Help! V50 2.0D, intermittent power loss - no fault codes

[Martin_Butcher]

Hi,

I have a V50 2.0D (05 reg) which I bought at the turn of the year with about 25k miles on the clock. With the exception of the below, its a lovely car.

However ... on several occasions the engine has experienced a significant power loss as described below. I have read a lot of posts on this board, but none of them quite match up so I have posted the below to see if anyone can offer advice.

The symptoms are like this:

1) Driving along normally - say 60ish in 5th gear,

2) You accelerate, and as you are accelerating suddenly the engine power just disappears - but no warning lights, messages etc.

3) Back off the revs, engine power comes back so you can maintain speed, however if you start to accelerate again and demand more power, again the engine power will disappear

4) This will perhaps happen 5 - 20x if you keep repeating the above sequence but then the car returns to normal and all the power you can want (without needing to stop the engine). Then it won't happen for another month or so.

Now last time this happened (nice straight bit of the fosse way!), I noted that at the same point the engine lost power you could hear a sound of releasing air (a bit like when you release a pump from a tyre) coming from the engine compartment area.

I took the car into TMS Volvo in coventry and no fault codes. They inspected various parts (not sure what) but the summary was bring it back when it becomes repeatable.

Would welcome any thoughts.

My thoughts at the moment are:
1) Its not a problem that generates a fault code (that must narrow it down some, unless diagnostics has failed as well)
2) It probably not a hose as that would likely happen all the time, not happen for 5 mins in the middle of a journey and then mysteriously disappear.
3) urrrm??

I would be most grateful for any help!

Thanks,

Martin

[Martin_Butcher]

Well, I am taking the car to the garage again on wednesday to see what else happens. I must admit that I don't have high hopes...

I would also welcome anyone's views on how to deal with this. At the moment TMS are basically saying, we're really sorry, but we can't help until there is a fault code.

As I see it, the car is in warranty, it has a fault, it is a dangerous fault, volvo should fix it. Volvo way, we're really sorry but we can't fix it.

Is there anything more they can do that plugging in a fault reader? Should I be asking them to take the car back?

Thanks,

Martin

[grass hopper]

hi Martin,if its a euro 4 possibly faulty particulate trap sensor,the fault code will be stored,but if not,worth replacing and test.

if the fault happens often just leave it with the dealer to fix and test.

[Martin_Butcher]

Hi Grass Hopper,

It is a Euro 4. The fault is happening about every 500 miles or so, so it is a bit of a difficult one to leave with the dealer to test. You take it, they drive it and say 'no faults, test drove fine!' Which it does 99% of the time.

Volvo have said no fault codes to date. Is this a simple thing to replace a particulate trap sensor?

Thanks for your advice,

Martin

[grass hopper]

hi Martin,it is very easy to change,fits at the side of the battery cover,2 hoses and one screw and 1 connector,and not too dear.

changed many of these,but it normally logs a code ! and usually you have to switch of the engine to reset back out of limp home mode.

another possibility is a intermitant faulty/sticking EGR valve.

faults like this are horrible to diagnose for a technician if its only every 900 miles,and very frustrating for you.

it might be worth asking who you bought it off if they had any problems and if anything has been replaced.but i guess they will say it was ok.
regards GH.

[Martin_Butcher]

Hi Grass Hopper,

intermittent faults are the worst. I am a eletrical engineer (big stuff) and have had to diagnose a few faults like this. Normally just end up hanging more and more test gear on until you find the problem / anomaly.

Is it possible for volvo to do anything like this - fit additional diagnostics - manually force a DPF regen sequence and see if this makes the problem occur again?

Unfortunately, the people I bought it from are the volvo garage that are looking at this problem, so I sure it was fine prior to sale! I will ask them to let me know if it has had any parts changed on the engine though - they should be able to tell as it has a full volvo service history.

I have also been posting on the Honest John website. An email from HG said 'probably just a DPF regen occuring' and a separate post on that website also said the same. This seems a bit extreme for a normal event.

