i had a strange episode tonight with the volvo losing power. i was on my way to the gym,(5 mile trip) and just as i was about to come off the duel carriageway at around 70mph i lost all drive and revs until the speed dropped to circa 40 mph,and rpm to around 2k, then it would not accelerate and revs did not rise even when i went down through the gears! i limped to the gym carpark, turned off ignition,re started it and it was ok?
set off to drive home and within half a mile it did it all again,so pulled in,off with ignition,back on and it ran fine all the way to supermarket and all the way back home!
any ideas what this could be? car is a 2002 volvo s60 D5 auto with only 76k,and full history,mot's etc!
one thing i do sometimes have is a scrambled warning message on dash saying coolant level low, but coolant is fine and i assumed a failed sensor(which occured when i had the garage do the cam belt,and had to remove the header tank).its been like this for over a year though and never had a single issue with the car.cheers

Had very similar today with a customers XC70 AWD diesel with the added issue that
occasionally it would cut out but on restart was fine till about 2k rpm.
Recorded low fuel pressure, turned out to be blocked fuel filter.
Strangely, the engine light never came on but it recorded the fault. Cleared it and once it lost power the
code was back in the memory but still no light.

[Edited on 30/1/14 by NigeEss]

Try unplugging the MAF sensor, see if this improve it as a test.
I had similar problems last year. New MAF sorted it


Andy

First of all you need to get the Dash (dim) module sorted. The garbled message on the LCD is one of the first symptoms of it breaking down, the failure of this module can cause no end of problems including the car not running at all, abs/airbag warnings, lights working erratically and loads more. If you google dim module on the Volvo forums you will get loads of examples.

New modules are mega bucks and you can't fit a good used one from another car without getting it configured to your car, a company called BBA reman down South will do a complete overhaul with a lifetime warranty for reasonable money.

I learnt all this on my dad's former s60 d5, we were getting some weird electrical faults along with the car dying a couple of times. All sorted by getting the dash module overhauled.

Sounds like it's going into limp home mode. You'd expect a fault/MIL light on as well but not always the case. Could be a lot of things causing it and only a code read will find it. If there's no MIL on then it's likely that a straight forward EOBD read won't find it and it'll need smething that reads the Volvo specific codes.

Dash faults are known issue but symptoms can also be CentralElectriclModule fault. Have a search on BBA-Reman forum for more info.

Sorry but "My car did this and it was X so change that" is a bit of a lottery to just follow. There's dozens of possible casuses of going into limp home mode.

You can do some very basic displaying of DTC's with the onboard computer. It's not the most helpful as they may be old codes set but might be worth a look? I had mine reset with VIDA soon after I bought my S60 so I know my codes displayed are fairly fresh.

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.php?65822

Do you use Tesco Diesel ?

Fuel filter on my Evoque blocked with this stuff - common problem on them.

Same symptoms as yours apart from it lit up the engine management light.

texaco currently.from local spar!

quote:

---

Originally posted by daniel mason
texaco currently.from local spar!

---

*shudders at the thought of s60 electrics*

Not helpful I know

Had the same symptoms on my V70. Weeks of chasing round with inconclusive fault codes. Turned out the fuel filter had collapsed so was restricting flow. Sometimes it's the simple things. Hope you sort it Dan. S60's are great cars with the D5

car is superb, its just intermittent faults are a pain to find/trace!

As mentioned a couple of times already, I had a customers car come back into which was loosing power and going into limp mode. Fuel filer cured that.

If you want to borrow my code reader let me know Dan.

might take you up on that mate, if i pop round next sunday to look at your radical,will you have it there? cheers gordon

Just had very similar problem with a VW transporter. After spending a fortune changing parts it turned out to be a blocked catalytic converter.

quote:

---

Originally posted by fsmlittler
Just had very similar problem with a VW transporter. After spending a fortune changing parts it turned out to be a blocked catalytic converter.

---

it drives perfectly if you drive it normally. but if you go WOT when trying to overtake, it instantly does it which is a pain (and dangerous).

This is classic maf sensor case in diesel audis. Would imagine volvos would be similarly affected. The unplug the maf to test doesn't always work but if you have no luck with the fuel filter I'd be trying a new maf sensor

if i unplug the maf it just wont rev at all. exactly the same symptoms as when i go wide open throttle? its a puzzling me a bit!
basically if i drive it normally,there are no issues. if i open throttle fully it goes into this fault/limp mode. if i unplug the maf it goes into limp mode straight away!