to give it a full service over the next few weeks, I see no reason why I shouldn't give this a go ;-)

I have a feeling it hasn't seen a volvo dealer about this problem and that someone has assumed it is the injectors and thrown some perfectly good injectors out and fitted some cheap ones and given up and passed it onto you.

This problem was cleared up around 2015 with a software update which added more effective self calibrating routines. Your dealer will have the relevant Technical Journal on this problem cold start and smoke and rough running. especially in colder weather. No one has better info than the dealer ... That's the most likely cause from my experience, one or two faulty glow plugs could cause similar symptoms but you would get a fault code logged sooner or later for that. Good luck.. 👍

Thanks again Clan for your input. I phoned my nearest dealer yesterday, and the service dept secretary said that she would get back to me after speaking with a technician. I may have to call again I guess :)

So my local dealer says that there isn't an update available for my car, and that updates are only performed at services.

I phoned another dealer further away, and they said that there ARE updates available for my car, and one of them is for an ECM Diesel Update. The technician on the phone thinks it's the one that you are referring to 👍 At £100 inc VAT plus a required Diag @ £90 inc VAT it's not eye watering :) I just hope that I see a difference from it when I find a time to book it in!

Thanks again, Clan

It is shocking the lack of knowledge in the dealers in recent years, you spoke to someone behind the desk who has only been there a couple of years probably, If they don't know they should ask someone who does know rather than make up things . Make sure they read and follow the technical journal rather than just do a software update, there may be a calibration road test required.. perhaps that is what the extra £90 is for. The car has been poorly serviced, you wouldn't be having this problem and forking out £200 if it had been.

Instead of Ecm software upgrade ask them to do Total can upgrade which cost around 56 plus labour and this update all controllers on the Can to the new soft if there is any, that's what they do with service 2.0