I have also been wondering could driving style impact this? I tend to do mostly local miles (and love 6th gear because it is so quiet), then longer journeys when this seems to happen.

Thanks for all your help.

Martin

[Martin_Butcher]

Well, the car has been to the dealers today.

No fault codes!

They have updated the engine management unit software and regenerated the DPF.

They also said a new EGR valve was fitted before we bought the car this year.

Lets hope this does the trick!

Martin

[7050man]

Just picked up on his thread and hopefully my experience may help.

My car had a similar problem with sudden loss of power when revving over 3k rpm, when accelerating heavily. It was intermittant at first and then got more frequent and it then started occasionally to lose power at higher constant speed (motorway conditions).

After two trips to dealer, a split fuel pipe was found, that was drawing air in and causing fuel starvation. No leak was evident where split was.

Re DPF discussion, I don't think problem would be there anyway. If DPF pressure differential sensor was at fault, car would probably not rev above 2800 rpm and this symptom wouldn't clear until engine is stopped and then restarted. No engine warning lights would show under this condition.

As has alraedy been said, if this sensor fails a fault code will be logged which will show up sensor straight away.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

[colinmbrown]

Hi all,

I've had my V50 (Euro 4) since the end of May and have put 5000 miles on it (now done 51,000 miles). A couple of weeks ago it started with the similar power loss described above whilst accelerating or cruising with the revs below about 2000rpm. It either refuses to rev or does so very slowly until about 2000rpm, above which it revs happily. There is no sooty smoke out of the exhaust which would indicate an EGR sensor failure from what I have read on the forums, and the best way I can describe it is something interrupting the fuel flow to the engine.

Usually it clears within 20 seconds but comes back randomly, sometimes after a hundred miles or so, but more often it occurs several times within my 20 mile commute. Occasionally there is just a blip in the revs whilst accelerating for a second or so.

Yesterday I had the car fully serviced as the independant delaer I bought it from claimed to have serviced it before putting it on sale but more and more now I'm thinking all he did was change the oil. The mechanic said the air and fuel filters looked like those of a car that had done 20,000 miles instead of 5,000 and the fuel filter was very "cruddy".

After the service, the car's doing it just as frequently but to a lesser degree, so the air in the fuel line would kinds make sense. Is there a straightforward way to check if there is air in the fuel lines?

The other thing I was considering was adding an additive into the fuel tank to see if cleaning through the system would make a difference. Any recommendations?

[colinmbrown]

On Wednesday last week the garage hooked it up to the diagnostic computer which gave a code of P1412, but they didn't know what it meant as they said it was a "Volvo-only" fault code. Anyone know what it indicates?

[Irish_Volvo]

Hi colinmbrown

I have a Volvo S40 and i'm getting the similar problem.
I've got a code reader and it's giving error.
P1412 EGR Different.Pressure Sensor Signal too Low

I have posted it on a different thread.
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?p=586716#post586716

Dont know weather it's a pressure sensor issue or the EGR valve.

[Acilec]

Hi Matrin! I have the same problem with my Volvo V50 2.0D 2007.
It all started with that the engine lost power and was not possible to drive at all on gear 3-5. Volvo could not find any fault at all, but after 5 weeks and me threatening with buyback they changed software and the car was alright again. I thought anyway...

One week later during acceleration when I tried to overtake the car in front of me, the engine suddenly lost power and I had to fall back behind the car I was trying to overtake. No warning light, no messages no nothing. The car looked fine and I tried accelerate again when it suddenly lost power once more. After a short while the problem suddenly was gone.

My car is currently at Volvo but they said when I left it that it was probably just a DPF regen sequence. So the car is fine!
But I also think this is a dangerous fault that could cause life threatening accidents.

I wonder what they will say when I pick it up. Probably that they found nothing.

Martin, is your car fine now or still has the same problem?

