V50 2.0d poor running

[7050man]

Originally Posted by bircham

Thanks for the info re the poor running of our V50. The garage are picking up the car tomorrow evening and I will mention the egr to them. It is infuriating that a problem that is weel known on this engine has not been mentioned by them at all. The car is a pain to drive with the poor running and starting as well.
Do you know if this would effect the fuel consumption? At the mo the average is 38.0 according to the computer, whereas the official combined is 50 mpg!

HI Bircham, with all respect, you should not need to mention any part of your cars engine that might be giving the problem.
Let's get this in perspective, your car is not running correctly so you take it to the garage and accurately (as much as you can) describe the symptom. If the fault is apparent and stays apparent, then the mechanic will be able to take readings, measurements, parts off the car or whatever and decide on what component is either definitely failing, or if he is not sure, what is likely to be failing. If it's in stock he can fit it and then reassess the situation.
If he's not sure and the fault is apparent, then he can get on the phone and speak directly to Volvo. He will probably also have some kind of technical database listing known faults and symptoms.
If the fault is not apparent, then it is more difficult for the guy looking at your car, but you still want him to progress the investigation. He will undoubtedly interrogate the car error tables and decide in what area the fault lies, because he wants as much of a clue as possible as to where to start looking.
At this time on the first visit, he may just reload software, check a few electrical connections or change quick, cheap parts. He then says to you "I've done X,Y,Z, it may be fixed, but as I can't be sure, then see how it goes and let us know if it returns". All quite reasonable.
If you have an enquiring and technically understanding mind, then you can ask him a few questions about how things work and why you get the symptom. If he's done the right thing for the right reason (and is quite honest about what the chances of a first time fix), then you know where the investigations going, what to expect and are ready if it falls over again. The next time you go in then he has ruled the obvious things out and is ready to move on to the more expensive and awkward components.
You can see where I'm going here, you want your car fixed, they're the experts but you want to let them know that you understand that it's a difficult fault to fix,and you might accept a failure once or maybe twice but your patience is not indefinite. Ask the right questions, but don't tell them what you think the problem may be. If they've got integrity then you'll get a result, if not they will still lead you up the garden path, but will give you the rope to hang them with.
Good luck.

[bircham]

Well car was returned Thurs pm and the egr valve was replaced and software updated - absolutely no change at all! Car really bad after work today(fri), shuddering, poor accelaration etc.

The dealers are taking the car back ij on Monday and this time I have been told that they will be replacing 4 injectors as there is a volvo 'memo' that mentions an issue with leaking injectors which causes smoke on start up and poor running.

They have promised that it will be fixed.

I really hope so as I like the V50 and just want the car to run properly. I will let you know what the results are!

Jon

[7050man]

HI Jon, sorry that your car's not been fixed. Thanks for feeding back. I hope you get a result soon.
Jez

[Metblackrat]

I am waiting your reply as I too have the blue smoke issue.

[bircham]

Car still in dealers- they think it might be ready by the end of the week.
Jon

[Metblackrat]

I am having mine RICA tuned on friday so lets see if that solves it!.

[bircham]

Well car back on Saturday morning after it having the injectors replaced. It seems to be running better now, no smoke on start up and much smoother to drive.
However, there is still a vibration going through the car at idle although it is nowhere as bad as it was and is bearable now.
Does anyone with a euro IV engine have this problem at all?

Jon

Hi Jon I've been reading through this thread and it sounds like your car is still not right despite being better.

This is simply unacceptable! Part of the reason for you spending all that money on a new car was to get the manufacturer's support & warranty should anything go wrong.

I would speak to Volvo about this, ring their "customer care" line or whatever they call it. See what they say, and explain all the times you have been back to the dealer etc. They may be able to suggest other dealers you could visit, maybe some of their dealers are specialists, I dunno.

Also, in the case of an on-going problem that a dealer cannot fix, they can call in "the professionals": no, not bodie and doyle to put the dealers out of their misery, but some sort of volvo engineer who knows a lot more than the dealer service people. I know that manufacturers do this because I had a problem with my previous car and there was talk of getting in the main engineer responsible for the whole area. These people can also justify replacing expensive parts under warranty which the dealers themselves cannot really get away with. Example: lets suppose the worst case is you need an entire new engine or fuel system or something.

Although there could be many technical reasons for your problems, you should not be expected to have a clue what it is - that is for the mechanics to figure out. In fact it may even be a bad idea to put an idea in their heads in case it leads them down a false road. Sometimes if a car has a dodgy earth or bad connector, failed relay etc. then several fault codes can erroneously be produced, but one way or the other the dealer or volvo should be able to sort this out!

One thing that is useless about dealers is you NEVER find out exactly what is going on, because it is like chinese whispers. Here's what I mean: the YTS that does the work tells the main mechanic what he did, he tells the front desk service guy, and he tells you, whilst trying to make it sound like he knows what he is talking about (he probably doesn't). You never get to talk to the monkey, just the organ grinder.

Could you reject the car you asked previously? You'd have a job, I'm afraid. Manufacturers will do absolutely anything to avoid having to take back a car, because then it would be their problem and they'd be losing lots of money this way. If they can claim to be doing everything possible, free of charge, by repairing under warranty then I'm not sure you'll be able to reject the vehicle outright, especially after 4k miles.

I think you should definitely talk to Volvo, see if you can get it in to another dealer and insist on a courtesy car of the same spec which you keep until everything is resolved. Be as annoying and hassley as possible. The fact of life is you have bought a product which should work properly, and if it is a "monday morning" / "friday afternoon" car then that is VOLVO'S problem to sort out and it is not acceptable for it to be YOUR problem! Also do try speaking to citizen's advice.

I do hope you eventually get the car which you paid for!

Cheers, Pete

[7050man]

I can't agree more. I may have metioned this on another post, but prior to my V50, I had a Saab 95 3.0TiD Vector Estate and as a result, regularly checked out a Saab Forum much the same as this one (still do).

One chap, who had the same engine in his 95 had a major engine fault occurr within half an hour of leaving the dealers. If you want to know about how he overcome his problems with poor service from his dealer and how he dealt with Saab, then I'd suggest that you take a look at www.saabscene.com. Then do a search for loss of coolant in the 95 technical section. There is some great advice. I think his log on name is BigJJ

jez

[bircham]

Well I am going to reopen this thread as my wife's V50 is going into the garage next Friday to have the handbrake recall sorted (although it was only her 'old' newshape S40 that ended up in the middle of the road overnight, not her present V50), and to sort the idling problem.
The new injectors are running fine with the car starting fine etc but the vibration at idle has not gone and I can't put up with it any longer.

We'll see what happens.

Jon