Hot starting issue

[NAD]

Too good to be true.....
After owning my car for about 3 weeks it has suddenly started playing up.
After driving home from work (60 mile commute) I parked it on the drive behind my wife's car, as she hadn't left me space next to hers. 10 mins later I had to go and move it when she needed to go out. It turned over rapidly, but refused to start. This morning I needed to fill up with fuel. After doing so, fairly predictably, it did it again. On both occasions I waited 10 - 15 mins for it to cool down a bit and then it started.

So, a few questions for a start....
1/ I want to buy diagnostic equipment to help me work out what is going on. Do I go Vida/Dice or something like iCarsoft?
2/ Is this a common fault?
3/ Any suggestions on what it might be?

Many thanks in advance....

[Simon Jones]

Try slackening off fuel filler cap and see if you get a big whoosh of air in or out which would indicate problem with breather system.

[Tatsfield]

VIDA/DICE is the bespoke Volvo supplied diagnostic software/hardware for their cars and you cannot go wrong with using it. You cannot buy the real thing and have to resort to the clone market but the DICE lead and the supplied VIDA clone software works well once you have installed it. You need to run it on a laptop under Win 7, either actual or virtual. It doesn't run directly under any other OS. If you don't have a laptop you can buy cheap ones that run Win 7. I bought an old Lenovo ThinkPad because it's built like a brick outhouse, which is what you need for a piece of kit that you are going to be lugging around your car. You should also buy an in car charger to directly run whatever laptop you use in the car so that you don't have to worry about expensive batteries.

[NAD]

SimonJ - many thanks, I will try that when it does it next!

Tatsfield - Vida it is then. The small scanners do hold some appeal though, particularly as they are small and robust enough to leave in the boot.

[NAD]

Originally Posted by Simon Jones

Try slackening off fuel filler cap and see if you get a big whoosh of air in or out which would indicate problem with breather system.

Thinking about it, the car refused to start immediately after I filled it with fuel, so I had just had the fuel filler cap off already. Presumably this rules out the breather system?

[Tatsfield]

Originally Posted by NAD

Tatsfield - Vida it is then. The small scanners do hold some appeal though, particularly as they are small and robust enough to leave in the boot.

But VIDA reads every ECU in the car while the small scanners tend to only read the engine ECU for generic codes. VIDA is exceptionally powerful and can help in diagnosing faults with any system in the car, not just the engine.

[cheshired5]

You can solve most hot and cold starting issues with a £5 ELM327 dongle and an app on your phone like Torque Pro.
A multimeter helps too as diagnostics are pretty useless for voltage drop.

Quicker and more convenient than Dice and Vida which undoubtedly has its place, just not necessarily for simple stuff like a starting problem.

[NAD]

I will start off with the cheap dongle then, before I sort out one of my old W7pro laptops. When I'm ready for VIDA/DICE I will be in contact.

Multimeters I already have.

I have a sneaky suspicion that it may not be such a simple starting problem, but fingers crossed its more straightforward than I fear at the moment.

[cheshired5]

If you click on the link in my signature, there's a video showing what to look for initially.

[NAD]

Many thanks for the info - the video on how to diagnose common rail starting problems was interesting and will hopefully point me in the right direction.

Would you have a recommendation for an iOS app? I don't really want to go and buy an android tablet or phone just to run TorquePro.