My S60 almost stalls when I come to a stop or a turn. When the speed drops to about 10mph, the rpm drops to under 5k. It then climbs back to 7.5k. I am concerned that the problem may get worse. The dealer has tried to bring it to origianl spec, with no success. It has 45k miles and comes off warranty shortly. Thoughts??

so, dear volvo owners.....
any news to report on the problems discussed in this thread recently; few of you were to see the dealers, any luck ?

The car was serviced by the dealer about 10 days ago. It's somewhat better in that the rpm's don't drop as severely and the little shudder is gone. They did all the downlods fornm the Volvo site. I beleive that the problem will always be with the car, and will get worse. I gave them the suggested fixes from this thread and was told it was for a turbo and not the std. engine. They did say that if the symptoms come back, I can bring it back under warranty. Oh well...

I've got a 2.4T with the Geartronic and about 78,000 kms on it.

I have had similar problems occur for two different reasons.

(1) Transmission: This has been the only constant problem on this car. It's been reprogrammed 6 times. Most of the time the programming has worked for about 2 weeks then starts doing the same thing you describe (I also have the problem of either holding shifts too long at part throttle or, the last program that was put in got the car to start gear hunting every-which-way)... but I had the almost-stall problem with a couple of the programs. so that might be a possibility. Apparently Volvo Sweden can custom make a tranny program for your car (this will be the next step for mine)... so that may be an option.

(2) Throttle body. Most likely you've got a bad throttle body stepper motor or one of the many little sensors. I had mine go while at school in the 'States and got the "critical failure" warning (never a good sign). Covered under warranty, no problem, but definitely get them to look at that... the car just shut down at one point and that was it. So you might have a lesser degree of the problem I had.

Cheers.
D.

any luck with your car ?

My appt is next week. I'll let you the results.

what was done on your car by the dealer to eliminate the problem, just curious;
did you have any sw updates installed ? my car was/still doing the same; is this a plain 2.4l engine ?

the dealer cleaned the throttle box and has reset the computer twice. It makes it marginally better. It's a plain 2.4I. I don't know what the sw updates are.

my throttle was cleaned as well, no effect
there are 3 major software updates (sw) for these cars, for the ECM, ETM (throttle module) and TCM (transmission); what do yo meam by "reset computer" ?
did you have ECM and/or ETM sw downloaded ? this would show up on your invoice/receipt

the dealer "performed both software upgrades" for the ECM and ETM software.

did you ever have any error codes ?
did your car ever stalled on you ?

if the updates did not correct the issue, than prospects look grim for me as well; I intend to do upgrades soon; would this be a failing throttle itself? this is apparently ~$1k job, if outside of warranty;

I never had error codes, only the fact that the car felt like it wanted to stall. It has never stalled. I am going to bring it in one more time and wanted to get more info b4 bringing it in. You are not giving me much hope.

I don't know what the failing throttle is?

I am in the same boat....the 'hope' level is the same for me...my delear also could not determine the reason; I was hoping that all this is related to malfunctioning sofware;
All I am trying to do is find out other people experinces with the car and with the service, what was done, what was not etc. Apparently on 2001+02 models throttles were'bad'(not reliable, that is why in 2003 they are different0; maybe our rpm dips are a sign of a throttle that is going to give up soon, which is rather costly;

I wished that others could tell us whether this is recurring problem. I will make sure that they check the throttle cable. My car has 45000 and the warsnty is up at 50. I'll make an appt and let you know afterward what they did, and how they fixed it (hopefully)

jekvolvo,
sorry but there is no throttle cable in our cars.....its all electronics;good luck with your mechanic, let me know.

On all the 99+ S70's (same motor as an S60, but I've only seen two of those as yet) there is a banjo bolt, at the front bottom of the intake, for the ventilation system. It gets clogged, pushing crank case gases back into the throttle body. Clean that, hopefully...no more problems. It works on the S70's and such.

Holy crap. I just took my car in for this. Exact symptoms as mentioned for my S60 T5 2001. I actually got a message saying "performance reduced". Took it into Volvo...$1040 estimate for new "fuel throttle module". Chrissij please tell me you are not kidding about the cleaning around the banjo bolt. Please advise...I have to make a decision tomorrow on what they will do.

Have you gotten an ETS light? Does this happen only at idle or slower speeds, or does it happen at highway speeds? ETS light indicated throttle body problems, but if it is only at idle, then the throttle body can be cleaned most likely. I've never had any luck cleaning with an ETS light that happened at highway speeds...and yes, you also have a banjo bolt that gets clogged.

hi
the vacuum is still pretty good when oil cap removed and held on top of the opening;it is nicely sucked back; banjo bolt ? is this the item where you need to remove the intake manifold ?

It is easier to do it with the intake off, but I don't believe that it is what Volvo was talking about needing to take the intake off for. They were most likely talking about replacing the "flame trap". From what I've read, the flame trap is replaced because of the clogged banjo bolt...go figire.

Thanks for the ideas. The dealer has no idea as to how to fix the problem - I am taking my car in Tuesday. Maybe the Banjo belt may get them going in the right direction.