General: 70: Volvo Car UK Policy on ETM Replacement

[NobbyT]

Apparently Volvo think that it is quite good for this part to last 6 or 7 years!!!

Dear Volvo,

Thank you for your response which I note with increasing dissatisfaction.

The part and car is only 7 years old. I purchased the car almost a year ago, and the engine management fault light was on then, so I assume that the previous owner could not get to the bottom of the problem and so disposed of it and traded in his Volvo for a Mercedes Benz. (I was told by Volvo at Hemel Hempsted it was the service interval light re-setting itself and they thought they had fixed it). The part only lasted 6 years at most and possibly 5 or less. It would be interesting to find out how much he had spent without resolving the problem.

The essential issue to me is that this part is not of merchantable quality meaning that the car is not suitable for the purpose for which it was designed. It seems that Volvo is attempting to avoid responsibility for this.

If you are not prepared to make some concession as your last email made clear, I will now seek wider publicity and intiially contact Watchdog in the UK.

Kind regards

3/2/2009

Dear Sir

I must clarify that this part has lasted almost 8 years. In addition, we have significantly reduced the cost of the ETM and this reduction is still in place.

I am sorry that you remain dissatisfied however our position on this matter will not change

Volvo Customer Relations

02/02/09

Dear Volvo

Thank you for your response which I note.

The essential issue to me is that this part is not of merchantable quality meaning that the car is not suitable for the purpose for which it was designed. It seems that Volvo is attempting to avoid responsibility for this.

Kind regards

02/02/2009

Dear Sir

Thank you for your e-mail.

In the UK, vehicle emissions are monitored by checks which form part of the annual MOT test. Please consult your last MOT test certificate for verification that the MOT tester certified that your vehicle complied with regulations.

Volvo Customer Relations

02/02/2009

Thank you for your response which I note.

I would be grateful if you can advise which UK Government agency has confirmed that Volvo has complied with emmissions regulations for my vehicle and others of similar age and class (as referred to in the US Court Judgement against Volvo).

Kind regards

[wadey]

sorry to cross post but this "emissions" smoke screen won't work with me it's a safety issue no ifs or buts and the "cleaning" is just waffle. How can it be dirty on the inlet manifold side of the AIR FILTER?
Rubbish just rubbish, I'd contact my MP but she's to busy filling in expense claims

[martinj]

FYI I had the dreaded throttle body error code recovered by the RAC local non Volvo dealer cleaned the throttle body 320 mile drive home no problem. Next day 5 mile trip and into limp mode, checked it in to local main dealer who reported error code for the throttle body, could be all right for months or fail shortly, of on holiday soon so I had it replaced total cost £283.70. PItA but that seems to be the current price.

[mikealder]

I had mine fail on my year 2000 V70 with 110K on the clock, removed the part and sent it to bba remanufacturing (Rochester UK) which cost a total of £340 including postage and VAT, car was off the road for six days.
Its fine now, and the part was easy to remove, had I found this forum earlier I might have saved some cash, thankfully the days of driving home in "limp home" mode are over - Mike

[Buzzword]

My C70 2000 has just failed with only £54K on the clock I have spent the past week "discussing" this with volvo and the dealer network and getting nowhere. As this happened on the fast lane of the motorway I am very angry they have not acknowledged the safety angle of the fault.
Now I just want to try and get this fixed with the least financil penalty ( feel very strongly that that should be a free service)
There are many threads but a lots of forums are quite old has anybody in 2009 been able to get Volvo to contribute? and if not what is the likely cost ? I have read circa £350 + VAT -is this average?

[mikealder]

Get a price for fixing the ETM from the dealer garage, but if you can use a 10MM spanner and a screwdriver the ETM is easy to remove from the engine then send it away for rectification, mine cost £340 a few weeks ago and has been great since (look at the post above above yours for some clues).

I appreciate removing the faulty part yourself puts the car off the road while the ETM is away, but its only a week. In the USA they have the option for the non contact potentiameter modification which is a far better solution, but the device will be away for longer due to the logistics involved and will cost significantly more due to shipping charges and a rather poor exchange rate Pound relative to Dollar.

I did consider the non contact pot replacement but this is a costly option when you factor in shipping charges, you get a two year Warranty with the BBA unit and no messing about - I was impressed by the service they offered, keeping me informed throughout the entire time the component was away:

Posted Tuesday (UPS picked it up)

Phone call Wednesday to say it had arived

Phone call Thursday to ask for information about how the car was behaving

Phone call Friday to say the unit was on test and they couldn't find a fault with it, I informed them to change the Pot as I was convinced this was the fault - The engineer I spoke to stated this might not cure the rough idle / running fault but would repair the ETMif I insisted (which I did)

Phone call late Friday to say it was repaired and they wanted payment (credit/ debit card over the phone)

Monday UPS delivered the part, I fitted it in under 10 minutes, left the ignition on for 15 minutes then fired up the engine, I have done over a thousand miles since with not a problem, in fact the car drives in a far more responsive mannor than it ever did - Mike

[SC15]

Our 2002 C70 ETM failed at 33k miles, (6 years of London stop/start driving!). I was aware that it would fail eventually having followed the threads on here.

