VEXED, ONLY discussing ETM Failures

**DonWillson** · 04-15-2005, 11:59 AM

I went through the compaints registered with NHTSA and found 100. About 60 listed the ETM as the failure, the others listed something else that had the same symptoms such as "electrical" but showed limp home as the result.

1999 32 total complaints, C/S/V 70

2000 51 total complaints, 26 for 70 series, 25 for S80

2001 17 total complaints6 for S80, 11 for 70 series

One of VEXED members is trying to see if there is a correlation between turbo and non turbo failures, using the VIN information.

Don Willson
[email protected]

**ljjones** · 04-21-2005, 10:07 AM

Don-

I saw this (mis)information posted on the Brickboard. Thought you might be interested. Please excuse if you've already seen.

posted by ocboy82 on Sat Apr 16 18:17 UTC 2005
Author Info: [PROFILE] [EVERY POST] [THREADS]
Hey everyone, I recently just installed Volvo-foglights on my 1999 S70 through the same Independant Volvo shop I've been going to since my very first volvo at 16. However, I noticed that after the beautiful job was complete, the Homesafe lighting feature (activate high-beams and you can walk away while the headlights stay on for 30 seconds) does not work anymore. Is it that you cannot have foglights with homesafe lighting? Or is it just a matter of them forgetting to reconnect a wire(s)?
Also.. I notice that a lot of owners on the board have issues with the ETS. Shortly after I purchased my S70 used at 50,000 miles, my ETS light came on. I replaced it to the tune of about $1000 at the dealer, and now a year later, the ETS light came on again. The Independant Volvo shop I went to said that every year or two, it should be taken out and cleaned, and should be seen as a mandatory procedure just as you would do an oil change or a major service...
Anyways, thanks for any responses in advance,
-Alan

**DonWillson** · 04-21-2005, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by ljjones

Don-
I saw this (mis)information posted on the Brickboard. Thought you might be interested. Please excuse if you've already seen.
Also.. I notice that a lot of owners on the board have issues with the ETS. Shortly after I purchased my S70 used at 50,000 miles, my ETS light came on. I replaced it to the tune of about $1000 at the dealer, and now a year later, the ETS light came on again. The Independant Volvo shop I went to said that every year or two, it should be taken out and cleaned, and should be seen as a mandatory procedure just as you would do an oil change or a major service...
Anyways, thanks for any responses in advance,
-Alan

Help me out guys and gals. How can cleaning the throttle body help? I don't think that is the problem. I know what the FATAL failure is, it's the potentiomenter. Are there two failures here? What symptoms could a dirty throttle body cause? Is it just a placebo?
Don Willson
[email protected]

**tgrumaj** · 04-21-2005, 05:13 PM

Don,
Can't claim to know the answer. But my situation was as follows:
Purchased the car used with 71k miles. Drove about 300 miles after purchase and ETS light came on. No symptoms at all. Perfrormance before and after is smooth and no heistiation or idle issues. Drove the car for about 400k with the light on before getting back to my Indy mechanic. He took it out and cleaned it. It is the original ETM on the car (99XC) and I have now driven it for another 14k and stand at 86k total miles. No problems so far but like most I'm just waiting for the true failure to occur. In this case whatever made the ETS light come on was solved by a removal and cleaning. But I now live in dread just waiting for the light to come on and the real problems to start.

**Bluegrass-XC** · 04-21-2005, 07:55 PM

Cleaning worked for only a few weeks, then the hesitation came back. Eventially I had a "limp-home" failure and an "ETS Light with no loss in performace" failure. In each incident, I turned off the engine, waited a few minutes then restarted with no ill affects.

Don - I'll get the data off the old unit as soon as life slows down for a few days - I promise!

**gs1397** · 04-23-2005, 07:22 AM

Don,
Are all the newer v70's and XC's affected by the ETM faliure, or is it limited to certain years? I have a 99 S70 that is on its 3rd ETM and when the time comes to look again, I really like the XC's but don't want to have to go through something like this again.

Thanks

**Bud** · 04-23-2005, 09:42 AM

It appears this ETM problem is limited to the 1999-2001 S/C/V/XC-70s and S-80s. Who knows, their coverup runs deep??

**gs1397** · 04-23-2005, 08:13 PM

Forgive me as I am fairly new here, but from the last post it seems that 02 and newer models don't have the ETM failure? I know that the S70 was replaced by the S60 in 02, but the XC and V live on as 70's. Any idea as to why they are not succeptible to the bad ETM's?

Thanks for all everyone is doing in this battle against Corporate Greed!!!!!

Garn
99 Black S70 GLT

**Edmonds17** · 04-24-2005, 05:44 PM

The '02 and later Volvos appear to have less of a problem for two reasons. First, most '02's and later don't yet have the mileage of the '99 to '01's. Second, Volvo shifted in '02 and later years to a throttle body from Bosch. The '99 -'01 Volvos use a Magneti Marelli throttle body. Magneti Marelli is a Division of the Fiat Group. I suspect the Bosch throttle body is a slightly better unit than the Fiat version. The Bosch units will still fail but probably not as soon.

Edmonds17

**philosophicaldreamer** · 04-26-2005, 07:32 AM

I have 45K miles on my car and my ETM was cleaned about 5K miles ago when I complained to my dealer that my car would hesitate before take off after I pushed the gas paddle. The question that I have is that I continue to have such hesitation. Does this mean that my ETM is in early stages of failure or is this associated with my turbo? When we are talking about hesitation, what are we talking about?

Thanks.
Ta-ta, janusz