[gerontosaur]

Hello. I've been trawling, but can't find any answers to this.
Happened to me y'day on the motorway between Rouen and Le Mans. 2005 V50, 2.0TDI.
Long downhill section, I disconnected the cruise control so as to run down it at zero mpg. As I came back on to the level I switched it back on again but the car refused to pick up. Going up an incline I watched as the speed dropped from 140 kph to 120kph and, overtaking a truck, I was aware that I was acting as a rolling roadblock! Dropping a gear or two meant that I could maintain speed at around 110/120 going uphill and she would hold 140 on the straight and level. I switched to the instant fuel consumption read-out and noticed that, foot to the floor in third, there ws no corresponding increase in consumption, the fuel just wasn't feeding the cylinders.
No error message, no overheating, no smoking, so I just carried on and decided to live with it until I got home (another 450kms). I assumed that the turbo had come disconnected somehow or that there was a problem with the fuel mapping. It was as if it had reprogrammed itself to imitate a 1990 1.6 Peugeot naturally-aspirated diesel.
Stopped in a service area for a wee after about 150kms of this. Came out, started up and she ran as good as gold all the way home.
Weird

[Hotshot]

Sounds like my v50 was having the same problem as most of you . Just had it at the local Volvo dealer , they put it on the software but nothing came up then did some more work and it was the DPF valve ! I am not a car nerd so means nothing to me but maybe ask your guys in the garage about it . Fingers crossed it's not done it again .?

[Omami]

Struggled with intermittant power loss and lack of acceleration in my V50 2005 diesel Volvo for more than a year. It had been regularly serviced and looked after.
Changed the EGR valve last year. Acceleration of car seemed better, but did not cure the problem.
Luckily the intermittant fault developed again while the car was being serviced. They managed to connect the diagnostic tester while it was running, and discovered that the Exchange DPF filter was clogged up and needed replacing.

We hope that this will have been the cause, and the problem is fixed.

Probably not many people are still driving an 11 year old car!

[Stephane]

I have the same problem. One day the power died. Brought it to the dealer and they said I might need a new electronic controller! €900! They tightened connections and said to keep going for as long as possible, which I did. I had the problem intermittently since but have managed to scramble by through only using very light acceleration on gear changes - if I get a slump in power I can strangely get it back by going up the gears! It will almost take on a cruise control status! If I stop the car and come back to it I can find the problem has gone again. Clearly electronic, but judging by forums there is an inherent issue. I never had this problem with two previous Volvos the 2003 S40 and 2007 V50. This one is the 2011 V50

[dosi]

I had problem with power loss whene I accelerate, in volvo v50, 2.0d, 100 kw, 2005 year. I send car in vovlo servis 2 time: 1 st time they change some vaccum pipe but nothing, i had the same problem and for the second time they change turbo valve and now it is ok.

[max65]

hi dosi,
in your case the power loss was intermittent ?

[wilbydoughboy]

Volvo Owners Club Forum > "Technical Topics" > S80 '06> / V70 '07> / XC70 '07> General
Reload this Page V70: Engine Slow to accelerate / lack of power

This maybe of some help. If you search the above section there are examples of the problem you seem to be experiencing.

[JBetts]

It looks like my issue is sorted now, loss of power once every couple of days, either not able to pull away at lights and engine will not rev at all (well, takes about 30 seconds to slowly rev up and then clears itself) really concerning, wife would not even drive the car anymore after a few scares.
Removed and cleaned the ERG and throttle body, but no difference
Noted air running inside clear fuel pipe between filter and pump (lift of engine cover to see on 2.0D) but only when revving up the engine, tried a few fixes including replace filter O ring, but still no good, bypassed filter with the push fit connectors and air was gone, so filter housing at fault, removed and inspected, found a 0.5 mm step in the housing from manufacture that could cause the O ring to snag and get an uneven friction when being clamped with lid, so filed down and sanded smooth + ensure O ring was removed and greased on all of surface area, refitted pumped out air with my Halford hand pump thingy then turned over and again pumped on the return pipe (that's for those that have not worked on diesels before) fired up and no air, that was 4 weeks ago now and the car is like a rocket, with not even a murmur, like a new car again and pleasure to drive, suspect this was an issue for at least a year and I just had not noticed it until it got very bad. hope this is of help to some body out there.