The design of the potentiometers is such that they will wear out, sooner or later.

I nearly went for the contactless option, but 'er indoors wasn't impressed at how long it would take so in the end Solo in Ruislip did the job for £360 (and lent us a car for the day) including firmware update.

So I guess we are good for another six years!

[monjem]

Hi All, New to Forum and would like some advice please. Had the above Volvo from new not been that impressed though, car has now only covered 67K but has had new turbo at 48K, new alt at 57K, on average one bulb pops every 6 weeks plus a few other little issues, but the main one currently is it's lower on power, idle is hunting, have to floor it before it decides to make any form of rapid forward motion. I have had ETM cleaned by independent (got ripped off once too oftem by main dealer so don't trust) and the hunting stopped but still low on power (compared to what it used to be like, i.e smooth and rapid for not much throttle). Most times when I go to use cruise it lasts about 2 seconds then "Cruise" disappears from display only coming back on after engine stop-start, at least once a day the Engine Management Service warning comes on. Would it be fair to assume that the throttle body is at fault and a new one would restore power and smooth running, if so approx what should I pay for this work. Currently between jobs as it were so need as much advice as I can before taking the plunge. Many Thanks in advance, monjem

[frenchie]

Hi Folks,

I'm new to Volvo ownership and the forum so I kicked off with a '01 2.4T S60 that just ticked over 78k miles with fsh. Great car but a electronic nightmare. Within 3k miles of use the "Emissions service required" message popped up and the idle went crazy. I'm an engineer so can usually work my way round stuff....... or so I thought.....
1,Carefully cleaned the MAF, still ropey idle, checked for air leaks.....none
2,Cleaned all the crank case breathing system although not blocked
3,Changed plugs for genuine Volvo - no better,
4, JOINED FORUM AND BEGAN TO READ!!!!!!!
5,Removed the ETM and cleaned this (never ever again)
No cure but ran ok with mildly erratic idle for 2-3 weeks
Finally "Reduced Power" message on annoying display and car cutting out, throttle response has dulled off and wont hold constant revs plus splutters at 4250 until past = ETM to me, confirmed by ECM-03F code?
Read this mammoth thread and will be going straight to Volvo and gladly giving them £250 notes for a new one as it's at least 3.5 hours work. On a car that is nearly 9 years old then I think this is reasonable. For those with a sub 5 year old car then their attitude is outrageous!
THANKS FOLKS!

[MJVolvofan]

Hi, realise I'm a bit behind the times, but I bought my 2000 V70 T5 in 2005 with 92,000 miles on, most money I'd ever spent on a car, @ £8250 at the time, privately bought through Autotrader. Car went well, very pleased initially, converted it to Lpg just before the fuel prices went crazy, saw Lpg rise from 38p/l to 65 p/l, still pleased with my savings, then at around 130k the magnetti marelli ETM started playing up, tried to self diagnose to begin with, eventually after ruling out the Lpg as a cause, realised what the problem was and began to speak to Volvo, they did not want to know! and one dealer wouldn't even discuss!
Granted the car was now 9yr old with decent mileage(apparently my ETM was seriously on borrowed time as it was), I'd missed all the publicity and the BBC watchdog programme which temporarily shamed Volvo into some form of goodwill, for a part that was faulty in design, what really got me was the way we in the UK were treated in comparison to how it was dealt with in Sweden and the U.S.A, Volvo UK had been shamed into some form of contribution but their 'goodwill campaign' for want of a better way of putting it was now over. In the U.S & Sweden they gave a 200,000 mile or ten year warranty, on this part on the basis of 'strict emission laws' what crap.
The bottom line, the U.S are better protected legally, Volvo didn't want a fight they knew they would loose, when it comes to Sweden, well as I've said elsewhere there are some things you just don't do on your own doorstep. As for the UK consumer, we were on our own again, the only slightly Good news was that the repair when I did finally get it done cost around £280, the part itself being about £130 reduced I believe due to the problems, still aggrieved though as it was money I didn't have, and should not have had to spend. The dealer LLoyds of Aberaeron were brilliant, it wasn't their fault, the blame lies strictly at Volvo's door, refusing to accept Liability again.
Manufacturers like to make their vehicles difficult if impossible for ordinary mechanics to work on, programming parts so that they can only ever be used once, how wasteful, if I could have obtained a part from a breakers and fitted myself this could have been far less painfull on the wallet, but all Manufacturers are becoming more and more guilty of this.