I can only explain ths problem second hand as described by my wife. On her '02 XC 70 once about 2 weeks ago she's decribed that with her foot to the floor the car would hardly make it home.
Road tested when I got home and everything was normal; plenty of power, shifting correctly, no check engine lights...
Now yesterday the same thing, only she got me from her cell phone.... Had her put it in neutral to see if the engine would rev and seemed normal....had har put it in Manual Shift and she said it might be a little better, but basically not enough power to go more then 20 miles a hour....
So once again, I get home and the car runs normal????
Any one run accross this?

RT, I believe your wife.
When she gets home, she turns off the engine and then you get in and restart it and all is normal. She could also do the same at a traffic light or stop sign.

You won't be able to diagnose it without reading the trouble codes with a scanner. Most auto supply stores will do that for free.

I am surprised that the car goes into limp mode with out at least setting a code that will also turn on the check engine light or the arrow.

EDIT: I was just over at VS and someone tried this and it worked? Disconnect both cables from the battery and short the positive wire to the negative, to ground all of the computers for about 1 minute. They reconnected the battery and were good to go.
Just remember, the car will be back in learning mode for a while and any codes you may have had stored will be gone.


Klaus

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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)

Hi Klaus, what exactly is going on? How was she able to rev the enginge, but not have power?

Revving an unloaded engine will not mean anything, except the bearings are not siezed up. Placing a load on an engine will change the fuel air mix needed to keep the engine running with power.
Usually, a stubborn, hard to accellerate engine indicates too much fuel is being delivered and things are starting to flood out. In your case, it is the engine computer that has found a problem and is not delivering the correct mix. This limp home mode can sometimes be cured by turning the engine off/on again, so the ECU can perform diagnostics on itself and remove faults that are extraneous.
You need to get the codes scanned, there might be a residual code that will give you a direction to look at.

Klaus
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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)

Thanks Klaus, one guy I was talking to mentioned the Throttle Module having sooooo much trouble Volvo put a 200K / 10YR on this part. And to him the syptoms were related?

It's possible that the ETM is bad, but I thought it was "fixed" by 2002. Without a CEL it is hard to determine what is wrong. You might need a Volvo scan tool to catch the ETM problems if they are minor.

Klaus
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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)

Not sure how I'm going to catch a code. It seems to only be happening every couple of weeks...... I just checked on VEXEDvolvo and for the XC70AWD I only see model year 2001 covered? For V70 they have 1999 - 2002 covered.... What would be different?

That is just model year change over. All 1999-2001 and some early 2002 cars have the original ETM. Later 2002 are supposed to have the new ETM.

A dealer can, and should, check it out for free. Has the warning light ever come on? Even if it goes out, there may be some residual codes in the ECU to be scanned by a Volvo scan tool.

Klaus
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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)

Went to AutoZone and they only pull Codes down to a certain level... Non found
Went t a Local Stealer and 69 bucks later he pulled the codes and found:

ECM-9520 Accelerator pedal (AP) position sensor analog signal - Signal too low......

They did not ask me by the time they reset the codes... I refused the work at this time as they wanted 130 bucks for the part (30683516-6) and another 130 bucks labor.....If this the problem, I'll change myself....

What's your opinion?

Rgrds,

Kevin

You could try cleaning the contacts with electrical cleaner and a toothbrush, gotta love old toothbrushes, and see if that helps. If not contact one of the online supply houses.
Terrible place to work on a car :)

Klaus
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The 164 has a new home, all I am left with are a 95 854T and a 98 V70R :)

If I end up replacing, my guy tells me that the new AP sensor needs to be sync'd / balanced with updating the ETM. is anyone aware of this?

I'm not even sure where this thing is?? Do you??