Nuts: day 2 and I have a good issue...

[weeble]

Hello,

Bought an 06 on Friday, 45000, from a reputable dealer who deals in euro autos and moves a lot of Volvos to many happy people in Denver.

Tonight while approaching a stop light the XC redlines for maybe 5 seconds and takes off like a shot. I was able to apply the brake and get it in park before I hit anyone. It actually continued to surge in park for few seconds. My jostled passenger complains of a sore neck. This isn't right at all...

I searched on a couple terms and I've found some info about transmission software and control modules on earlier models, but not much about a surge quite like this and not for this year. I'll be getting to know my factory dealer on Monday and learning about my remaining factory warranty, and chatting with the selling dealer.

Thoughts? Any insight is truly appreciated.

[JRL]

R U sure you didn't buy an rebodied 1986 Audi 5000? [sly]

This is generally not a Volvo issue, take it to a Volvo dealer, you should still be in warranty

[John@CdnRockies]

I'd be tempted to just hand it back to the selling dealer. I think this is the first post on this board related to unintended acceleration. Even if it is supposedly fixed you probably won't trust the car.

John

[budrichard]

Were you wearing boots at the time?
I was wearing hunting boots in my 03XC and the vehicle started accelerating, I quickly judged the problem and left off the brake which was counter intuitive and the vehicle stopped. Stepping on the brake increased the accleration because the boot covered part of the acclerator pedal also.-Dick

[weeble]

budrichard, I was wearing fancy Frye boots with thin soles and a trim fit compared to hunting boots. In the seconds I was dealing with the issue I did think "accelerator got stuck on something" and I fished around with my foot and tried to give it a pump - it seemed the accelerator was pulling away and I was still accelerating even when my foot in the air. In my mind last night I excluded that possibility but to be prudent I'll experiment with boots today and see if I possibly was mistaken, to be diligent.

[weeble]

John@CdnRockies, that crossed my mind too, giving it back to the dealer. I had a number of busy intersections to cross after after the incident, and at each one my lady (she's from Ontario, by the way) looked over at me with a nervous laugh while I, on full alert, kept my hand on the shifter. A very un-Volvo experience.

I stink at being pushy though, and coming into something like that softly (hey, you think maybe I could just give you this one back maybe?) seems to be a recipe for failure. You think I have a leg to stand on there?

I do know I want to bring this up with them. I'm glad I have a day to think about this and to prep.

[ifnt420]

Same thing happened to me a few times before, it's a scary experience.

Stopped at a red light with car in Drive and foot on brake, and all of a sudden the car starts reving and feels like I'm powerbraking for a drag strip launch.
I pulled the e-brake, car in Neutral, foot off of all pedals and the engine revs to redline hitting the rev limiter.
I turned off the car, restart it and it would drive normal until the next red light.

It happened again through out the drive home, and during the 10+ red light stops I figured out that whenever I turn off the "AC" the car would act normal; but if I have "AC" on it would freak out.

Next morning, went to the dealer who recommended a new battery (since mine was original with close to 160,000km) and haven't happened again since then for 4 years.
ps. The master tech commented on the ETM (mine's the new Bosch type not MM) not being stable with the weak battery whenever the AC was turned on.

[Forkster]

Hmmm... I think Ifnt420 is onto something. Weeble - could you please file a report with the NTSB on their website? That way, if this does happen again, there's a record of it with someone else and we can then force Volvo to do a recall.

You're the first one here to report this - but if it an issue with our P2 models, it does need to be looked into before it kills/hurts someone. It could be a software glitch between the ETM (MM type) and weak batteries.

ifnt420 - when you say MM - what brand is that?

[colovolvo]

Magneti Marelli.

[PGI007]

FWIW I had this same issue with my Subaru several years ago, soon after I bought it new. The car wanted to accelerate into oncoming traffic while I was at a stop sign and I had to keep my foot on the break to keep it still. Scared the feces out of me! I will have to look up my records as to what was done, but IIRC the dealer cleaned a valve and the problem never came back.

[n00bkiller944]

This might sound dumb, but it has happened to me before, are you sure the floor mat didn't catch the accelerator pedal?

[weeble]

This might sound dumb, but it has happened to me before, are you sure the floor mat didn't catch the accelerator pedal?

Good question - the Vovlo service rep just asked me the same thing. I do not have floor mats right now. Also said this is the first time he's heard of this in any Volvo. Great. Nice to meet you, I'm the new crazy guy. I am a bit sheepish about the whole thing because I know that no matter what I think (my sister thinks she saw a UFO), the first thing to suspect in this scenario is driver error, doubly so with a new-to-me car and coming off a Saab with a standard tranny - a little foot confusion seems reasonable. Oh well. I consider myself a head's up driver and I'm still pretty confident in what happened. We'll see what Volvo finds and then I'll move on.

[weeble]

Weeble - could you please file a report with the NTSB on their website?

Glad to. I'll wait for Volvo inspection to complete first.

I'm aware of a web application available to report incidents with the U.S. NHTSA - please let me know if you were referencing a different agency.

[Forkster]

They overlap - http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/ - it would be the NHTSA you can file a complaint.

As for the $tealership, I mean dealersheep, ummm... deersheep, hmm, can't seem to type it right... :D ensure you get to see a copy of their VIDA report - in your hands.

[weeble]

Well there's no sign of anything untoward related to this, but I am on record as having had this issue and strongly of the opinion that it was a real occurrence. Hopefully I'll be back to my usual custom of reading the archives and lurking. My next concern is considerably more fun: properly detailing this beautiful car before ski season. Thanks everyone.


... $tealership, I mean dealersheep, ummm... deersheep, hmm, can't seem to type it right...

I hadn't been in one of those temples since my last factory warranty expired in 00. Nice place! Good coffee! That's worth something.

[OKCXC70]

You could try 58 coats of Klasse.....

[RockitShip]

Is the ETM fly by wire on our cars? Are they different from model years?
I remember reading somewhere that they revised the ETM from early 01 & 02 failures.
However, if it were entirely true xemodex.com wouldn't be in business. ;-)