Volvo D5 Service faults / general errors
Hi Folks
As most of you know, I bought a Volvo S80 D5 (163bhp Euro 3) on a 2003 plate (face lifted model) about 3 weeks ago and it thankfully has a full AA warranty. Since buying it 3 weeks ago, I've experienced a couple of little faults and thought I'd post my finding up here just in case it could help someone else out that was having a problem with their S80, S60 or V70 with the D5 engine.
When I first saw the S80 for sale on a garage forecourt, I examined it and then asked the salesman for a test drive. Everything was fantastic apart from when driving below 30mph. I noticed a slight wave in power. Driving at a steady 25mph, it felt as if the power was being sent to the front wheels in a wave or a pulse - similar to when braking heavy and the ABS kicks in and does the famous pulse/cadence braking and you can feel a judder. Well same type of thing here except I was driving and not touching the break pedal. When driving above 30mph, however, everything was smooth and beautiful.
I told the garage I was interested in the car, but wouldn't touch it unless they were able to fix the fault. They agreed and a few days later they called me to say they'd found the fault - two sticky injectors and the intercooler was gone. These faults were fixed by replacing with genuine Volvo parts and I collected the car a few days later.
As soon as I drove it home on the first night, a warning message saying "High Emissions Service Required". I promptly took the car to Volvomax (My local independent Volvo garage) and Douggie there read the codes - the EGR Valve came back as being at fault and the print out said it was either in the "open" or "closed" position. Douggie reset the codes and cleared the memory. But 3 minutes later, on the way home, the same error message showed up on my dash. Also, a few days later, I noticed that whenever I was accelerating up a hill and the revs went above 3,000 rpm, the message "Engine service required" appeared on the dash and the engine went into Limp mode and switched the turbo off.
I took all this information back to the sales garage and they replaced the fuel filter, removed and cleaned the EGR valve and fitted a brand new genuine Volvo top mount as I'd noticed the one on the engine was knackered. For the first time since I bought the car, the Emissions message did not come on at all. All sorted and still going perfectly to this day. However, the problem of driving the car up a hill whilst accelerating is still there.
I took the car back to the sales garage this morning and their mechanic checked all the hoses, intercooler, electrics, etc and advised that we'd have to get the codes read. He tried his code reader, but for some reason it wouldn't read my car. but we did notice when it was up on the ramp that the front engine mount looked like it had started to perish.
I jumped in the car and drove a few miles to the nearest Volvo dealership - Volvo Motherwell. I sat in an amazing, modern, very stylish waiting room whilst drinking a free hot chocolate and reading the Herald as a gentleman by the name of "Harry" retrieved the fault codes from my car. After about 5 minutes he said the only code it's showing is 6805 (Boost pressure control faulty). He explained that the D5's engine mounts are actually pressurised and part of the vacuum system. Just last week, he'd had a S80 in with the same fault - accelerating up a hill, the engine would go into limp mode and replacing the front engine mount had cured it. Now, I know that an error code of 6805 could indicate a fault on a number of different engine parts, but at this point in time, the engine mount is getting the most attention. I think with the top mount being knackered for so long, the engine's taken some wear out of the front mount, well that's the theory anyways for the time being.
Massive respect to Harry for all his advice and knowledge of Volvos and for not charging me for the codes being read and the hot chocolate :D
I've only just came home and I'll call the sales garage on Monday to book it in with them to get the front engine mount replaced and hopefully from there, everything should be sorted. I'll keep this thread updated. ;)
So just to re-cap, after extensive searching through forums (VPCuk, VOC and T5D5), speaking to Volvo, Volvomax and the sales garage, if you have a Volvo D5 (163Bhp), weak points that cause a lot of hassle are the EGR Valve (Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve), intercoolers (At around 100k miles), injectors, fuel filters and engine mounts.
If you have the newer D5 engine with 185Bhp, you can also add the swirl pot (Swirl Chamber operating arm failure) and the DPF (Diesel particulate filter) to the list of things to look out for.
As a side note. I also noticed there wasn't an awful lot of air coming out of my dashboard vents when I bought the car - even with the blower fan on full speed. Turns out the pollen filter was blocked and looked like it hadn't been replaced in years. I removed and replaced it and everything is as it should be.
Also, when the air con on, the passenger side of the car was freezing as it should be, but the driver side was always no where near as cold. One quick trip to Kwik Fit, then confirmed the air con needed a re-charge and an hour later - the car's like an Eskimo's fridge at Christmas time :D
