Check Engine light on, V40 D2
 

Hi.

I bought my 65 plate V40 Cross Country D2 in July 2019 with just under 17,000 miles on it. Approximately mid way through September the 'Check Engine' light winked on while waiting at a roundabout, and stayed on. The car performed fine. I was just within my 3 month used car dealership warranty period, so they had it back for a day and a bit, and they said it was a sooted up oxygen sensor, they cleaned it and reset the fault code. All was fine until I was coming back from a family visit on Christmas Day, a 20 mile trip on the M1, and the 'Check Engine' light winked on again. Just like before, no change in vehicle performance, no other warnings, just the 'Check Engine' light. So I suspected the sensor sooted up again.

As I had threatened to buy my own diagnostic tool before, but hadn't, this time I've bought a Foxwell NT301 for just under £70. The fault code is P049D, and the scanner says 'check vehicle handbook'! This forum worried me with a thread about expensive EGR valve troubles linked to the P049D code, on the D4, but a contributor said "If it's a D2, it's an oxygen sensor". Which concurs with the dealer diagnosis last September.

I cleared the code, with the Foxwell tool, but was left with a 'pending' code. I'm new to this, so had to Google the exact meaning, but I get what it means now. The 'fault' had not yet cleared the vehicle's self diagnostic test.

I went for a 20 mile drive, all was fine.

The 'Check Engine' light came back on two days later.

So here are my questions.

1/ Because of work this week and dark evenings, I've not tried to find the front O2 sensor yet. Is it accessible from under the bonnet, or do I have to get the car in the air?

2/ If I take the sensor off, do I need a new gasket or washer to refit it?

3/ I've seen YouTube videos of spray can carburettor cleaner, soaking in injector treatment fluid, or even soaking in petrol to clean O2 sensors. Any opinions?

4/ Finally, my daily commute is about six miles each way, and I admit in the winter months I've not done much motorway driving, though the 'Check Engine' light came on in September after several long fast trips. And I only use Supreme Diesel. So why does the O2 sensor soot up? Car has now done about 20,600 miles.

I previously had a C30 with the 1.6 Ford/PSA engine and though the dpf failed at 60,000 miles, I never once had the 'Check Engine' light on in 30,000 miles of driving. And I could tell when the C30 was doing a dpf regen as I could hear the engine fan, the fan would run on if the car was stopped during a regen, and the 'miles to empty tank' display would drop significantly during a regen. Plus 'Stop-Start' would disable.

The V40 D2 gives few if any clues. The fan is too quiet to hear. If it is running, it cuts out when you turn off the engine (I know from looking under the bonnet). The 'miles to empty tank' readout is all over the place on a daily commute, and the 'Stop-Start' isn't working half the time anyway during winter commutes. I wish manufacturers would install a simple warning lamp to tell the driver the car is attempting a dpf regen, so we could modify our journey and driving to allow the cycle to complete, but instead they prioritise the dpf regen being 'automatic' while you drive. Consequently if you don't know what the car needs to do, and normal journeys do not permit a dpf regen, the particulate filter clogs up and diesels get a bad name. All of which may have nothing to do with my oxygen sensor, and anyway I've taken to looking under the bonnet with the engine running to check to see if the cooling fan is operating if I suspect a dpf regen is underway while I'm pootling around town.

If Volvo allow the V40 D2 to do a regen without the electric cooling fan needing to run, them I'm stuffed. :angry_smile:

P04D900 is a very specific code which means the EGR cooler is blocked , see your dealer there has been a free fix for the last 5 years , worth a try ..

That IS the code you have isn't it ?

My code reader gives me that code minus the '00' on the end. I'd read a thread on another forum about 'check engine light on' and the conversation was about blocked EGR coolers on D4s and 'on balance of probability a dirty O2 sensor on a D2', and I had interpreted that as meaning the P04D9 code meant the O2 sensor on my D2, seeing as Available Car Castle Donington (where I bought it in July) had said it was a dirty O2 sensor when they had the car back with the EML on, before the 3 month warranty ran out in September.

My car is also subject to a recall notice for the fire risk from melting plastic inlet manifolds.

So it seems I can either take the car back to Available Car, since anything they touched in the three month warranty period is supposed to be covered for 12 months, on the basis that the EML light is back on again since September, or the car has to go to a main dealer anyway over the recall notice. I only got my letter in December even though the recall notice was made public in July or August last year.

The P04D900 is specifically for a EGR Cooler low flow problem , the core blocked with soot . That is the code that gets ( or got ) you a free repair .
The 02 sensor is a completely different code .

Okay thank you. Useful information.

I had a good resolution to the issue of the CHECK ENGINE light on, and the P049D code I'd read with my own code reader, signifying a blocked EGR cooler. Marshall Volvo Nottingham had sent me a recall notification regarding the 2.0 litre diesel's inlet manifold fire risk issue. So I decided to take my car there, and I also asked for a lubrication service to replace the oil put in by the car dealer I bought the car off. Which was Volvo spec oil, but someone on here earlier suggested I'd be wise to get the proper oil in ASAP.

With regard to the EGR cooler, which as far as Marshall's were concerned had to be diagnosed again by themselves, because my Volvo didn't quite have a 100% Volvo dealer service history, it would affect any goodwill claim. Also, Amber, my service adviser, took no pleasure in telling me that unfortunately YES, there had been a campaign to repair blocked EGR coolers, but it ended in December 2019! Entering my car's details into her computer, she then found my December 2015 registered car HAD in fact already had a campaign repair to the EGR valve in November 2016 - but the replacement part number then, was a different part number to the current one.

She entered some more details, then showed me her computer screen, where it said Volvo UK would pay 30% of the repair costs. Which was better than nothing, but 30% of what, I asked? Amber couldn't say. But seeing as the car needed to go in for the current recall, she said she would book it in for me and she would find out the cost and let me know.

With about two weeks between booking the car in and taking it in, it didn't quite go like that. There was no contact until after I sent an email asking if they'd also look at a twisted rear seat belt I couldn't figure out how to resolve, then I began getting emails and missed phone calls asking for my current odometer reading. When I made contact, Amber told me she'd got me a 100% Goodwill Gesture on the EGR job! She'd obviously been doing some work behind the scenes, and while the approximate odometer reading was given at the time of the booking, for whatever reason she'd submitted a slightly higher mileage reading to Volvo, than my car had actually covered, when the 100% goodwill result came back. So as you can imagine, I was very pleased with this.

I basically got two invoices from Marshall Volvo Nottingham when I collected the car. I paid £149 for the lubrication service, and the other work, including the recall notice for melting plastic inlet manifolds, came to £1071 exactly. Which was completely free to me. Looking at the invoice I think the parts and labour cost for the EGR cooler comes to £689 before VAT, making it £826.80 including VAT. The rest of the £1071 will be made up by the current recall campaign.

So for that, all credit to Marshall Volvo at Nottingham and to Amber my service adviser. And also to Volvo UK of course. And thanks to Clan for telling me to give it a go.

That is the normal kind of service you get at a volvo dealer nationally ,

Remember ... the stories you get on here of poor customer service are isolated cases of untrained or misinformed personnel dealing with you and it appears as if they all congregate together here telling individual stories of horror giving a false impression of the overall picture . The same goes for every manufacturer even Lexus which is regarded as the best at this moment in time ..

Every day there are around 3600 volvos being serviced perfectly satisfactorily in UK and each one gets a follow up call and survey to check you are happy with the work ..