1999 Volvo V70 XC from North America - Comments

We bought a V70XC last year, and once during the drive home, and alert went to 'Low Performance'. This never happened again until a year later, and now it happens every 20 miles or so. We live on an island, and do not have access to a Volvo dealer, and they will not approve a local garage to do the necessary work, so we have no option but to keep driving it the way it is. Once we stop and wait a few seconds, it seems OK again until next time - like there is not enough fuel getting through, but filters were changed at last service in November. Can anyone suggest a fix for this please?

Our XC was good for the first 70,000 miles, with some of the things noted here, new motor mounts, rattles, etc. Now has 122,000 miles on it and this year alone we put in $1,668 for some ignition problems (and they put in another $1,000 worth of recall work), and then 3 months later another $1,268 for more ignition work. Oh, and now 3 months later, when the thing is warm it has trouble starting still, cranking and cranking. They say it might be a fuel pump ($2,500) and the engine light is on and the computer code indicates catalytic converter, another $1,500. Yea, right.

I have a 1999 V70 and this is my seventh and last Volvo. I have had 740's, 940's, S90 's, S70's and 850's. All run better and not had as much problems as this one.

It currently is under recall for ETM - Volvo refuses to put one in, have had checked out twice, the corporate office says it is a misfire although, I am getting seven codes for ETM throttle.

I was going to buy a XC90, but forget it. Volvo's corporate courtisey, or should I say lack of. I refuse to do business with business that do not treat there customers with respect.

Especially, in todays' economy you would think that they (Volvo) would want to keep every customer they could. Obviously not, I am thinking of Toyota, GMC, Nissan, Mercedes, or BMW.

NOT VOLVO, NOT AGAIN.

After reading all these stories I decided that my car is great! I drive a V70 XC 1998. I bought it with 100000 miles on it and after a year it had 120000. The previous owner sold it for $5000.

After two days the check engine came on. When I went to Volvo dealer, they said to me that they will save me money on diagnostics because the 1st owner was there a week ago and they told him $5000 to repair it. (: I was shocked! But I bought an ebay repair manual for this car and after replacement of 1 injector everything is fine till this day!

Great car! I have an Outback and Accord, and comparing the maintenance price of all three = same!!!

I agree with high prices at dealerships, and about useless repairs that they suggest just to pump your money.

Love my Volvo!

Volvo V70 XC 2000. First owner. 98K on it. No problem at all! I replaced only catalytic converter at 87K and that is it.

I am a second owner of a 99 V70XC and am perplexed with the repairs I have had to make (including a drive shaft and a rack and pinon set). Otherwise, the car is just wonderful. The brake, tire and fluid changes have been normal. And the only big repair on the horizon is my emergency brake assembly (which can cost upwards of $500.00).

I am keeping my XC if even just for my emotional tie to the vehicle.

"To the poster below"

Give yourself a big pat on the back!!!

I think it's great you got a little dirty and it paid off!!! Every car will brake and need repair, god help you if you get a tech who does more harm than good. Your car's only as reliable as your tech is talented.

After reading all these stories I decided that my car is great! I drive a V70 XC 1998. I bought it with 100000 miles on it, and after a year it had 120000. The previous owner sold it for $5000.

After two days the check engine came on. When I went to Volvo dealer, they said to me that they will save me money on diagnostics because the 1st owner was there a week ago and they told him $5000 to repair it. (: I was shocked! But I bought an ebay repair manual for this car and after replacement of 1 injector everything is fine till this day!

Great car! I have an Outback and Accord, and comparing the maintenance price of all three = same!!!

I agree with high prices at dealerships, and about useless repairs that they suggest just to pump your money.

Love my Volvo!

Low Performance Indicator.

The problem shall continue until you check and change the fuel control module. Unfortunately, you might have to get it done by an authorized Volvo dealer to set the computer control code to either default or to the specification of the VIN. It is a nuisance. It does not have a cable from gas pedal to the fuel control module. It has a microprocessor to instruct.

I am lucky to have got on to this Car Survey.Org.

I was about to buy a 1999 VOLVO V70 XC for AUD$14,575*. It has done 194,000kms. The owner said " You won't be disappointed with anything to do with this vehicle. It even has 'front seat warmers'."..

Having gone thru all the comments from long time Volvo lovers, I am going back to my search for an Australian Icon, the true blue Holden Commodore Wagon.

Cheers and thanks very much, you all. C Hayashi, Sydney.

WOW!!!

I can't believe what I have read. I too own a 99 V70 AWD, which I bought for 5750.00 at 160K.

I had the car checked prior to purchase to be sure nothing was terribly wrong with it... and it has been nothing but a money suck ever since.

At 170k the front end needed to be realigned with new tie rods and all 4 tires replaced. ($2200cdn)

At 185k the ABS module along with some other module needed to be replaced as I was having trouble accelerating.

Almost every light on the dash would light up, check engine, ABS, shift arrow, and a few others. this was a $2700 cdn touch.

This was all within a year of owning the hunk of junk.

And if this wasn't enough, last week I was driving to a wedding and the engine threw a rod... at 200k augghhhh!!!

This is now going to cost me $4500 cdn for a new engine.

I am not impressed with Volvo and will never own another one again.

As soon as the engine is fixed and I get back home (trusting the car gets me home and doesn't blow up on me again), I will be selling it.

What a terrible car and what a terrible company. I thought Ford and Chrysler and GM were bad, but I would buy any of them at this point.

Thanks for the info everyone, kinda glad I'm not the only one, but sad that more people have gone through this.

T.D.

Calgary AB.

I am having yet another problem that this Volvo V70XC seems to chronically suffer from. I feel compelled to contribute, because I know how frustrating this car has been for the last 4 years.

The car started to spew black smoke and sputter, the usual rough idle, etc. The gas mileage went to less than 10 mpg. Took it to the horrible Volvo dealer here, and I got the usual line. The car was throwing fuel system codes, ETM, MAS, O2, Electronic Throttle Module, Mass Air Flow Sensor, and the O2 sensor. They told me they would not guarantee which one was the problem and would use a trial and error approach starting with the O2 sensors,, all repairs could reach as high as $1800.00 if they had to replace all three items.

Well this pile of a car was not worth it, so I put a bottle of fuel injector cleaner in the tank with some premium gas and the car started to run good again. This lasted about 6 weeks, had a small repeat episode, and I repeated the procedure and it cleared up again.

Well eventually the car stranded me, started to spew black smoke, and sputtered and died on the road. I left it over night and managed to get it home the next day at a crawl. I spent the weekend researching this problem, and it pointed more and more to the MAS. The Volvo dealer had updated the ETM software during the diagnostic, and I had a few years previous had some kind of factory paid service on a ETM cleaning, but not replaced. This article said look in the air cleaner assy to make sure it was clean; it was. When you have the air cleaner cover popped open, you can look inside into the MAS on the out take. The article said start the car, which I did and it began to run rough, tap the MAS unit with the handle of a screw driver (said it was a good test to see if the unit was malfunctioning) I guess to see if it was dirty and gummed up. Well sure enough after a couple good raps with the screw driver handle, the idle smoothed right out. I know, a very crude approach but it worked.

I am planning on replacing the MAS tomorrow morning. The dealer wanted $450.00 to replace. I have found a new Bosch MAS for $90.00. The unit is very accessible with only 2 screws. I will update after I have replaced it and hopefully saved $350.00 in the process.