V70 1.6DRIVe low on power
 

I'm wondering if any one can give me any pointers on what the problem could be. I've had a V70 1.6 DRIVe for 5 days and it's been low on power since day one. First of all I should point out that the car has done 217000 miles so this could well be the problem. It was a company car and came with full history and had a new turbo last year. If i'm very gentle with the throttle it does pick up but sometimes even that is an effort. If i plant the throttle there is pretty much no responce and it takes an age to get anywhere. I really have to work the revs and the turbo only really works 2500 revs onwards. The car does nothing below that. Even a slight incline has me dropping down the gears.
Has anyone had any experience of these engines doing high miles or could it be something as simple as a sensor.
Any help or guidence is very much appreciated.

Scott

you have bought someone else's problem , can't you take it back ? Most likely the fuel filter blocked through lack of proper servicing .. There should be an easy to see blue dot on the top if it is a genuine volvo filter .. I would strongly advise you get a genuine one if you are going to get it changed .

How do you know it is low on power if it is new to you? Did it go better at first ?

OK so without putting it on a rolling road I can't give an actual power output. The car just fels unresponsive. Very light throttle pressure gets me somewhere but if i press the throttle more and inch i get no response.
Once the car is moving and the turbo kicks in its bearable but as soon as i hit any incline the i'm having to use the gears to gain momentum again.
The car has full service history up until around 30000 miles ago so fingers crossed its just needing a good service.

That is a better description , but did it go ok when you first picked the car up?

It sounds like it is in limp home mode or the fuel filter is blocked , no engine light on? Did you look at the top of the fuel filter? There is likely to be a fault code stored in the system .

I know a chap had one of those as a company car, his verdict, you don't want one of them, absolutely gutless was his opinion and truthfully a 1600 engine in a near 2 tonne car is never going to be anything other than hard work.

For the size of car a 2ltr is absolute minimum in my view, 2.5 is proven to work well, yes I know the vea engines are only 2 ltr but having driven one I much preffer the lazy power of my 2.4 D5.

It's a bit like the 1300 Cortina mk3 good idea on paper, rubbish on the road and constant caneing of the engine ment they quickly needed maintenance. Again 1600 was a minimum and 2000 pleasent given the size of car.

My advise would be return it if you can and buy a proper one.

Paul.

I had a V60 with a 1.6d engine, could be the same engine. It was fairly flat in the V60, the V70 is a heavier car. I was a very happy bunny to get back to a 2.0d, better economy by about 15-20% as well!

Did the OP actually drive it at any stage and it feel lively? I have not seen confirmation of that yet.

On that engine with those symptoms the turbo is a prime suspect.

And it's already had one.

Paul.

Test drive was done during rush hour so was very slow and didnt get past 4th gear. Same with the drive home. It was only when I managed to get on an open road I noticed and even more so on hills.
I understand that a 1.6 engine isn't going to set any but I was just expecting a bit more response. If I depress the accelerator around 1cm it isn't to bad but any more than that and its like being stuck in mud.
There are no engine lights on and there is a receipt with the history for a new turbo last year.
Is the fuel filter easy to get to for inspection.
I've now got it booked in for a full service.
The gear box on my last car self destructed so I didn't have much time for car hunting and the volvo was a good price(maybe this is why lol).
Aside from the power issues I like the car.

Slightly off topic, on occasions I used to drive a Cortina Mark V 1.3 and it was horrible. The top (4th) gear was something like 14.8 mph/1000 rpm, which was a shorter gear than 3rd for most cars. That made motorway speeds unbearable.

That V70 1.6 possibly drives a bit like my first car - a Ford Zephyr Mk 4 V4. That was underpowered and slow to accelerate and I therefore used to ogle V6 Zephyrs with an envious eye. :)

However, top gear was a reasonable 19.6 mph/1000 rpm and it could cruise at 75mph all day long up motorway hill and down motorway dale.

I suspect from the OP's description that the issue with the V70 isn't just engine size. I once had a Passat 1.6 turbodiesel as a courtesy car and that was underpowered in some respects but not as badly as a 1.6 petrol engine would have been. It was fast off the mark and a good cruiser, but it was occasionally found wanting when it came to overtaking.

Having a diesel engine with the accompanying higher torque will compensate for engine size to some extent, and the official performance figures suggest that if I'd had that V70's performance in my first car then I'd have been bragging about my 112mph top speed (faster than a Granada 3 litre) and not envious at all.

In short it sounds as though there's a fault of some kind.