General: 70: Volvo Car UK Policy on ETM Replacement

[CTCNetwork]

Hi,

Originally Posted by keefrto1

Why is this such an issue for VUK as there is a difference with treating customers here or is it that we don't complain enough and we put up with things?

Had everyone who had an affected car had gone to court and sued their asses, this would have been resolved a few years ago..
But, given that people dealt with this on an individual basis, they paid up.
Fortunately, the statute of limitations means that people who paid up before six years ago can register a case in the county court. NOW.. Against dealer and Volvo UK..
It would have been better had there been a "class action" case taken against Volvo UK...

Des. . .

[Stavros]

Hi

I have a Volvo C70 2.00 T registered in 2000 on a w reg plate it has just covered 61,000 miles and I am the 3rd owner how do I find out if it has an ETM issue and what is the cost should it fail as it appears that everyone expects it to happen by 100,000 miles. I love the Car although I did test a Volvo C70 2.000Trag top the other day only to be dissapointed by its ride even though it was only 2 years old and 14,000 miles on the clock.

I didn't know about the ETM issue until I joined this forum the other day which gave real meaning to the saying Ignorance is Bliss!!!

Stavros

In case it helps anyone, I have had trouble with the /etm on my 2001 V70 for a while now. I have been reading the posts for a while and eventually I rang around both volvo main dealers and specialists. What I initially realised was this: the volvo 'specialists' are all still charging around the £600 mark for and etm replacement, same you would think as volvo main dealer. However I was told by one honest specialist to hassle volvo car about it and they would contribute, so I did. Very nice lady told me that the price of the unit had now dropped significantly (probably due to the number of them going into production!!!) and that volvo car would further contribute 20% towards it, meaning I would get a new ETM for £200!!! With this information and a file number to hand, I booked the car in at the main dealer in Coventry last week.Whilst booking it in the service chap told me that I may not indeed require a new etm and that they would put the car on a diagnostic computer, clean out the throttle body and update the software as a 1st step. This then is what happened last thursday, but on the way home I had the same hesitance and erratic idling / stalling, as if nothing had been done. This annoyed me so I booked the car back in with them. They apologised and I wen tto have a new ETM fitted today. When I picked it up, I handed over my £200 and upon pulling out of the forecourt noticed the hesitance again. I travelled a few hundred yards and had to return to them. I was told it would settle in in time...On my way home the car got worse, so I pulled off the road and phoned them, to be told that they could not look at it until next friday week. Angered, I went to another dealer on my way home, who phoned them for me and told me I should not have accepted the car back in the condition it was in. The original dealer then agreed to look at it this afternoon. So I travelled all the way back to them, to be told that yes I could drop off the car, but that they would not look at it until tomorrow at best and in any case there is a fault with a knock sensor which they would need to order!!! I was livid. Why had I forked out for a ETM when I still have the same fault now with a new one fitted. Why did they not sort out the knock sensor issue BEFORE replacing the ETM? Anyhow I had to come away again, intending to go back up tomorrow. But later this evening I got a call from them saying that the sensor would have oto be ordered from Sweden and would not be in for a number of days. Moral of the story? Tollgate Coventry are thieves and liars. There is no way possible that if my car had been road tested that they could have missed the fault, but as they are having to do the job now on the cheap, as instucted by volvo car, they are not interested in doing it properly. I would have preferred to have paid more money and have had the work carried out properly. Now I do not know whether or not the new ETM is faulty also. I can see it happening, replace the knock sensor, that doesn't cure it, eventually replace the ETM again, days and days lost. And to top it all off, they broke the little hatch where the computer plugs in, under the steering wheel. Sorry to rant, but these so called dealers need their a*ses kicked. Problem now is that they are not interested in doing these. They get nothing or very little for cleaning and very little for refitting. Has anyone else had an experience like this? Any help would be appreciated as my patience is wearing very thin with this. Never again will I buy a Ford / Volvo!!!

[Andys101]

Being a mechanic i have seen lots of faults that reoccur on the same vehicle time after time, all of which have been out of the manufactures warranty. This etm fault on Volvo's is no different to any other fault on other vehicles, to name one - head gasket on the 1800cc rover k series engine.
My car is a 99my s70 with 80000 miles on the clock - 8 years old, and i don't hold Volvo responsible for the etm fault. Am i the only one who feels like this ??

