Check Engine: Dramatized.

[neurocache]

Mom has been driving my S70 because her van is messy and refuses to clean it out. I'm at home working on calculus, streesed to the hilt, and she tops it off with, drum roll please, "Honey has your car been stalling or acting funny lately?"
Me: "NO! WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Mom: "Nothing, I swear! I was just pulling in the neighborhood and your
check engine light came on."
Me: "See, I told you I'd been way past due for an oil change,
but you swore by your teeth that it had been changed just before we
purchased it."
Mom: "It was! Daddy says synthetic oil is more reliable than regular oil
though."
Me: " Five thousand miles is five thousand miles. Besides, Dad was the
one who said, "The boy needs to get his oil changed. I'm not gonna
even mention it to Janet though, I'll never win against her."

My dad is the kind of guy that would rather say "see i told ya" than do the right thing against my mom's will even if it means dropping a couple thosand pounds on a new b52343.

I'm not gonna say there is really a problem at all, although there could be one. In an earlier post i discussed my air conditioning woes which aren't really a problem unless i run my ac unit again before i find the leak, fix it, then charge it, but now I'm fidgety because of the indicator's persistence. I want to find the fault code but don't have a scan tool. For some odd reason i thought that the fault codes could be read through the head unit. If anyone has any suggestions or information, you have my praises as always .

[jross]

Since I see you're also in the States... go by your local autozone, you can rent an OBD-II reader there. It plugs in to a little connector near the coin tray (look for the "OBD-II" label, it's under that). That will tell you what triggered the CEL. For reference, going too long will NOT trigger a CEL unless you broke something in your negligence Make sure to get your oil changed while you're out and about, though. Realistically, you can go as much as 10k miles between changes, but you start eating into you're engines longevity with that sort of behavior.

(Side note: I've actually seen a Volvo 2.4L N/A 5-cyl that lasted almost 40k miles without an oil change. Of course, just before hitting 40k miles the oil was so fouled up that it couldn't sustain oil pressure and it ate the bearings and destroyed most of the rotating assembly. But it ran okay right up until that, apparently.)

[neurocache]

hehe cool thanks for the info didnt know i could rent. but yeah i know what obd is im working on an interface for my laptop right now but still have to get the odd odbII male connector to make the cable.

[neurocache]

More bad news. Went to the mechs and they say a have a busted front right boot and my ball bearings are shot. This is absurd because i don't drive relatively hard and i haven't hit anything that would cause this to happen. So the lists goes on, AC leaking freon, boot busted, ball bearings shot, and still haven't found out why check engine light is on because the garage i brought it to doesn't do new volvos because the diagnostics equipment they said would have cost them 25,000 dollars. Wish me luck guys and again thanks to all the people who have given me advice on this awesome forum

[jross]

CV boots do fail periodically, and if not caught soon enough, you do have to replace the CV joint - that's probably the bearing they're talking about. You're looking at maybe $200 for the part. It's a simple process to swap it out (well, somewhat simple). Honestly, go find a garage that does Volvos. If you need a listing, there's a huge database of mechanics and shops on the Volvospeed forum (http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/index.php?showforum=33). You may need to register to see them. There should be at least one or two local to you.