S/V/C 2004 V70 - Reduced Engine Performance, Engine System Service Required

Hi all -

2004 V70 2.5T, 157K on it. Maintenance up to date, but not obsessively so.

We live at sea level, feed it 87 just because.

Topped up with 1/3 tank gas at 3K' elevation (at a place named Cheap Gas which was almost a dollar cheaper than the other station).

Blasted our way to 8K' with zero issues (have made this trip a lot and do not spare the loud pedal).

Came out of the campsite on our way to 9K' and suddenly lost power, got "Reduced Engine Performance". Limped to the side, sat for ten minutes, and all was well. No CEL. Finished the drive, had a nice hike, drove back, no issues.


I figured Cheap=Bad Gas, and combined with high boost, low octane, and thin air it was (inaudibly) knocking itself silly, so it went into limp mode.

Driving home today, got the REP notice, pulled to the side, sat a while, restarted, and off we went. This time got a CEL and "Engine System Service Required", but car ran excellently the rest of the way home.

Got codes P0353 (misfire cyl 3 IIRC) and P2111 (throttle module). I figure misfire is just due to running poopy. Haven't seen P2111 before.

Searching around, REP seems to indicate throttle module. I'm intending to just see what happens as we drive around town and go from there. Just curious if these symptoms stack up to anything known (that didn't reveal itself through the magic of Google).

The misfire would probably be a dying coil pack.

The throttle modules do act up as they near the end of their life. I would look into a replacement module from xemodex.

ovlov760 said:

The misfire would probably be a dying coil pack.

The throttle modules do act up as they near the end of their life. I would look into a replacement module from xemodex.

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+1

Although last I heard xemodex had stopped dealing with the general public. May have to figure out a way around that (unless you are a licensed tech)

The 2004 cars had an ETA if i recall. Simpler than the atm. But wiring issues were a thing. I've built a few harnesses from ecm to eta.
And coils are cracked after 15 years likely causing the misfire. You can try and clean the eta. They do stick like old school throttle blades and can cause weird stuff.

Thanks guys - I have a buddy with an indy shop that should be able to hook me up with an ETA if it comes to that. For now, we'll watch and wait; if it recurs, I'll pull it apart, clean the terminals and innards (if accessible) first.

Appreciate the advice!!

One bit of preventative maintenance you might consider doing to the car at that mileage is the fuel pressure sensor. If it's been replaced already, disregard my post.

ovlov760 said:

One bit of preventative maintenance you might consider doing to the car at that mileage is the fuel pressure sensor. If it's been replaced already, disregard my post.

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I'd second this. Mine went out at about 125k on the T5 wagon and the car just shut off while driving. It was cheap and easy to replace though.

Probably not the root of your problem, but something to throw in the parts cart.

Hey fam. Did it again.

After last year's fiasco, it just sorta poofed out of my mind and that was that. We're now at 165K.

Same codes, same exact experience, slightly similar trip to the same cell dead zone.

Driving up, crested 8K, movin along pretty good, but not beating it. Came down to about 5K, and like a light switch, got the same messages. A fretful half hour (and several still-borked restarts) later, got it to kinda-sorta work, and run well enough to point the other way (downhill). And damn if it wasn't fine. So we finished the trip, camped for a couple days, and checked to see if the ESSR message and CEL were still lit. Yep.

Coming home, lights/message still on, but car running awesome, before even starting the climb back to 8K, it happened again. Parked. Called AAA (thank dawg for platinum). Car still showed message/CEL.

Get home, thank/tip tow driver (paid by the mile and not when empty), and SUMBICH lights are off. Did find the same two logged faults. Car runs fine.

stupid me for forgetting all about this (could have taken a different car). Trip wasn't spoiled, things worked out, but fudge-a-roo kind of sucks to be The Man Of The House and be stranded on the road.

Any new insight in the last year? Searching results in the familiar stew of fix-yer-car-dot-com with posts like "lul you suk" and "me too anyone find a fix".

Have to wonder if elevation plays a part. Maybe do the fuel pressure sensor and fuel filter (both original as far as I know)?

Thanks for any thoughts! (other than I'm a dumbass, which I already know)

Sounds like you have a good place to start. Our 2003 V70 always has that message on the dash, ours is for the throttle body usually (the car is super aggressive, like to do burnouts with the slightest throttle input).

What were the Temps up there? Atypical for this car, or nothing out of the ordinary?

Purely speculation, but I'm thinking the high elevation and thin air are causing the electronic throttle body to open more/wider than normal. Why it wouldn't be that far open under WOT bewilders me. Then the perhaps slightly cooler air Temps over a previously hit engine area could gunk up and cause further issues with the throttle body.

I'd start by taking it off and cleaning it.

Ambient was 85-95F. Not much WOT, but who knows what ETM does.

I'm thinking either cumulative high knock count (we run regular at sea level without issue) or cumulative injector cycle max due to low fuel pressure. What I've read is REP is like a nuclear option check engine light.

But man, the car runs 100% perfect, and then some miscreant flips a switch and it's just dead on the road. Sucks not having a clear code to work from.

So it works great until it doesn't, sounds like my rwd Volvo

Sounds stupid, but have you checked and re-seated the ETM plug?

Our '06 XC70 (180k mi) did this exact thing to us in March in Big Bend after some moderate offroading; resetting codes fixed it for the rest of the trip. Then it did it again a couple days in a row in May, and before pulling everything apart, I just re-seated the plug and all has been well so far. I don't recall the exact code # it gave, but I think it was "ETM - potentiometer 2" or something to that effect. I'm thinking it's less-than-perfect connections and physical jostling causing just enough out-of-tolerance readings that the computer sets the code. If it happens again after cleaning the connections, replace the ETM and the plug. IIRC there's a factory repair harness available because this was a common enough problem.

Not a bad suggestion, and the thought did occur to me. Assuming we're talking about the connector at the throttle body itself, I gave it a little bit of a wiggle, but stopped short of disconnecting and reseating. Couple reasons - plastic is kind of brittle (didn't want to break it "for real") and it would have really sucked to have the E-fan kick on while I'm diddlin' it.

Being a "knowing is half the battle" sort of guy, I'm doing my damndest to figure out how elevation works into it.

This thread has good info on the connector, since I recalled it being fiddly during the PCV job. At worst, if the tabs break, I know folks have used zipties to keep it connected. Not ideal, but hey, it's 15yr old plastic we're talking about. I sprayed ours with contact cleaner, blew it out, and gave it a little bit of dielectric grease. The E fan was definitely in the back of my mind, but I just did it several hours after the car had run last.

Re: elevation, it could be minor stacking tolerances that cause your ETM to run wider open than usual to keep AFR right. But that's all just speculation.