Engine Management Light - Limp home mode

[mjcourtney]

Hi, can anyone shed some light on this issue? I have a S40 '05 1.8 Petrol. I've just returned to my car after a quick shopping trip and noticed that the car wouldn't accelerate normally, also the 'emissions warning' light (picture of an engine) has lit up amber on the dashboard. No other messages / warnings, i've tried turning off and restarting the engine but the light stays on and acceleration is restricted.
I've taken the car to the local independant (on the isle of wight), but they told me that no dealers on the island are capable of reading the diagnostics on Volvos :| I've spoken to Kings Volvo in Southampton who have said it sounds like the car is in limp home mode, but that the earliest they can see me is a week on wednesday!
The gearbox was replaced around 5k miles ago (car has done 60k), and the engine was also replaced around 20k miles ago, both done by Volvo. So the fact that this appears to be yet another problem is getting me rather annoyed!
Is this really an 'emissions' issue (as the handbook says), or does this light cover all manner of engine management issues? Any likely culprits that could cause this? I really can't be without my car for 8 days!

Thanks for the help

[mjcourtney]

Bit of advice needed! The car has been to the garage, they ran some diagnostics and all the codes pointed towards the Throttle Body. They duly removed it, cleaned it out thoroughly, and refitted it. They then wanted £120 for the privellage.... ouch..

Anyway, drove the car home, 10 minutes after leaving the garage the engine light comes back on, and performance dissapears. The garage have now said that I definitely need a new throttle body, as obviously cleaning it out didn't do the job. They're quoting £140 for the part and then 1 hours labour.

So it looks like I've now had the dreaded Throttle Body failure that most 2005 S40s seem to have suffered from! (I'll add it to the list!)

The question is, the local garage have said they don't know whether the replacement unit is plug and play, or whether the ECU needs to be updated / programmed to accept the new throttle. Is anyone able to answer this question?

And does this really sound like the throttle body fault?

Cheers

[mjcourtney]

Thanks to Rufe who confirmed there is no reprogramming required. Managed to get the garage to agree to fit the new part for free seeing as they didn't fix it first time round. Thanks again to Rufe for the great price on the new Throttle Body

[mjcourtney]

It seems thing aren't as simple as first thought.

The throttle body has now been replaced with a brand new genuine Volvo part. The warning light was reset and my wallet is £300 lighter.

On the way to the garage to have the work done the car starting making noises like a goat in labour, and later on in the day the garage called to say my alternator had also packed up, hence the noise.... £400 inc fitting....

So, had all that work done and now £700 lighter. Picked up the car, works fine for the next 2 days, then suddenly the original fault re-occurs, accleration / performance dissapears, and the engine warning light comes back on.

This one:



So it's now looking like the throttle body was not at fault. Returned it to the garage (Rather annoyed is putting it mildly). They tell me that now they are stumped, because the only fault codes on the system were all related to the throttle body, which they have now replaced.

A few questions:

1: Does the above mentioned light purely relate to 'emissions system' errors (as stated in the handbook, or does it also indicate general problems with the engine or management system?

2: Volvo have said that the only way to extinguish this light is to plug it into their diagnostic machine, yet the light turns itself off randomly after a few miles from time to time. How is it that this light turns itself off when Volvo say it can't?!

3: The problem occurrs on a hot engine, and never from cold. Is this possibly a lambda sensor issue, and if so are there any easy ways to check if these are functioning?

4: The garage (local indy) are saying that they can read the 'full volvo dealer diagnostics', is this correct? Or are there certain diagnostic codes that can ONLY bed read by Volvo and are hence being missed by the garage.


Apologies for any repeated comments, but i'm between a rock (Volvo) and a hard place (local garages on the isle of wight!). My last resort is to take the car to Volvo in Southampton, but I can't do that for at least 2 weeks and I need my car back.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

[mjcourtney]

The garage have had the car AGAIN. They've said that the diagnostics lead them to a loose connection between the throttle body and maf sensor and that they reckoned they had now fixed it.

But...

Upon driving the car it has lost nearly all low end torque, hardly any accleration until you reach around 3000 revs, which makes pulling out of junctions interesting.

There are now no warning lights on the dashboard, but i'm wondering whether it's just a question of time until the same old light shows up.

Please, does anyone have any ideas?!

[mjcourtney]

Scrap that, warning light is back on yet again

[Guru]

I wish I could help you mj, I really do

After you mentioned that the light comes on only after the engine warms up, I became more inclined to believe it is the O2 sensors... but these modern five-wire titanium sensors can't be tested the old fashioned way using a voltmeter, they have OBD diagnostics.
Try having the Ford garage perform a proper diagnostic test on your car.

If you haven't done so already, try snooping and asking around the Ford forums too, painful i know.

[mjcourtney]

Thanks Guru, it's nice just to get a reply

I've now emailed Kings in Southampton who (whilst being very expensive) have been very good so far. I will give our local Ford garage a ring tomorrow, but I'm not sure they'll be able to read the diagnostics on the car as I assume the electronics will still be specific to Volvo.
I am so sick of this car it's unbelievable, I can't afford to fix it, and I can't afford to buy a new one.

[mjcourtney]

An update:

The car has now had the throttle connector and pins replaced after advice from Clan. Unfortunately the warning light and lack of performance still remains. I'm at a loss now, as is the garage. Off to Volvo I go ££££££

[mjcourtney]

The car has spent an entire week at the garage whilst they try and get to the bottom of the problem. They called me yesterday sounding very pleased, as they'd discovered some leaky vacuum seals around the injector housings which they reckoned would have caused the throttle fault. Excellent, it's finally fixed!...... or not....

Collected the car, drove about 3 miles down the road, pulled into the carpark and turned the engine off. Started it again a few minutes later, engine warning light comes on, all power disapears

I just dont understand it. I have now booked it into Volvo who have also said they want it for a week so they can thoroughly test it. I've also found out that a new ECU is going to cost around about £1k by the time i've paid labour to fit it. I really hope it's not that.