[T-5ones]

Originally Posted by Andys101

Being a mechanic i have seen lots of faults that reoccur on the same vehicle time after time, all of which have been out of the manufactures warranty. This etm fault on Volvo's is no different to any other fault on other vehicles, to name one - head gasket on the 1800cc rover k series engine.
My car is a 99my s70 with 80000 miles on the clock - 8 years old, and i don't hold Volvo responsible for the etm fault. Am i the only one who feels like this ??

I agree with what you are saying. These sort of problems are a common problem of car manufacture but I personally cant understand why Volvo UK have had such a poor initial attitude towards the problem including the information through the dealer network. The situation that has arisen could have been minimised. Other recalls on the same models are just delt with.

Do you know of any other fault in any car that was handled in such a poor way?

[Andys101]

Landrover's TD5 engine had a problem with a bolt that holds the oil pump on, the bolt would snap, you would loose all your oil pressure and your engine is then f###ed. This wasn't a small cost either, i think it was well over £5000. They were trying everything to get out of it.

[crispy duck]

I've just had the ETM cleaned and a software update on my 2002 s60 bifuel at 124k miles. The issue I had was hunting idle in the first 5 minutes from cold, and on a cold morning when pulling up to or out a junction in the first mile it would invariably stall. Not nice when pulling out onto a main road, even when trying to anticipate the problem. The work was done at Inchcape main dealers with no hassle as it was on the list of affected models and all the problems have gone away, and the idle is about 2-300rpm higher.

Hope this feedback helps.

[Agostino]

Originally Posted by Andys101

Being a mechanic i have seen lots of faults that reoccur on the same vehicle time after time, all of which have been out of the manufactures warranty. This etm fault on Volvo's is no different to any other fault on other vehicles, to name one - head gasket on the 1800cc rover k series engine.
My car is a 99my s70 with 80000 miles on the clock - 8 years old, and i don't hold Volvo responsible for the etm fault. Am i the only one who feels like this ??

Negatori!! You are not alone. Being a fellow Mechanic, it all depends on how one treats a car.
I had my last car a VOLVO 740, for 15 years. And I can categorically state that it ((she) the car silly!!) never broke down in any way/shape or form whatsoever! So there!

[Oli]

Originally Posted by Agostino

Negatori!! You are not alone. Being a fellow Mechanic, it all depends on how one treats a car.
I had my last car a VOLVO 740, for 15 years. And I can categorically state that it ((she) the car silly!!) never broke down in any way/shape or form whatsoever! So there!

They don't make em like the used to then. And our family 740 GLE was always very reliable.

The ETM complaint is that it is a very poor design, not that you can't expect things to wear out. The MM ETM should never have made it into a car, unlike the bosch replacement which does not suffer the same issues. If the original part was so good - why is there a specific warning light on the dash just for this component?

£200 for a replacement if you've reached 100k maybe ok. But until recently, people and lots of them, were being charged £600+

Read Vexed Volvo for the full jackanory

Oli

[big_alalas]

well, here is my story:
bought the C70 6 months ago, 1 previous owner, 89k miles
I had since the engine management light coming on ad off, maybe it would be off for 3 weeks, on for 1 week.... and i ignored it.... until the ETS light came on, and the car slowed down dramatically.
since then i looked on the web, found all about it through this forum, took it to dealers at startstone west Bridgford at Nottingham, and this is the story of the events:
1) they said that they would charge me 47 quid just for reading the ECU which is fair enough
2) next day they said that there were 3 errors: one was about the throttle module, hence the ETS light on, one error was for the air mass sensor or something like that and one error for the oxygen sensor. They reccomended we CHANGE the ETM module first and see how it goes. I highlighted "change" as you will see why later
3) anyway they did all that and then i went to pay

The bill was for £237, and it had labour for reading the ECU and instaling new software and the rest for replacing the Throttle Module Housing. I asked the guy there to see if Volvo are willing to partially refund me and he said that I should pay the full amount first and then he would try to chase Volvo UK if I entitled to refund and he'd call me back... havent heard anything for a week... so, far have not had the ECU ligt back on, so the last 2 errors he was talking about might be somehow related to the ETM fault... who knows?

Anyway, i was thinking that they conned me properly, as I just realised that they did not even change the module itself for what i paid, just the housing whatever that is! I will call them tomorrow about it and if it needs be I will take them to small claims court too... already started my claim @ https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco/claim_menu.jsp

Apart from that, I love the C70, it is a brilliant car, no wonder the saint chose it at the famous movie! It looks stylish, it feels good inside, and the power is phenomenal! Had 3 SAAB 2.3 Aeros before, but I am slowly drawn into the volvo camp for good.