V50 Engine 2.0D : Lots of fault messages

[Clan]

did you check out my post#8 above ?

[johngm]

Bought our V50 from a dealer in August 2012 and within 3 weeks had this same problem.Firstly they changed the accellerator pedal assay;cleared fault codes and was ok for a few weeks.Same problem has now occured 4 times but also had alternator fail as well.Now 6 months later still get same fault. Taken legal advise but because more than 6 months, I now have to prove that this is the same fault.Is there anywhere that can properly bench test a ECM? I don`t think that garages are capable of dealing with advanced electronics and I need an independant opinion.

[v50inred]

Originally Posted by DJmedV50

I have had almost exactly the same fault and set of warning messages. I was just starting on a journey and suddenly the car gave the "brake failure - stop safely" message and stopped responding to the accelerator. Other strange collections of failure messages arrived afterwards including a spell where the steering lock would not respond to the key. AA could not find what was wrong - they did not even attempt to look into the ECU - I think they have seen this many times and knew it to be a waste of time. My local man had to send the car to the main agent in Gloucester. Johnsons believe that the problem was poor contacts into the ECU as they could read codes but not communicate with the ECU otherwise. The car has been fine for several hundred miles since.

However, I have no confidence that it will not happen again and, on thinking about it, had this occurred travelling down the centre lane of a busy M5 at 70mph (outside lane averages 15 mph faster!) I could have caused a pile up and injured others or myself or worse.

To me the engineering in this car is unacceptable. I have driven the car only 13500 miles since I bought it. In that time it has had a DPF sensor failure that put the car in a dangerous position whilst overtaking an articulated lorry, the 150amp alternator blew a rectifier diode at 77000 miles, the above problem happened, and now I have a knocking antiroll bar tie rod ball joint. The failure rate is so poor that it has to go in the bin - the most fragile undurable and most dangerous car I have ever owned. If you transferred the failure rate to an airliner jet engine each engine would have about 25 serious failures in a nornal service interval.

Hopefully my next post will be saying goodbye to the forum and anything Volvo.

And you think that other makes of car don't sometimes have problems?

As you mention 13500miles and then 77000 miles I assume you bought the vehicle second hand?

Your issues may have more to do with what the previous owner did to the car.

And a car has nothing to do with an aircraft.

Even the Saab references to aircraft was just clever advertising.

There are many more people that have had no issues whatsoever with their Volvo, V50 or otherwise.

As I learned to drive in a 1.4 340 DL on a C plate and have driven one or two 940 or 740 vehicles with over a 100k I can assure you quality has indeed improved.

Just my opinion.

Oh yes, Goodbye.

[ejog]

I had exactly the same problem a few months ago. Called the AA and he rummaged around under the bonnet etc and found nothing. Then the car re-started. He consulted his laptop and looked in the footwell of the passenger seat, reached up and the engine went into panic display. He did something else, and all was well. There's a connection box tucked away up there under the glove compartment, exactly where it's easy to kick it without realising. It seems most of the control leads go through it through two connectors. Disturb these, and anything can happen - wipers start, engine goes into limp mode, you name it. He pushed the connectors well in and it's been fine since.
I suggest that's your first stop!

[Ninja59]

Originally Posted by ejog

I had exactly the same problem a few months ago. Called the AA and he rummaged around under the bonnet etc and found nothing. Then the car re-started. He consulted his laptop and looked in the footwell of the passenger seat, reached up and the engine went into panic display. He did something else, and all was well. There's a connection box tucked away up there under the glove compartment, exactly where it's easy to kick it without realising. It seems most of the control leads go through it through two connectors. Disturb these, and anything can happen - wipers start, engine goes into limp mode, you name it. He pushed the connectors well in and it's been fine since.
I suggest that's your first stop!

That is the CEM unit...

[ejog]

Thanks - I didn't know that. I guess my point is that it's not necessarily the unit that's faulty, just a loose connection making it seem to be faulty.

Not Volvo's best bit of design, locating it there...

[Ninja59]

It gets worse really as many handy members will know because the pollen filter sits "above" the CEM unit which is another reason why it is a at risk of being a little damaged.

[johngm]

I hav`nt yet poked around yet myself mainly because the car came with the problem so it should be the seller,in this case a non Volvo dealer,that should sort it.However,I would like to know exactly how to see/access the plug and socket and see if I can replicate the fault.I usually end up fixing things myself!

[signbroenrico]

Well,

I've had this problem for about a year, didn't have the cash to take it to the stealer. It was not a joy driving the car because it is so unreliable.

But and very big but...

I finally sorted my problem with the advise i got on this forum. Took out the ECM, unplugged everything, took it out completely and cleaned all the contacts (the connecters contacts looked fine but I cleaned them anyway) the fuses (about 30 of them) were all fine not one burnt, but the contacts on the fuses was black almost all of them. I cleand them up put everything back together and saved myself a massive bill. Car has been driving for about 200km now stopped and started about 40 times and no disco lights on my dash, no starting problmes nothing.

Thanks for the great advise. I will definitly visit this forum if I have any other issues before going to the "experts" (Stealers).

Happy driving

[johngm]

Thanks Signbroenrico.That might be helpful; but I do have reservations because our car would go hundreds of miles without a glitch, then for no reason at all the problem comes back.It did go to an independant Volvo dealer who had it for 3 weeks,said they had cleaned contacts,relays etc. drove it daily clocking up 350 miles and could`nt replicate the fault. It was OK for another 6 weeks then out of the blue, same fault again!
This is why I particularly wanted to know if there was anybody that can actually bench test an ECU. i.e. look for dry joints etc.
I`m currently using my son`s 11 year old BMW 330D; What a super car! Why did I bother with a Volvo? There is no comparison and Volvos are`nt cheap cars by any means.