Hi Dave,

Hope you find this email. I just read this post of yours and have the exact same proble with my 99 V70R


"I bought my car used in November and although it ran ok, I felt that something was not quite right. The most obvious symptom was after the 1-2 shift at WOT, it had a substantial lag until the power came back on. No codes, no misfire, just a feeling that there should be more power on acceleration. Some other R's I drove ran about the same, some were so much more powerful that I suspected they had been 'chipped' even though nobody has released upgrades for the ME 7.0 yet. One slow day at work, I decided to verify the cam timing. I found the exhaust cam to be retarded from the desired factory spec. When I started the car after re-assembly, the engine sounded different. Much improved power, negligible lag on the 1-2 shift, better response at any acceleration. The change was enough even my wife noticed the improvement. This is a tedious job that takes Volvo special tools to lock the crank and cams in position. My car was the first variable cam engine I have set up and took over 4 hours to complete. Now I feel my car is as quick and strong as any I have driven, so I'm happy with the performance.(for the time being)
Dave the Volvo Tech"

I've only had my car just under a month but have always felt the same as you that something is not right and have the same symptoms as you described. How would I go about requesting that my mechanic check this out. Should I just ask them to check the cam timings and compare them to spec? How long does it take to do that? Wish you were here in Toronto to do the job for me.

Thanks Dave.