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This is my first need to post anything after 1 1/2 years of owning my '99 V70. For the last 8 months I have been having it serviced by a friend who owns a garage specializing in "foreign" cars. He has a very good reputation for this and many people take their Volvo's BMW's Mercedes etc to him. He has most of the diagnostics equipment but occasionally goes to the local dealer if necessary. I have found this works better than going to the dealer direct as they are not very customer oriented.
Long Rambling Background Part:
Anyway, last week as I am about to drive on a 1000 mile windsurfing vacation to North Carolina, I had him do the 60k mile service. We also discovered a noisy front left wheel bearing and did that too. However, after the work was done he pressure washed the engine and the ETS light came on, presumably due to moisture on the contacts. He had tried to dry out the sensor contacts but was not able to do this. He advised me to return the next day if the light had not cleared which I ultimately did.
Here's where my life began to get complicated....in his attempt to remove and clean the sensor it became damaged and needed to be replaced. He felt very bad about this and immediately assured me he would pick up this cost, so no problem there. He took it to the dealer where they replaced the sensor. While there they looked the car up in their system and saw that it needed a few service bulletin fixes; rubber rest stops replaced on headlight wipers, headlight wiring and lamp retrofit, and plugged into the big Volvo computer in Sweden via sattelite for "some firmwear upgrades".
He washed the car (outside only this time), and delivered it to my house where I was waiting to leave on my vacation. My buddy and i loaded our windsurfing gear onto and into the car (500lb. max) and headed out on our trip.
Symptoms Part:
I soon noticed it losing power on hills. I attributed this to the heavy load of all of our gear. On flat highway it would get up to speed but did not have the usual power on acceleration. On steep climbs it would lose power and if I pushed the accelerator pedal further it would drop gears, raise rpms from 2500 to 3000 but no change in speed or power. Needless to say I babied it all the way keeping the rpm's low (temp indicator remainded at normal the whole time).
Upon my return home, and after unloading all the gear, the symptoms remained. I called my frend to schedule an oil change after the trip and to tell him about the acceleration problem. I was thinking the firmwear upgrade perhaps changed the shifting pattern somehow, but after a couple of days driving it feels like something else. All I know about ETS is that it is an Electronic Throttle System, and I'm pretty sure the sensor is bad, or was not set up properly. My freind is taking it back the dealer early next week to get this sorted out.
Big Question Part:
What I really want to find out from this group of experienced V70 owners is if anyone has had a similar experience, eventual cure, and if I have done any damage as a result?
thanks for your patience if you have made it all the way to the end...gerry
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